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SoCalHoops Tournament News

Catching Up On Things Missed. . .
My, How Time Stands Still--(Aug. 24, 1998)

While we were in Detroit (actually in Southfield and West Bloomfield Hills) at the Maccabi Games last week, not a lot really happened in connection with SoCal basketball. But a few things did. Here's what we know:

Rico Harris (6'-9" Jr. F), a graduate of Temple City High, and most recently of the LA City College team, is apparently a done deal for the CSUN Matadores. The Daily News broke the story last Saturday and then the LA Times and Daily News again confirmed it after speaking with Harris later in the week.

Harris had originally signed an LOI with Arizona State in 1995, but was academically ineligible as a freshman. Then in March 1996, in an infamous incident also involving Tommie Prince, he was arrested for alleged involvement in a sexual assault case. No charges were ever filed. Harris then left ASU and spent the last two seasons with Mike Miller at LA City College. Apparently the most surprised person on the planet last Saturday when he was contacted by the Daily News was Miller, who said:

"This is the first I've heard of it. Nothing against Northridge, but why would he go there? This is a kid that Kentucky, Rhode Island and Connecticut were recruiting. He almost went into the (NBA) draft. I had 17 NBA guys in here (last season) looking at him. If there's any truth to it, it was done without my knowledge."

Recall also that Harris verballed to Rhode Island last summer, but never signed an LOI with Harrick. He then declared for the draft, but withdrew in time to maintain his eligibility. He has two more years left to play.

The original story on Harris broke on Saturday, August 15. Later in the week, on August 21, the paper declared on the front page: "IT'S OFFICIAL: Rico Harris has confirmed that he will attend Cal State Northridge and play for the Matadors Basketball team."

The column article then featured a quote from Harris:

"I am excited about the opportunity to perform around my family and play basketball in the state [sic] I grew up in."

We hope it wasn't the state of confusion and that he actually signs this time.

And if it was a mystery to Miller why Harris would opt for lowly CSUN and Bobby Braswell, the Daily News obliquely shed some light on the subject by doing a very nice article on first year assistant Andre Chevalier, entitled "Chevalier's Challenge" about the unexpected opportunity which the Northridge job presented him.

Chevalier had only been at LA Cleveland High for two years, but in that short period he had made a pretty good impression on his players. Here's an excerpt from the article written by the Daily News' Vincent Bonsignore:

Andre Chevalier had an impact at Cleveland High. You saw it on the faces of his players.

Chevalier looked at those faces last month, faces that seemed so familiar he thought he was looking at himself 10 years earlier. The eyes on those faces welled with tears as Chevalier was leaving Cleveland to become an assistant basketball coach at Cal State Northridge.

Chevalier always felt his work was meaningful at Cleveland. But now as he stood before his players and asked them to understand why he was leaving, he realized it went much deeper than that. He had connected with these kids and in many cases he made a difference in their lives.

"He was the reason I came to Cleveland in the first place," said Kent Dennis, who transferred last year from Bell-Jeff. "I understand why he left because it was important for him to take that job. But it was so hard for me. . . He was like a big brother to me, so it hurt when I found out he wouldn't be there for my senior year."

Chevalier looks back on that day with a mixture of heartache and pride. Their reaction proved his two years at Cleveland were more than a step up the coaching ladder. He left his mark.

"It was an emotional meeting," Chevalier said. "Some guys were upset, some guys were happy for me. Fortunately, they all understood. But it was definitely emotional."

The article continued on with a bit of history about how Chevalier has acheived so much so fast, rising from being a graduate of Cleveland himself only 8 short years ago, to becoming an assistant at a D-I program, detailing his relationship with his mother, his high school play under Bobby Braswell who coached at Cleveland, to his own playing career at CSUN (he became the Matador's career scoring leader, even though he was never offered a scholarship by any other schools out of high school), to the type of coach he has been and the connections he's made with players.

So if Mike Miller at LACC is wondering why someone would sign with CSUN, apparently the answer, at least partially, may be "Andre Chevalier"

And speaking of Mike Miller at LACC, the Kenny Brunner trial was also in the news last week, as the judge denied a motion to dismiss even though one of the statements upon which the charges are based came from Kenny's co-defendant, LaDale Lunnie, and under California law, such statements are inadmissible, at least that's what we hear. The LA Times didn't report on the status of the photographic lineup and what, if anything Miller, the alleged victim will say when he testifies, but earlier reports in the media had stated that Miller told the court during the preliminary hearing that he couldn't be certain Brunner was the person who stuck a gun in his chest, pulled the trigger (the gun did not go off) and then robbed him of $1500 in cash he was carrying in his pocket the Friday before Memorial Day.

There was more, none of it really earth-shaking, which happened last week, and we'll have more later.