Hawkins commits to USF men’s hoops

Posted Oct 24, 2011 by Adam Adkins

Updated Oct 24, 2011 at 03:00 PM

USF coach Stan Heath has landed another big commitment for the 2012-13 recruiting class, securing a verbal pledge from 6-foot-5 shooting guard JaVontae Hawkins, who is regarded as a Top 100 recruit by both ESPN.com and CBSSports.com.

Hawkins, who hails from Flint, Mich., and is spending this season at Huntington Prep in West Virginia, confirmed in a text message he has committed to the Bulls. He was on an official visit to USF this weekend.

Huntington Prep coach Rob Fulford said Hawkins also was strongly considering Cincinnati, DePaul and Iowa, all of which had offered, while a new crop of schools like Louisville, Virginia Tech and West Virginia had recently expressed interest.

“We kind of anticipated he would wait until the spring, but he enjoyed the visit and I think he liked the fact they had built a practice facility, which I know everyone has a practice facility but they just got one so it shows a commitment to basketball and moving the program in the right direction,” said Fulford, adding the Bulls are getting a high-level athlete capable of making an immediate impact.

“JaVontae’s an extremely athletic scorer. He’s a high-level rebounder at the guard position. Very, very athletic, obviously. From a transition standpoint, he’s very hard to guard in that scenario. He’s working a lot on his jump shot. I wouldn’t classify him as a shooter; he’s a shot-maker. He knows how to score.”

Hawkins joins junior college center Waverly Austin and junior college guard Musa Abdul-Aleem in the Bulls recruiting class.

—-In other USF recruiting news, the baseball team has picked up a commitment from Jesuit High junior outfielder/pitcher Daniel Portales, according to Tigers coach Richie Warren.

Portales didn’t play much for Jesuit as a sophomore last season, seeing action in just three games and logging just one at-bats and no time on the mound, but Warren said Portales has put together a solid fall and has tremendous upside.