The reports that John Wall has made a decision to follow Dwon Clifton to Baylor may be premature. On Dave Glenn’s afternoon talk show currently being hosted by Bomani Jones, Word of God coach Levi Beckwith called in to set a few things straight. This is definitely worth listening too as he talks about the Clifton’s, his background, his role in the process and what he considers the most important factor in this decision – who is going to be John’s head coach during his time in college.
Original writeup from Friday
The John Wall recruiting saga appears close to ending. In this case, the rumors circulating that the nation’s number one prospect was likely to end up at a school willing to hire one of his AAU coaches, Dwon Clifton, appear to have a lot of truth behind them:
Wall’s travel team coach – Dwon Clifton of D-One Sports – will officially be named Director of Player Development at Baylor University on Friday, according to multiple sources close to the situation.
Wall is a 6-foot-4, 184-pound point guard out of Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God Christian Academy. He is expected to announce his college decision early next week according to Brian Clifton, the director of D-One Sports and Dwon Clifton’s older brother.
Naturally, Wall is expected to follow his travel team coach to Baylor..
…Baylor apparently was not the only school pursuing Clifton as a coach. According to a source close to the situation, Dwon Clifton was offered coaching positions by other Big 12 schools as well as schools in the Big East and SEC.
Why Baylor?
Apparently the connection to Clifton/Wall was Baylor assistant coach Matt Driscoll who was on the Clemson staff when Dwon Clifton played at the University of Clemson. Dwon grew up in High Point, NC and he was recruited by NC State’s former coach Herb Sendek. In the end, Sendek did not offer him a scholarship. After a couple of years at Clemson, Dwon transfered to UNC-G and only had a marginal impact at either program.
In other recruiting news, Scott Wood has been making a lot of noise recently with his play on the AAU scene. He has had two games of 35+ points in the past few days and has reportedly been lights out from behind the arc leading his teams to upsets. Here are some comments from Bob Gibbons:
Bracket play began Tuesday at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex for the teams still in the playoffs of the AAU Junior Boys’ National Championship Tournament, and there were some shockers. The biggest surprise was the SYF Players (Ind.) upsetting one of the tournament favorites, Houston Hoops, 94-82. N.C. State commitment 6-foot-5 second guard Scott Wood (Marion, Ind.) put on an amazing shooting performance, hitting six of eight 3-point point attempts and 15-of-16 free throws for a tournament-high 39 points, to lead SYF to the win. 6-9 C Keith Gallon (Houston, Texas) had a good game for Houston Hoops with 20 points and 14 rebounds. N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe has to be feeling great right now, getting recent commitments from top-rated players Lorenzo Brown and Richard Howell, and then seeing Wood, his earliest 2009 recruit, shoot the lights out here.
With recent 2009 commitments from top 30 combo guard Lorenzo Brown and top 75(moving higher?) combo forward Richard Howell, the play of Wood should not go unnoticed. Scott’s commitment received mixed reactions from this blog and many NC State fans across the internent. While signing top rated players is always welcome, hopefully the recent play of Wood is a very positive sign in terms of our staff’s ability to identify quality ACC players at early stages.
