Recruiting Update - Randolph Morris

Good article on Morris, with quotes about him possibly turning pro.Landmark (Ga.) Christian's Randolph Morris, one of the nation's best high school basketball players, says he doesn't mind being asked if he's turning professional next season. He already knows the answer.

"I probably will take one or two years of college, at Georgia Tech or Kentucky," Morris said Thursday before his team played Laurinburg Institute in the Dell Curry Shootout at Charlotte Latin.

"People started asking me about going pro in my junior year. It showed they believed in me and felt I could do it. But I don't think I'm ready."

Morris, who once considered North Carolina, is nearly 7 feet and 270 pounds. Against Laurinburg, his team was overmatched in height and talent, but he showed deft passing skills and a variety of inside post and power moves as he battled four players nearly his size. He finished with nine points and nine rebounds in a 75-45 loss.

Morris averages 27 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks for Landmark Christian (8-4), a private school of 631 students just outside Atlanta in Fairburn, Ga. He was 6-7 in junior high and has shown steady improvement.

National recruiting analyst Dave Telep of theinsiderschoops.com said he's pleased Morris is choosing college over the NBA. He said he believes he needs the experience.

"I think going pro would be rushing the timetable for him," Telep said. "In his foreseeable future he'll make money playing this game. He's gotten progressively better year after year and skipping steps for him right now is not good. It's not so much a bad idea as it would be putting the cart before (the) horse. It's going to happen for him."

Morris' coach, Bryan Bartley, says his star compares favorably to a young Tim Duncan, the former Wake Forest All-American and current NBA star, favoring good footwork and fundamentals over flashy dunks.

"He can score four or five different ways," Bartley said. "He doesn't have to dunk all the time. He's very strong and plays a lot like Tim Duncan. Every play doesn't have to be spectacular. But he's a very strong kid and knows the game well."

Bartley said Morris, ranked as high as No. 11 by recruiting analysts, has a 3.6 grade-point average and an 1,160 SAT score.

"A kid like that," Bartley said, "has the ability to choose where he wants to go and what he wants to do. We don't want the kid to be bombarded and think there's added pressure to go to the NBA. There's no added pressure when a kid has this kind of athletic future."

That's what Morris is thinking.

"I don't care (what other top high school stars) are doing," he said. "People who have (gone to the NBA from high school) were further along than me. I just think I need to go to school."

Books vs. buck$
Prep star prefers college, says NBA's riches can wait
LANGSTON WERTZ JR.
Staff Writer