2008 BU committment- Darian Norris - 5'11

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds has a great article about Darian Norris in today's PJ Star. But for some reason, it is not available online. Hopefully, for those outside Peoria, we can link to it soon. He confirms that Darian is an academic qualifier. His father is a Las Vegas police officer, and Darian says he doesn't mind being in a city (Peoria) that "isn't so busy".
Dave interviewed Darian and his father, and they tell what they liked about Bradley and their style of play, and why they wanted to get out of the committment to South Carolina State. The "icing on the cake" was that Peoria has a direct flight to Las Vegas, and his father said he can get here faster than he can drive to southern California.

[BradleyBrave]

Article is up online now.

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/041508/BRA_BGBK5HB1.W02.php

[BUBraves06]

Sounds like he's really excited to come to BU, I can't wait to see him in the red 'n white!

[BradleyBrave]

Scout.com now has Norris's profile and commitment updated on their site (thanks to a late night email from a 'contributor' to the site).

[tornado]

Scout.com now has Norris's profile and commitment updated on their site (thanks to a late night email from a 'contributor' to the site).

Here's the scout article............

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=2&cid=746497&nid=2667097&fhn=1&RequestedURL=http%3a%2f%2fscouthoops.scout.com%2fa.z%3fs%3d75%26p%3d9%26c%3d2%26cid%3d746497%26nid%3d2667097%26fhn%3d1

"Will Sign With Bradley"
April 15, 2008 at 8:27am ET


"Jim Les' Bradley Braves reached the scholarship limit this week. The addition of point guard Darian Norris gives Les 13 players for next season.
"Darian took an official visit to Bradley University this weekend," Walter Norris, Darian's father said. "Darian and I were very impressed with the university, basketball program, and coaching staff (especially Coach Les). So much so, that Darain gave his verbal and will be signing his letter of intent Wednesday."

For Las Vegas (Nev.) Mojave, Norris averaged 18.7 points per game to go along with 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
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By the way....as for whether the kid blew up in his senior season....here are a couple articles.........

"Posted: 8/4/2007 10:28 AM
Summer Classic
Two players saw their stock go through the roof ...The 42 point performance by Darian Norris in the Dogcatchers' loss to Salt Lake Metro Prospects in the Summer Classic semifinals had coaches from Utah and BYU (there to watch the SL team) asking the table who Norris was and what school he attended (his name didn't appear on the roster in the media guide or coaches book).
There aren't many teams anywhere that ever have 50+ coaches watching them play."


"From Nevada Prep Sports...
Heres a list of the top players from each class.
Seniors
1. Darian Norris
2. Raveon Samuel
3. Juron Criner..."



Lastly-- one more article from April, 2007

http://scouthoops.scout.com/2/632819.html

Here's some of what the article says.........

"2008 Introduction: Darian Norris
Apr 4, 2007

Las Vegas has started to turn out some quality basketball prospects and point guard Darian Norris is one of the better Vegas prospects in the 2008 class. We caught up with him recently and got an update on his recruitment...

Darian Norris, 5-10 JR PG Las Vegas (Nev.) Mojave, is a quick and talented young prospect. While he’s on the small side, Norris has a good stroke to the stripe and the ability to break down a defense.
We spoke with Norris recently and he gave us a list of schools that have been in contact with him.

“Gonzaga, Nevada, Oregon, USC, UNLV, Tulsa, Idaho and Virginia Tech,” said Norris. “Also, Kansas came to a practice while they were out here playing against Florida. I don’t really have a leader right now – I’m pretty wide open.”
We asked Norris what he is looking for in a school.
“The tempo, how they play and how the coaches interact,” said Norris. “Location is not really that important. It could be close and that would be good, but if the situation is good elsewhere then I’ll go there.”
We asked Norris about the importance of early playing time.

“Early playing time is a consideration,” said Norris. “Not necessarily to get a lot of time right away, but just to be able to get some time early.”

“USC, Gonzaga and Nevada came to games.”

Norris said a Big 12 program was his dream school growing up.
“Texas was my dream school – I was born right around the corner from the arena,” said Norris. “I came to Vegas early, but thought about going back there.”

Norris told us he has a 3.6 GPA."

[BUFAN]

???Texas was my dream school ??“ I was born right around the corner from the arena,??? said Norris. ???I came to Vegas early, but thought about going back there.???
Was't Eddren originally from Houston.

[tornado]

yes, Eddren was in high school in Houston until his sophomore year.
Just due to the AAU circuit, it is possible the two may know each other already.

[BUFAN]

yes, Eddren was in high school in Houston until his sophomore year.
Just due to the AAU circuit, it is possible the two may know each other already.

Thankx coach, then it is possible that Coach Brooks was involved in recruiting Darian. After seeing all that has been written about Darian, I think he will be a nice fit and a good player for us.

[SaintLouBrave22]

Am I the only one that feels really comfortable knowing the kid has a 3.6 GPA...?


I mean we certainly shouldn't have to worry about this being another Buycks or DW

[Stryker]

Am I the only one that feels really comfortable knowing the kid has a 3.6 GPA...?


I mean we certainly shouldn't have to worry about this being another Buycks or DW

Yeah that is very nice. Good players are hard to come by, but good players with good grades are even more rare. Can't wait to see him play. Maybe he will get some scholar athlete of the week awards like JC did while he is at BU.

[VeveJones007]

No but by not getting a big this year, it puts even more of an emphasis on getting a forward or center with next year's class. I would like to see a more diversified recruiting class than 4 guards.

I'm pretty sure that with the large recruiting class we're going to have to bring in next year, we'll probably add one or two Juco bigs. I think it'll work out about the same. It just depends on who we could have gotten this year and who we can get next year to make a judgment on it.

[Stryker]

I think that Les has done a good job with recruiting in this class. We have 3 great guards coming in Dodson, McCain, and Norris. With Sam M. as well, we will be very solid for the next three-four years at guard. Hopefully Thompson and Egolf will turn into great players as well. The potential is here to do great things. This class also shows a commitment from Les to stay with the guard heavy offense, and will allow him to recruit mostly bigs next year.

[BU Firsty]

Yeah that is very nice. Good players are hard to come by, but good players with good grades are even more rare. Can't wait to see him play. Maybe he will get some scholar athlete of the week awards like JC did while he is at BU.

I really think we will all love this kid as a person. I also believe he is a talented player, but he has a very engaging and polite personality and is obviously bright. He will be a fans' favorite for sure.

[mike radigan]

On the subject of our new recruits being great kids and a great GPA, remember:

I talked with Chris Roberts at the tailgate party. Seems like a great kid. And now a 3.8 GPA in biology. Welcome Chris, you da man!

[SFP]

Welcome Darian to the BU family! You can achieve all your dreams at BU and it sounds like we are a perfect fit!

One thing about this class they sound very athletic, they all seem to have a high basketball IQ and best of all represent our community with high standards. I like when we get players that take their studies serious. It just makes our school look much better.