Creighton gets a verbal from a juco

[Da Coach]

Juco forward Xavier Keeling has reportedly committed to Creighton. There is no official confirmation of this on any recruiting site. He apparently visited Creighton and gave a verbal commitment.

Keeling was a 3-star 6'6" forward out of Huntsville, Alabama and originally signed with Indiana and Mike Davis.

http://indiana.scout.com/a.z?s=170&p=8&c=1&nid=1273402

He played in 22 games as a freshman at Indiana, and many, including most IU fans, felt he was not Big Ten material. He averaged 1.8 ppg and 1.1 rpg for IU in 2006-2007.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/players/60534

He left Indiana after his freshman season, as did many of Mike Davis' players. He ended up at Wallace State Community College, a junior college in Hanceville, Alabama.

http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=490

http://www.wallacestate.edu/athletics/basketball/men-s-basketball/meet-the-team.html

Profile--

http://jucojunction.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=72688&sport=2

He is ranked #176 among 2008 junior college players. Just ahead of #188 Xavier Crawford.

http://jucojunction.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=2005

It's reported that his only other offer was from Murray State. He should be a good player for Creighton.
I don't know about the scholarship situation at Creighton, but this might take them out of the running for Antiquan Beckham.

[ER3]

I don't know about the scholarship situation at Creighton, but this might take them out of the running for Antiquan Beckham.

I hope this is the case...
Creighton has 3 seniors on this year's squad (Bahe, Watts, Hibma), and this verbal gives them three commits for next year's class (Keeling, Antoine Young, and Josh Jones)...so unless an underclassman is leaving or they were playing one scholarship player short this year, they may be out of scholarships to offer Beckham...and that would be a big help toward BU's chances with Beckham.

[Da Coach]

I hope this is the case...
Creighton has 3 seniors on this year's squad (Bahe, Watts, Hibma), and this verbal gives them three commits for next year's class (Keeling, Antoine Young, and Josh Jones)...so unless an underclassman is leaving or they were playing one scholarship player short this year, they may be out of scholarships to offer Beckham...and that would be a big help toward BU's chances with Beckham.

Keeling is actually their 4th commitment for 2008-
Xavier Keeling-

http://jucojunction.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=72688&sport=2

Josh Jones-

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=2&pr_key=64233

Antoine Young-

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=2&pr_key=46442

and another juco- Tom Whitehead

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=2&pr_key=61431

So they must have at least 1 opening now, plus the 3 seniors they lose.

[tornado]

Here's what I figure...

they have nine players returning that should be using scholarships. In the case of Harriman, he was supposed to be a walk on only for one year then get a scholarship, although that could change.
(Brandt is a walk on, as is Sitzmann)

Witter
Stinnett
Dotzler
Millard
Woodfox
Korver
Lawson
Harriman
Walker

Then if they have those four (Keeling, Jones, Young, Whitehead) already offered or coming, then they should be out of scholarships for 2008, nine returning and four new players = 13.

Josh Jones, despite his heart surgery, still has the scholarship offer from Altman

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/24/health/21_46_102_22_08.txt

[Da Coach]

Xavier Keeling has not signed his NLI, yet.--

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10312970

There are reports that he is balking at signing and may still be shopping around to see what other opportunities are available.
My guess is that Dana Altman is not a coach who will tolerate too much of this. I wouldn't be surprised to see him revoke the scholarship offer.

[tornado]

Xavier Keeling has not signed his NLI, yet.--

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10312970

There are reports that he is balking at signing and may still be shopping around to see what other opportunities are available.
My guess is that Dana Altman is not a coach who will tolerate too much of this. I wouldn't be surprised to see him revoke the scholarship offer.

That's funny, as yesterday morning the Omaha World-Herald had a story saying Keeling HAD SIGNED his LOI,
but now that story has been removed!

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10312380

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=79637#post79637

[Da Coach]

That's funny, as yesterday morning the Omaha World-Herald had a story saying Keeling HAD SIGNED his LOI,
but now that story has been removed!

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10312380

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread...9637#post79637

According to a sports talk show in Omaha, the writer for the Omaha World Herald, who is the beat writer for the Creighton basketball team, jumped the gun by announcing that Creighton had received a signed NLI from Keeling. He has since apologized for the error and removed the original story, and posted a new story--
Xavier Keeling has not yet signed a letter of intent
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...u_sid=10312970

For some reason, Dana Altman was quite upset by this reporting mistake. Makes me wonder what is going on with Xavier Keeling.

[Da Coach]

Former Indiana forward, and juco, Xavier Keeling today announced he was signing with Detroit-Mercy, not Creighton.
It seems he did or said something that ticked off Dana Altman, and that's something you don't want to do. He was no longer welcome at Creighton after he didn't sign his LOI when he said he would.

[tornado]

Detroit Mercy's new head coach is Ray McCallum, who obviously was able to get in on Keeling right away with his connections at Indiana where Keeling was. This is a great commit for a "low major" like Detroit and Keeling should do fine at this level while McCallum is getting a kid he knows and has a relationship with.

Oddly....one other thing I ran across was an article detailing how McCallum, who was at Oklahoma from 2004-2006, and fellow Kelvin Sampson assistant from 2004-2006 at Oklahoma, Bob Hoffman, who is now the new head coach at Mercer...
BOTH were heavily implicated in all those illegal phone calls at Oklahoma, and Hoffman was found by NCAA to have made at least 29 of them all by himself, and both were fired under a cloud of suspicions, but amazingly, now, within a couple years, both have fully bounced back and have D-I head coaching jobs, while Kelvin Sampson got a NICE gig at Indiana, made millions, then split with even more money and now is an NBA assistant!

I know life isn't always fair, but the way the cheaters always seem to come out ahead and end up with fine jobs despite the violations (unless you are at Bradley), still amazes me.

[mportsch]

Detroit is probably a better choice for Keeling anyway - I honestly don't know how much playing time he would have received at Creighton. Keeling has a good chance to start on a very bad Detroit team.