Welcome to The Bulls Basketball Insider. My goal is to provide a weekly rundown of USF basketball news, notes and recruiting.
It was not a huge week in terms of actual recruiting news. But here are a couple bullet points to catch you up on the latest.
Four-star shooting guard L.J. Figueroa transferred from Oldsmar Christian School to West Oaks Academy where he will play for his AAU Coach Kenny Gillion – brother of USF Men’s basketball staff member Gerald Gillion. As good as Figueroa is – he averaged 20.4 points per game on .534 FG shooting including .322 beyond the arc -- we are hearing his name less and less with USF. In the past we have mentioned that academics were a concern with Figueroa and, given the current climate, the Bulls may have had to back off of him despite having a very close relationship with head coach Orlando Antigua. Figueroa has not released a list of finalist yet, but with his former high school coach now a graduate assistant at Louisville, they may be the school to watch for Figueroa.
The 6-foot-5 guard is currently ranked the No. 68 nationally.
Three-star shooting guard Darius Banks took an official visit to James Madison last weekend. The St. Petersburg (FL) standout also has an official visit to Duquesne scheduled for September 17. The Bulls are trying to get Banks to visit September 23-25 but nothing has been scheduled at the time we posted this update. Purdue reached out to Banks’ high school coach, Christopher Blackwell, on August 25 and one of their assistant coaches plans to come down soon to watch him work out. Rod Strickland was recently in contact with Blackwell to reassert the Bulls interest. Based on our conversation with Blackwell and others close to Banks, we feel the Bulls could land the Bay Area product if they push -- and it appears that the push may be on. Today Coach Antigua plus assistants Murry Bartow and Strickland will be at St. Petersburg HS to see Banks.
David Collins (NR) picked up an offer from USF on July 30 after Orlando Antigua watched him at the AAU Super Showcase at Walt Disney World on July 24. Collins checked in with us last week to say that his hometown school, Youngstown State, offered as well to bring his offer total to three – USF, Buffalo and Youngstown State. He is also receiving interest from Montana State, Missouri State, Robert Morris, Youngstown State, Cincinnati, VMI, UNC-Wilmington, Toledo, and Canisius. Tomorrow (9/10) Antigua is scheduled to go in-home with the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Collins, his mom and his First Love Christian Academy head coach Kharyee Wilson. FLCA is about an hour drive from Collin’s Youngstown, OH home so he lives at Wilson’s home during the school year.
Earlier this week we published a write-up on class of 2017 Lower Richland (Hopkins, SC) 6-foot-5 wing Clyde Trapp, Jr (NR) who USF offered on July 22. If you missed that you can read it HERE.
The Bulls got involved with Trapp late but is working quickly to make up ground. In fact assistant coach Sergio Rouco will be doing a school visit with Trapp today, the very first day coaches are allowed to go off campus to evaluate and have contact with prospects, and Trapp told us that he definitely wants to visit USF.
South Florida did not have any prospects on campus for visits last weekend.
RTB was first to report the South Florida non-conference schedule LINK.
Kelly reported the full schedule HERE.
Other school visits we expect USF coaches to make include Rouco heading to Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas and to Huntington Prep (WVa) to see Keyshawn Bryant. We also expect the Bulls to watch several in-state 2018 targets workout including:
Darius Days
KJ Simon
Duncan Demuth
Colin Castleton
Tai Strickland
DJ Henderson
I'll be at the E1T1 United Exposure event Saturday in Altamonte Springs. If any of the kids at that event are hearing from USF I will update you here.
It was not a huge week in terms of actual recruiting news. But here are a couple bullet points to catch you up on the latest.
Four-star shooting guard L.J. Figueroa transferred from Oldsmar Christian School to West Oaks Academy where he will play for his AAU Coach Kenny Gillion – brother of USF Men’s basketball staff member Gerald Gillion. As good as Figueroa is – he averaged 20.4 points per game on .534 FG shooting including .322 beyond the arc -- we are hearing his name less and less with USF. In the past we have mentioned that academics were a concern with Figueroa and, given the current climate, the Bulls may have had to back off of him despite having a very close relationship with head coach Orlando Antigua. Figueroa has not released a list of finalist yet, but with his former high school coach now a graduate assistant at Louisville, they may be the school to watch for Figueroa.
The 6-foot-5 guard is currently ranked the No. 68 nationally.
Three-star shooting guard Darius Banks took an official visit to James Madison last weekend. The St. Petersburg (FL) standout also has an official visit to Duquesne scheduled for September 17. The Bulls are trying to get Banks to visit September 23-25 but nothing has been scheduled at the time we posted this update. Purdue reached out to Banks’ high school coach, Christopher Blackwell, on August 25 and one of their assistant coaches plans to come down soon to watch him work out. Rod Strickland was recently in contact with Blackwell to reassert the Bulls interest. Based on our conversation with Blackwell and others close to Banks, we feel the Bulls could land the Bay Area product if they push -- and it appears that the push may be on. Today Coach Antigua plus assistants Murry Bartow and Strickland will be at St. Petersburg HS to see Banks.
David Collins (NR) picked up an offer from USF on July 30 after Orlando Antigua watched him at the AAU Super Showcase at Walt Disney World on July 24. Collins checked in with us last week to say that his hometown school, Youngstown State, offered as well to bring his offer total to three – USF, Buffalo and Youngstown State. He is also receiving interest from Montana State, Missouri State, Robert Morris, Youngstown State, Cincinnati, VMI, UNC-Wilmington, Toledo, and Canisius. Tomorrow (9/10) Antigua is scheduled to go in-home with the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Collins, his mom and his First Love Christian Academy head coach Kharyee Wilson. FLCA is about an hour drive from Collin’s Youngstown, OH home so he lives at Wilson’s home during the school year.
Earlier this week we published a write-up on class of 2017 Lower Richland (Hopkins, SC) 6-foot-5 wing Clyde Trapp, Jr (NR) who USF offered on July 22. If you missed that you can read it HERE.
The Bulls got involved with Trapp late but is working quickly to make up ground. In fact assistant coach Sergio Rouco will be doing a school visit with Trapp today, the very first day coaches are allowed to go off campus to evaluate and have contact with prospects, and Trapp told us that he definitely wants to visit USF.
South Florida did not have any prospects on campus for visits last weekend.
RTB was first to report the South Florida non-conference schedule LINK.
Kelly reported the full schedule HERE.
Other school visits we expect USF coaches to make include Rouco heading to Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas and to Huntington Prep (WVa) to see Keyshawn Bryant. We also expect the Bulls to watch several in-state 2018 targets workout including:
Darius Days
KJ Simon
Duncan Demuth
Colin Castleton
Tai Strickland
DJ Henderson
I'll be at the E1T1 United Exposure event Saturday in Altamonte Springs. If any of the kids at that event are hearing from USF I will update you here.
