California prep sensation Travon Bryant says he'll visit Missouri for the Tigers' football game against Texas Tech on Oct. 30. He'll be at KU for Late Night With Roy Williams on Oct. 15.
Long-time rivals Kansas and Missouri are butting heads for blue-chip basketball recruit Travon Bryant of Long Beach, Calif.
Bryant, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound senior forward from Long Beach (Calif.) Jordan High, on Monday completed in-home visits with coaches from 10 colleges.
"They're in my top three," Bryant said of the Jayhawks and Tigers. He's also favoring UCLA, along with a second-tier of Utah, Kentucky and Cal-Berkeley.
Bryant said Wednesday he'll visit KU for Late Night With Roy Williams on Oct. 15 and revealed he'll be heading to Missouri Oct. 30 for the Tigers' football game against Texas Tech.
"I don't have a favorite right now," Bryant said. "But after talking to coach Williams twice, I feel strongly about Kansas. It seems to me he's a great guy. He helps players academically and on and off the court. He helps them succeed as a person.
"Missouri impressed me a whole lot. Coach (Quin) Snyder presented his school well. He did what he had to do, sold it the best he could. I like him a lot. He's been recruiting me since he was at Duke."
Snyder is in his first year at Missouri after working as an assistant on Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devil staff.
Bryant -- he averaged 22 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks last season -- said he had a blast welcoming the many coaches into his home.
"People say you only get recruited once, you might as well enjoy it," Bryant said. "Personally it was great meeting coach Smith (Tubby, Kentucky), who won a national championship two years ago, and coach Crum (Denny, Louisville). I couldn't believe a Hall of Fame coach was in my house. It's something you dream about being recruited by somebody like that."
Coaches from Oregon State, UConn and Cincinnati also gave in-home presentations.
"Coach Williams and coach (Neil) Dougherty sat down and talked about academics first. I told them my course of study (Sports Management or Journalism) and they planned out how my four years would be. After that, coach showed me his rings from North Carolina and Kansas which was interesting. Then they showed the tape of last season's ups and downs."
Bryant caused quite a stir with recruiting services by wearing a Kansas cap at a recent prep tournament at Cal-State Dominguez.
"People stopped me and said, 'You're going to Kansas?' I'd say, 'I'm not going to Kansas. I've not made any decision,''' Bryant laughed.
He said there's a 75 percent chance he'll wait until the spring signing period to sign with a school.
Bryant said he's anxiously awaiting Late Night.
"I can't wait to get out there and see what everybody's talking about," Bryant said. "Everybody I talk to says, 'Don't sign up there. Wait until you come back. They're going to sell it well.'
"I won't be making up my mind on that trip. I'm going to make some trips and compare the positives and negatives with my mom."
Bryant will be joined on the trip by DeShawn Stevenson, a 6-5 guard from Fresno, Calif. Many analysts list both players in their national top 10.
"From what DeShawn's AAU coach tells me, he's really thinking about going there (KU)," Bryant said. Stevenson, like Bryant, is also considering MU, UCLA and Kentucky, plus UConn, Fresno State and Georgia.
Early entries?: Bryant shook up some KU fans when he told a recruiting analyst one of the reasons he might sign with KU is the possibility of Eric Chenowith and Luke Axtell turning pro after this season.
Chenowith has said he's staying four years. Axtell is beginning just his second full season of college ball and has never intimated he'd leave early.
Bryant clarified his comment Wednesday: "I read in one of the magazines Eric will be one of the top five centers in the country. He'd have a good chance of going (to NBA) if he wanted," Bryant said. "Luke is another great player. If they don't go, it won't affect my decision. It'd benefit me going against Eric and Luke every day at practice."
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Stylin: Bryant saw Williams and assistant Joe Holladay recently. "They went to Cal-State Dominguez to watch the championship game of a tournament," he said. "He and coach Holladay were driving by in a Mustang convertible. They waved. It was really funny."
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Recruiting is like .... farming?: KU coach Roy Williams quipped of recruiting: "It's like farming. You do all the work you can. You don't have any idea how it'll be until you take the crops to market. It's what recruiting is. Work as hard as you can, see as many people as you can and wait for the results."
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Can't get 'em all: KU couldn't get involved with several top prospects on the East coast: "Several top kids this year who we contacted ... basically they were very nice. They said kansas was not going to be one of their choices. Kansas people have a hard time understanding it. It's true," he said of some individuals just not being interested in the national power.
-- Gary Bedore's phone number is 832-7186. His e-mail address is gbedore@ljworld.com
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