Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Pitino lands second top recruit
Both committed without visiting, just based on coach
By Eric Crawford
The Louisville Courier-Journal
TEANECK, N.J. — Louisville's 2002 basketball recruiting class is walking by faith and not by sight. For the second time this summer, a player committed to the Cardinals without having visited the campus.
But Francisco Garcia, a 6-foot-7, 208-pound forward from the Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, said Tuesday he saw all he needed to see in first-year Louisville coach Rick Pitino. He announced his decision in a news conference at the adidas ABCD camp just across the Hudson River from where he grew up in the Bronx, N.Y.
“I have two goals,” Garcia said. “I want to win a national championship, and I want to play at the professional level. And I want to do it in that order. And that's what Coach Pitino is going to do at Louisville. When I look at the way he likes his teams to play and how he has proven himself at getting players ready for the next level, I decided that he is the perfect coach for me.”
Garcia joins Taquan Dean, a 6-3 guard from Neptune, N.J., as the Cards' first two recruits for next spring's class. Dean also committed before ever visiting the Louisville campus. But unlike Dean, Garcia still must post a qualifying score on the SAT or ACT.
Garcia, a native of the island of Dominica, is ranked 66th nationally by Prep Stars Recruiters Handbook but is rising. Heading into Tuesday's games, he was ranked the No.2 wing forward at the ABCD Camp by Hoop Scoop. He averaged 24 points and six rebounds at Cheshire last season and had narrowed his choices to Louisville and Miami, even as Villanova and Maryland were making a harder push.
“He has never stopped progressing,” said Gary DeCesare, who coaches Garcia for the Bronx Ravens AAU team. “He always has had the great ability to beat people off the dribble and get to the basket. Now he has developed his outside game. He's got the potential to be a great college player if he keeps working on areas where he needs improvement. He'll just be a great fit in Coach Pitino's system.”
After telling reporters on the first day of the Nike All-America Camp in Indianapolis that his current Cardinals may be “one of the worst-shooting teams I've ever witnessed,” Pitino has reeled in two bona fide sharpshooters with his first two commitments this summer. Dean and Garcia are both among the top 10 3-point shooters at the adidas camp.
And having landed two perimeter players, Louisville assistant Mick Cronin said the focus now turns to big men.
Among those Pitino kept a particularly close eye on during Tuesday's ABCD action: Jason Frazier, a 6-10, 210-pounder from Amityville, N.Y.; Chris Hunter, a 6-11, 205-pounder from Gary, Ind.; and Chris Bosh, a 6-11, 202-pound center from Lancaster, Texas.
But the top inside target probably is 7-footer Keith Butler, who attended the Nike camp. Butler was named one of the top “risers” at the Nike Camp by Blue Chip Hoops, which rated those players who improved their stock the most at the event. Butler will attend the Winchendon School in Massachusetts in the coming school year and thus will see better competition than he saw last season at North Cambridge High, where he averaged 19.5 points, 16 rebounds and 13 blocks.
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