jason morrissette commits

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Santa Clara Gets Another:
Jason Morrissette Commits--(Nov. 1, 1999)

In addition to the verbal commitment from Kyle Bailey (6'-2" Sr. SG) from Lathrop HS in Fairbanks, Alaska, Santa Clara also picked up another verbal from a SoCal native, Jason Morrissette (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) from LA Fairfax. Morrissette apparently stayed true to his word that he would announce his decision on PacWestHoops, and he did, telling PacWestHoops that the reasons he picked Santa Clara were several-fold; but he decided against Kansas State, where his friend E.J. Harris verballed, because "Kansas State was recruiting another guard." We're not quite sure what that makes Kyle Bailey, but certainly, both Kyle and Jason can play the same position, and in fact they have very similar games.

We were intrigued, so we thought we'd ask Jason about that aspect of his recruiting. We called him and he told us that one of the reasons he had decided against KSU was in fact that they were recruiting "another guard", but he also discussed Santa Clara's recruitment of other players too before giving Dick Davey the verbal this afternoon. "Yeah, I talked about it [the recruitment of Kyle Bailey] with the coaches at Santa Clara before I committed this afternoon. They told me that Kyle's a one and I'm a two, and that's how they see it, and I'm cool with that. He's pretty good, and I'm looking forward to playing with him," Jason told us tonight.

Jason also expanded a bit on why he decided against KSU. "I really liked Kansas State, but I think a lot of people just assumed that because my friend E.J. Harris and I took our trips together and he committed there, that I'd go there too," said Jason. "But I really didn't want to go out of state, and I was also looking for a really highly academic environment, so I picked Santa Clara. It was just perfect for me."

We also asked Jason about how he felt the Fairfax team was going to do this year. "Well, in a lot of ways, we can be our own worst enemies. If we can avoid any controversy, we should be the team to beat this year. I'm not being cocky or anything like that, but I really think it's between us and Crenshaw this season."