cal

SoCal College Recruiting News

It's Official: Cal Signs Solomon
Hughes; Waiting On Donte Smith--(May 8, 1998)

Solomon Hughes (6'-11" Sr. F) from Riverside, a 1997 graduate of Torrance Bishop Montgomery High signed a national letter of intent with Cal yesterday. He had originally signed with the Tulane, changed his mind and decided to attend Fork Union Military school in Virginia this past season when Tulane's coach began looking around for a new job and Tulane would not release Hughes from his original letter of intent. Ultimately, after a year in prep school, Tulane decided to release Hughes from his committment last month. He reportedly chose Cal over Florida State, Duquesne, Florida, and Michigan. Hughes still needs to go through the the formality of being cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse to receive full eligibility to begin his term as a freshman next fall.

Along with the letter from Hughes, Cal was expected to receive the long-awaited LOI from Donte Smith (6'-2" Sr. PG) today. Smith, who averaged 28.8 points, 6.5 assists and 5.2 rebounds a game for Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C., verbally committed to the Bears two weeks ago and was apparently ready to sign earlier this week. But his letter-of-intent expired when it was not received. College basketball letters-of-intent expire every two weeks and must subsequently be reissued by each prospective school if they are not received.

Hughes decided on Cal after visiting four schools in two weeks. He told the Alameda Times-Star that he is excited about attending Cal: "I just had a gut feeling about Cal -- I felt really comfortable with coach (Ben) Braun and his staff and their players. If we work hard, the sky's the limit."

The Alameda Times-Star also interviewed Mark Mayemura, of Recruiting USA and one of Hughes' Rockfish League coaches, who told the paper, "He went from being a perimeter player to a post player very quickly. Everyone expected a lot, but he was a good player before and a better player now. And he has a considerable upside." Hughes said he's more comfortable playing forward than he is at the low post though. But he expects to see action at both positions at Cal, whose only other player taller than 6'-7" is center Francisco Elson, at 7'-0". "Right now I'm stronger facing the basket, but the post-up part of my game is really coming along," Hughes told the Alameda paper.

Also giving his praise to Hughes was Bishop Montgomery coach Doug Mitchell, who told the Alameda paper, "He played for me for two years and he got tremendously better. "He's very athletic for a big kid -- he runs, catches it and moves very fluidly." Mitchell also told the Daily Cal, "This is a kid with tremendous upside. He just keeps on improving. He's probably a little bit on the thin side, but that's because he developed so late. I think he'll have a great future at Cal. I've always thought that at the next level, he could play power forward," said Mitchell. "He can hit the 15-foot jumper pretty regularly. Obviously, at the high school level, you don't put a kid like Solomon off the block too often, but we took advantage once in a while."

At Bishop Montgomery, Hughes averaged 19 points and 12 rebounds, then endured the rigors of Fork Union, a rigid military academy "in the sticks," west of Richmond, Va. His regimen reportedly included rising daily by 6:15 a.m., and lights out at 10:15 p.m. "Just like medicine, I hated the taste but loved what it did for me," Hughes said. "Having to do the military stuff -- shining my shoes, waxing the floors, the marching -- made me grow up."

With the signings of Smith and Hughes, Cal has one scholarship left with which to pursue Dirk Nowitzki (6'-11" Sr. C) perhaps the hottest young prospect in college basketball today. After officially visiting Berkeley last weekend, Nowitzki skipped his trip to Kansas this week (they used their final scholarship already), and was expected to be in Kentucky starting today. Cal is still probably the frontrunner, but Nowtizki still might go the NBA or European pro route.

Regardless of whether Cal signs Nowitzki, they have now moved right up into the top of the Pac-10 contenders again. Hughes brings some size to the Bears lineup that they'll need, especially after junior forward Kenyon Jones announced his intent to transfer last week after three miserable seasons at Cal.

Hughes' hails from an exceptionally athletic family that boasts three former NCAA athletes. His sister Kaisa, 24, played basketball for UCLA while Kalee, 23, was a volleyball standout at USC. Hughes' younger brother, Gabriel, is a 6'-9" junior at Bishop Montgomery. His father Ronald is a college professor at Cal State Fullerton and played college basketball himself.

Fork Union coach Fletcher Arritt told the Daily Cal that he agrees Hughes will thrive in Berkeley, although he added that his pupil will need to develop mental toughness if he wants to succeed at the college level. "There's no question that Solomon's got a bright future ahead of him," said Arritt. "He's just got to be more consistent mentally. I just hope he realizes that if you're going to accomplish anything, you're going to have to make a sacrifice, particularly if you're going to play at a school like Cal."

And the Daily Cal also speculated that signing Hughes could be important for next year's incoming group of recruits too: "Hughes' close friend and AAU teammate is Nick Vander Laan, a 6-10 forward from Sacramento who has drawn comparisons to Stanford's Mark Madsen. Vander Laan is currently a junior playing for a prep school in Kent, Conn."

Hey Nick, you listening?