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from the article

.."On Thursday morning, he made the decision to attend college next fall. He then committed to SMU.

“My family has been interested in SMU and we wanted to make sure it’s the perfect fit,” Rhodes said. “

http://scouthoops.scout.com/2/627027.html

It makes since that he would commit to us since Doherty did just spend the last week in NC.

Here's an interview with him from a local web outlet. The interview took place right after he arrived at Mt. Zion:

http://www.throwd.com/index-1.html

Notes of interest: He said he was 100% sure he was going to the NBA after his first season at Mt. Zion. At that time he was a 6'6 point guard.

There is a bunch of articles and My Space pages on him. Just Google his name and Mt. Zion Acadamy.

This guy will add a lot of options to our line-ups it appears. PG, SG, and SF.

THIS IS A HUGE PICK-UP!

Why do you say that? I don't know much about him, other than height, stars on rivals, etc. What do you know about his game?

Rivals only listed choices as UCLA, Kansas, and Okla St. This is a greatrecruiting pickup. So far Doh has out recruited Stanford, Lousiville, Wichita State, South Florida, Texas Tech, Miss St., TCU, Arizona St., Northwestern, Wake Forest, Iowa State, and Oklahoma. Not a bad collection of teams to beat in recruiting battles. Gotta love where this team is going.

Found this on a UCLA rivals site:

A member of the Kansas coaching staff traveled to Durham, N.C., last week in order to get a closer look at Bennie Rhodes. The 6-foot-6, 190-pound small forward from Mt. Zion Christian Academy has emerged as a high-major prospect, and several big time programs have expressed an interest in Rhodes.

"Yes, a member of the Kansas coaching staff was here last week to watch Bennie practice," said Mt. Zion head coach Antonio Fozard. "It was informal because there wasn't any contact between Kansas and Bennie. They aren't allowed to talk to him during the visits.

"The Kansas coaching staff is very interested in Bennie, but no visit has been planned yet," he added. "I think the coaching staff wants to watch some of our games this year before any visit is planned. All I really know right now is that Kansas is interested in Bennie."

According to Fozard, Kansas, Oklahoma State and UCLA are showing a high amount of interest in Rhodes.

However, don't look for any decisions to be made until coaches from each school get a closer look at the talented small forward.

"Bennie is a great athlete, a great person and a great student," said Fozard. "I believe that he has the ability to play at the high-major level, but being motivated is the biggest factor for him. Bennie is not a pickup game type player. He is a team player and a great person.

"Kansas, Oklahoma State and UCLA are probably the schools most interested in Bennie right now," he added. "He is originally from Oakland, California, so this is his first year at Mt. Zion. Right now, schools just want to get a look a Bennie during the season before they make any decisions about him."

THIS IS A HUGE PICK-UP!

Not according to Stallion - 3 stars in basketball are a dime a dozen.

Treadway21 wrote:

THIS IS A HUGE PICK-UP!

Not according to Stallion - 3 stars in basketball are a dime a dozen.

Well then, I just increased my Mustang Club pledge $0.10 to cover the 12 3 star recruits.

Corso wrote:Why do you say that? I don't know much about him, other than height, stars on rivals, etc. What do you know about his game?

Various publications have mentioned three positions. The recruiting services have him at SF. An article mentioned he was a SG/SF swing man. A web story/interview had him working as a PG at the academy he was at.

Not to scientific, but it was not just based on the size.

why is he not committed on rivals yet?

College BB commitments sometimes take longer to uncover than college football commitments. Commitments are generally reported by the player side since Coaches can't comment on specific players until they sign. In football where 90% of the commitments come from Texas the Rivals or Scout correspondent has a lot better knowledge of the players, the coaches and contacts because they are all generally local in Texas. Rhodes is from Oakland and Mt Zion Prep in North Carolina so it generally takes more time to filter back. As we have seen this year with numerous reports from Scout correspondents, I believe that Rivals simply doesn't do as good a job with BB recruiting as they do with Football recruiting. Scout maybe kicks it up a notch in BB recruiting. That's been my impression over the years.

I appreciate that input...and besides football is still king in most eyes...but I am loving basketball more and more!!

Go Mustangs!