re: Basketball Recruiting Discussion

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-- Obviously the biggest story in South Carolina basketball recruiting right now is that of Houston transfer Danuel House. He visited from Thursday to Saturday and we, unfortunately, have not been able to get him on the phone. We understand that others have and he’s made very positive comments as it relates to his visit. Getting House on the phone is No. 1 on our priority list as a site, regardless of sport and story. Please know we’re not ignoring the story.

From what we can gather from people around the program, the staff felt the visit went pretty well. It was House’s first visit and he currently has other trips set up for UCLA this week and UNLV later this month. The current plan is for the 6-foot-7 guard to take all of his visits. He played things close to the vest on his visit and is trying to keep an open mind until he takes his trips. House doesn’t seem to be in a rush to make a decision.

-- Head coach Frank Martin spent time in both Pittsburgh, Pa. and Biloxi, Miss. a couple weekends back checking out some of the top players in the 2015 and 2016 classes. Two of the major players he watched were targets Perry Dozier Jr. (Columbia/Spring Valley) and Seventh Woods (Columbia/Hammond). South Carolina and North Carolina comprise the top two schools for both players, so we reached out to someone with intimate knowledge of North Carolina’s recruiting, who has a little bit different perspective than what we’ve heard lately.

The word out of the North Carolina camp is the Tar Heels feel like they have a great shot to land Dozier, a 2015 wing, if and when they decide he’s the player they want. We’ve been told that Dozier has given the Tar Heels reasons to feel good but he’s not UNC’s top priority at this point. Wisdom from the USC side of things is that the Gamecocks feel good about their position with Dozier.

With Woods, many figure that UNC is the lead school while USC trails. Williams and the Tar Heels certainly want Woods and there’s no slow-playing going on from their side with the 2016 guard. Word from the North Carolina side is that they feel good about they’re position, but they don’t feel like they’re the leaders for Woods at this point. If UNC doesn’t lead, it’s USC on top. Regardless of who leads right now, there’s a long way to go in Woods’ recruitment.

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