It's Official: Bailey, Cason, and Carr Sign LOIs!

Here's the official release from UP! Welcome to Kevin, David, and Dorian!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 11, 2010

Portland Men’s Hoops Signs Three in Early Signing Period

PORTLAND, Ore. --- The University of Portland men’s basketball program has signed Kevin Bailey (Clovis, Calif./East Clovis HS), Dorian Cason (Fontana, Calif./Summit HS) and David Carr (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic HS) to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period, head coach Eric Reveno announced on Thursday. Bailey is an athletic and skilled 6-5 wing, Cason is a long and mobile 6-7 power forward, while Carr is a sharpshooting 6-2 guard. All three will join the Pilots for the 2011-12 season.

Portland, coming off of back-to-back postseason appearances and third-place finishes in the West Coast Conference, will lose four seniors to graduation this spring. After tying a school record with 21 wins last year, Reveno is excited about the current state of his program and even more excited about the future. The basketball program has been able to utilize recent on-court success to bolster recruiting efforts.

“This year we brought in seven true freshmen and a sophomore junior college transfer and we think it is the best class to date,” Reveno said. “This newest group of signees provides more evidence that the quality of our recruits and our basketball program as a whole is on the right path.”

Kevin Bailey (6-5, 190) is ranked as the No. 11 player in the State of California (Cali High Sports) and is a Rivals.com Top 150 player in the class of 2011. Rivals.com lists Bailey as the No. 33 small forward in the nation, while ESPN.com ranks him No. 41 at his position. He led Clovis East to a 26-8 record last year as a junior and averaged 19.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.0 blocks for the Central Section Division I champions. Bailey has been named All-Section, All-Tri-Rivers League and to the Fresno Bee All-Star team each of the last two seasons.

“Kevin brings an exceptional athletic presence, versatile skill set and great desire for improvement that we are excited to work with,” Reveno said. “He is the type of player that will thrive in our program.”

Dorian Cason (6-7, 210) is the reigning Sunkist League Player of the Year after averaging 12.5 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots per game as a junior during the 2009-10 season. Cason, ranked as the No. 24 player in California according to Cali High Sports Top 25, helped Summit High School to a 29-4 overall record last year and the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern California State Championships. He is rated as the No. 72 power forward in the nation according to ESPN.com.

“Dorian provides great length and is a good fit for our system,” Reveno said. “He has a nice inside-out game that fits well with what we do and his toughness at both ends of the court will be a nice asset.”

David Carr (6-2, 170) was a Mt. Hood Conference all-league selection last year after averaging 9.0 points and leading the team in assists and rebounds from the guard position. He helped Central Catholic to the MHC title as a sophomore and helped the school place third at the Oregon State Championships in 2009. Known for his perimeter shooting abilities, Carr won the Les Schwab Invitational three-point shootout each of the last two seasons.

“David is another great shooter that we are bringing into the program,” Reveno said. “He is a good athlete with solid ball handling skills to complement his shooting ability.”

“We graduated five seniors last year and will graduate four more seniors after this season,” Reveno added. “The perception is that significant roster changes equate to a rebuilding cycle, but we are confident that our program is now in a much more stable position to remain at a highly competitive level. With the continued addition of guys like Kevin, Dorian and David, the future of Pilot basketball should be exciting.”

The Pilots open the 2010-11 regular season by hosting the Athletes in Action Classic at the Chiles Center this weekend. Joining Portland will be UW-Milwaukee, Florida Atlantic and UC Davis at the Chiles Center. Friday’s opener features Portland vs. UW-Milwaukee at 1:30 p.m.

Wow... This season seems more and more crucial to me...

Very Nice! With the quality of these players I can't wait to see who the fourth open scholarship spot goes to. Its a good day to be a Pilot fan!

Great news all around!! It will be fun to watch the UW Milwaukeeeeee game tomorrow and know that that the future is bright....very bright!

A Pliny for all!!!

Rivals 150 players who chose to stay in the Northwest:

Bailey #143: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/98095/kevin-bailey

Jabari Brown #22 (Oregon): http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/55260/jabari-brown

Hikeem Stewart #111 (Washington): http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/114481/hikeem-stewart

Tony Wroten #30 (Washington): http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/54156/tony-wroten-jr

Gary Bell #64 (Gonzaga): http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/67087/gary-bell-jr

I'd hazard to guess that we got the best student athlete of the bunch. I can't wait for the rivalries...

---------------------------------------------------

By the way, where in the world is Mesa to go nuts about these signings???

Your link is for John Bailey, this year frosh. Use this one: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/98095/kevin-bailey

It is still not clear to me...did Bailey give a verbal or did he sign the NLI?

From the Press Release that Stoney posted it seems that we signed all three.

Woodless! wrote:It is still not clear to me...did Bailey give a verbal or did he sign the NLI?

From the release:

The University of Portland men’s basketball program has signed Kevin Bailey

Thanks. I should have pointed out where the confusion started...Rev had a tweet last night that linked to a Fresno Bee article

This article mentioned only a verbal commitment.

article

If a school or coach mentions the name of a player in a press release or links to an article about a player, they have definitely signed them to an LOI.

NCAA rules prohibit saying the name of a recruit if they have only given a verbal commitment.

Stoney, thanks for the clarfication. Hard to believe I've actually passed the NCAA recruiting test twice. (albeit six years ago)

Woodless! fail to be sure.

TV news coverage from Fresno:

LINK

up7587 wrote:Your link is for John Bailey, this year frosh. Use this one: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/98095/kevin-bailey

Ooops. Correction made. Thanks, I blame it on the EtOH beverage I used to celebrate.

PilotNut wrote:TV news coverage from Fresno:

LINK

Thanks for link Pilotnut!!!

Jordan Akwenuke what about this guy, oregonian says he comiitted to UP.

shallwemaui10 wrote:Jordan Akwenuke what about this guy, oregonian says he comiitted to UP.

Well, this page from the O says he doesnt have any offers currently. ESPN also shows no offers....?

http://highschoolsports.oregonlive.com/news/article/5456430904937999417/preps-five-questions-heading-into-basketball-season/

Other senior boys who have signed or orally committed include Westview's Austin Kuemper (Oregon), Central Catholic's David Carr (Portland) and Kidus Ephrem (Portland State), Jesuit's Jordan Akwenuke (Portland) and Benson's Andrew Andrews (Washington).

I found the article he is referring to but I didn't see anything else about this. Isn't tomorrow the last day of the early signing period?

Yes indeed it is... And as PNut pointed out when you click on his name on that article it doesn't say anything. All signs point to going for a big with the final scholly offer, I'm not sure 6'7" 185 lbs exactly qualifies for that...

It would be a good sign to get 2 kids from the area but I have to say ideally I would like a JUCO transfer big.

I doubt that akjwenuke's stats from last year would reveal much as holt abd wiltjer were the team. Rev has shown good tastwe in recruits so he must have a reason for this player, if its to red shirt him that leave us very thin at the post.

a follow up on my last post. "inside hoops.com" has a run down on a game or games -not sure,between the better seniors from oregon and washington including wiltjer and has some good things to say abour akwenuke. scored 17 pts in the game and was impressive for the writer. this was on 10-30-10 in the portland area . espn,s observations were in feb. 09 saying he needed to get stronger and moreathletic, etc.

Can you commit as a walk-on, or is that a scholarship issue only?