THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100777
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Reggie Bassette verbally committed to play college basketball at Old Dominion Sunday, then spent the next three days trying to decide where to go to school.
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the first day of the national letter of intent signing period, Bassette's mind was made up - officially. He signed with Old Dominion and sent the national letter of intent off to Norfolk via a courier.
``I feel better now,'' Bassette said.
But the 6-foot-9 center, who recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons rates the 53rd-best senior in the country, wasn't feeling too good Wednesday morning. James Madison coach Lefty Driesell and his staff had applied relentless pressure in recent days, trying to persuade Bassette to change his mind.
It almost worked.
``This morning I was going to sign with ODU, but I couldn't even touch the pen,'' Bassette said. ``Everyone - my mom and dad - had signed the papers but me. I wanted to go to Madison.''
Bassette said he went to Highland Springs High in Henrico County on Wednesday confused, and before basketball practice his mother met him at school to try and hash out a decision. After practice, Bassette went home and listened to the phone ring about 20 times in 20 minutes.
Finally around 6:50 p.m. he answered, and it was ODU coach Jeff Capel, who had to come up with a sales pitch again.
``He said `You were down here, you know we need you more than James Madison needs you, they have four players just like you,' '' Bassette said. ``That was basically it.''
JMU does have five 6-9 players on its roster this year, and three are freshmen.
After talking to Capel for about 10 minutes, Bassette said he hung up the phone, signed a letter of intent with ODU and sent the courier back to Norfolk. During ODU's exhibition game with Croatia at the ODU field house, Monarch athletic director Jim Jarrett informed Capel on the bench at 8:45 p.m. that Bassette's letter had arrived.
``It was a hard decision, but I made it,'' Bassette said about 15 minutes after signing. ``James Madison just kept pressuring me. They didn't give up. They tried to talk me out of it, and basically they turned my head.''
ODU's other signings in the early recruiting period lacked the drama of Bassette. Skipper Youngblood, a 6-8 forward from Ashbrook High in Gastonia, N.C., signed Wednesday and mailed his letter of intent back to ODU. Radee Benson, a 6-5 swing player from Elizabeth, N.J., will sign this weekend when his mother, who lives in Maryland, can meet with him to sign the letter of intent also.
``No question he's going there,'' said Kevin Boyle, Benson's high school coach. by CNB