The McNabb Report: Basketball Signing Updates

Basketball Signing Day There's a year-long focus on football recruiting in Texas, but the big day for basketball and several other sports is Wednesday _ the first day to sign a basketball letter of intent to a college. Football players make verbal commitments until signing in February. Among the notable North Texas basketball signings will be Duncanville's Shawn Williams with Texas, Richland's Nolan Dennis with Memphis and McKinney's G.J. Vilarino with Kentucky. They all were recruited nationally since they were freshmen. Vilarino committed to Kentucky before his sophomore year as the first commit for Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie, fresh from his leaving Texas A&M. But don't get the Aggies started on that. The 6-7 Williams committed to Texas coach Rick Barnes in August. Williams has hopes for his future Texas career but he's still got Duncanville's hope of winning a second state title in three years. Williams won't have to wait until playing at Texas to play at national schedule. "We are going to the City of Palms Tournament in Florida and we're supposed to play in New York City too," Williams said. "We're trying to go undefeated like we did when we were sophomores." National Signing Day Player, HS, College Javier Carter, Parish Episcopal, South Alabama Nolan Dennis, Richland, Memphis Caden Dickerson, Argyle, Western Kentucky Reger Dowell, Duncanville, Oklahoma State Jeff Georgatos, ESD, Harvard Shawn Glover, Cedar Hill, Utah Chase Hallam, Mesquite, Denver Marshall Henderson, L.D. Bell, Utah Ryan Pembleton, Frisco, Army Corey Remekun, Mesquite, St. Louis Vetrail Vaughns, Mesquite, George Mason G.J. Vilarino, McKinney, Kentucky Shawn Williams, Duncanville, Texas Mac LB Gets Ready for Early UT Enrollment Irving MacArthur's football season ended last week with a final game loss that kept the Cardinals out of the state playoffs. That means star linebacker Tariq Allen starts getting ready for spring practice at the University of Texas. Allen will graduate in December and he's following a recent trend of early enrollment at a college. Cedar Hill offensive lineman Thomas Ashcraft also will enroll at Texas in January. "I'm just trying to get everything done, get everything out of the way. I'm going to try to take a break before Thanksgiving and then start working out again before I get down there," Allen said. Allen attended the Longhorns' home game against Missouri and he'll be back in Austin when the Texas hosts Texas A&M. He liked what he saw on his first visit, and Allen's commitment is as strong as ever. "It was an incredible atmosphere," Allen said. ""I talked to the defensive coordinator, coach (Will) Muschamp. I'm just going to have to go down there and prove myself. It's not like they have a spot set for me." Even though he's set on Texas, Allen isn't official until he enrolls in school as a fulltime student or signs his letter of intent in February. He's still eligible to be recruited and that's what one Texas rival is doing. "For some reason, I still get a crazy amount of letters from A&M," Allen said. "Inviting me to games, things like that. But I haven't opened a letter in a while," he said. Gophers Get Another Noted in last week's column, Minnesota has gotten several commits from Texas high school players and looks to get more. The Gophers did this past Sunday with Gopher head coach Tim Brewster getting a verbal commitment from South Grand Prairie defensive tackle Joey Searcy. A former UT assistant, Brewster has Minnesota recruiting more than a dozen North Texas players for the '09 Class.