DeMar DeRozan having 2nd thoughts on USC now too?

[Russ Smith]

Friday UNC officially offered DeMar Derozan, Compton sg/Sf senior to be one of the more athletic big time dunkers (6'6") around. Derozan had verballed to USC months ago when they announced signing Angelo Johnson and the very confusing announcement regarding Romeo Miller(and maybe his brother) where it's still not clear if USC offered Romeo a scholarship or not.

Derozan had reportedly been telling people ever since that it was a "soft" verbal and that if bigger name schools were interested he'd listen. So the fact that UNC offered suggests he did in fact listen since I doubt Roy Williams is in the habit of offering kids who are strongly verbally committed to another school.

Today the rumor is Brandon Jennings is trying to recruit Demar to UA now. He's a terrific leaper and his game is really improving, from what I've read on UCLA boards they've been following him but hadn't offered because they weren't sure about his total game, defense, ball handling etc. UCLA considers him a SF, many schools see him as a SG. Explosive kid not polished but really making a name for himself since the verbal to USC.

Would be pretty funny if USC lost yet another verbal, especially if he wound up joining Jennings at UA. The original announcement was a real PR fest with all the Romeo stuff so it's not all that surprising he's apparently reconsidering now. He was quoted as saying he's still a USC guy but if you read the whole quote more than once he concedes he'll consider other offers.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Arizona would obviously take DeRozan were he to decommit in spite of already having Brendon Lavender in the fold. He's simply too good to pass up. But until he officially decommits everything gets done via proxy so don't look for anything to happen as far as Arizona goes if/when that happens.

 

[Brianellsworth]

Brendon lavender is sweet i am going to watch him play tonight. My little brother is on his team and it is definetly fun to watch him play.

 

[Russ Smith]

Both DeRozan and Jennings were at the Pangos camp this weekend at USC's Galen Center. I'd heard that Jennings might not be welcome but I guess that was just a bad rumor. DeRozan was the MVP of the top 20 camp game, Jennings was selected as the overall camp MVP. Van Coleman said that Jennings was clearly the best talent at the camp. That's where the talk he's recruiting Derozan comes from, they were on the same team in the top 20 game and Derozan scored 30 many on feeds from Jennings.

Not a star studded event a lot of the good local players skipped it because they'd played in the cactus classic and the rumble in the bay. A lot of the UCLA recruits skipped it because UCLA has the Ben howland skills camp coming up soon.

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI his other school on his list currently is ASU. There's some people that think he won't wind up there because Sendek's style of play is too slow.

There were rumors that Derozan was making an unofficial visit to UCLA last week but it fell through and they were trying to reschedule for this week.
I have seen unofficial confirmations that he asked UCLA for a visit but UCLA hasn't offered him yet and wouldn't unless he first announced he was no longer committed to USC.

His statements about UNC and his commitment to USC are pretty hilarious.



LOS ANGELES --- While Demar DeRozan says he’s committed to Southern California, the 6-foot-6 wing also indicated that he’s looking at a pair of other schools. Saturday at the Pangos Camp he commented on the other two schools and a recent visit that he took to one of them.


“USC is one of my top schools and it’s close to home, but I just want to feel free if something else is best for me and comes up, I just want to look into it,” the 6-6, 190-pound Compton (Calif.) High rising senior said. “I’m just getting a feel for other things and keeping it open, but I’m committed to USC.”


In other words, I'm not really committed to USC I'm waiting to see what happens with Greg Monroe and all the guys on the current team.

On UCLA boards we are told if Howland offered him, he'd probably commit to UCLA but I have no idea if that's true or not.

 

[Mr. Boldin]

Brandon Jennings will do all he can to talk up UA to DeRozan, we'll see what happens.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

When all is said and done I think he ends up at USC and his family gets a nice donation from No Limit Records. Unless ASU has some room on the coaching staff for his AAU coach.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

When all is said and done I think he ends up at USC and his family gets a nice donation from No Limit Records. Unless ASU has some room on the coaching staff for his AAU coach.

That No Limit line was freaking hilarious - you and Russ are by far my favorite posters, Mao.

 

[Russ Smith]

Apparently DeRozan made a "secret" visit to ASU a bit ago, and that's when he added ASU to his list. I hear that he and harden are good friends and James is trying to recruit him.

he sure is acting like a kid who's not planning to stick with his verbal but he's at the NBAPA camp right now and reportedly was wearing a USC t shirt (according to Dave Telep who said it must make USC fans glad since they keep hearing he's bailing on them).

 

[Russ Smith]

Updating, over the weekend Demar said he's 100% committed to USC now and will sign an LOI in November to attend USC. Dave Telep reported it on Scout.com.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Only UCLA fans seem to have thought he was going elsewhere for the past few weeks. Probably anti-Trojan wishful thinking.

 

[Russ Smith]

Only UCLA fans seem to have thought he was going elsewhere for the past few weeks. Probably anti-Trojan wishful thinking.

Not really, he made an unofficial visit to ASU not that long ago and as recently as 2-3 weeks ago was still saying publicly (at the NBAPA camp) that he was open to other schools recruiting him in case he found a better fit
than USC, but that if he stayed local, he was going to USC. According to Telep, he has decided to in fact stay local and go to USC.

We'll see but it appears right now it's SC, Telep is usually pretty reliable.