trenell eddings signs with UCR

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Trenell Eddings Signs
With UC Riverside--(April 16, 1999)

UC Riverside, which is going D-I next season (2000-2001) has signed Trenell Eddings (5'-10" Sr. PG) to a National Letter of Intent. Eddings, from Rialto Eisenhower in San Bernardino, is a two time San Bernardino County Player of the Year, was named this year to the First Team All-State Division I by Cal-Hi Sports, was also named to the Second Team All-State Team (all divisions), and is a two-time All-CIF Southern Section nominee. Eddings averaged 24.7 ppg and more than 7 assists this season. This brings to three the number of signees this season, including Chris Clark (6'-6" Sr. SG/SF) from Glendora and Mike Zepeda (6'-9" Sr. C) from Century High School in Santa Ana, and this is a good recruiting nucleus by any standard.

The San Bernardino County Sun (which doesn't have a web-site as far as we can tell) put out a pretty nice article on Eddings (with some of the silliest quotes ever, but that's not Trenell's fault), and rather than paraphrase the article, or wait until UC Riverside releases their own press release (which they will do on Monday) we'll just post up the Sun article (remember, this is for commentary and "fair use"):

Eddings Signs with UCR

By Louis Amestoy
San Bernardino County Sun

Two-time San Bernardino County player of the year Trenell Eddings decided to keep his basketball talents close to home and signed a national letter of intent Thursday with UC Riverside.

"I feel pretty good," Eddings said. "It's a nice school." Eddings' decision gives the Highlanders their first recruit since making the decision earlier this month to move to Division I.

"We're very pleased to have him," UCR coach John Masi said. "He should be an impact player. He seems to have tremendous aptitude for the game." The flashy 5-foot-10 point guard helped the Eagles to the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division I-A playoffs, but his recruiting stock was hot and cold. A two-time all-CIF pick, Eddings said his lack of size has always been a concern to recruiters. "I think the biggest thing is my size," Eddings said. "I work hard all the time. I just think it's because I 5-9 or 5-10."

Masi was never scared by it, but Eddings wasn't initially interested in UCR. "As soon as they started recruiting me I didn't want to go there," Eddings said. "When they first came to my house I started to turn around. My dad kept telling me about the education. When they turned to Division I, I could stay close to home and still play Division I."

Eddings had narrowed his college choices to Sacramento State, Pacific and Nevada before choosing UCR this week. The move also will make it easier for his mother and sister, who live in Arizona, to regularly attend games. "I'm right around the corner from home and my mom gets to see me play," Eddings said.

For Masi, signing Eddings may help to stave off criticism that he doesn't recrut athletes from the Inland Empire. "We've been questioned for years why we don't do a better job of getting local kids," Masi said. "The kid that plays at a high level goes somewhere else to play Division I, but now we're Division I. We want to keep the local ones at home."

Eddings averaged a county-best 24.7 pooints per game and knocked down 77 three-pointers. He said he can move into a starting role immediately. "That's one of the reasons I picked them," Eddings said. "Some of the others wanted me to be a backup."

The Eddings article was also followed by a short piece about how exicted Riverside is to be going D-I. We're not nuts about the writing style, and there's a lot of hyperbole and puffing going on, and in fact the article doesn't even mention the names of the other two signees, but it still has a few quotes from coach Masi about who the Highlanders expect to play next year, so here it is:

Masi Excited About UCR Move

By Louis Amestoy
San Bernardino County Sun

John Masi is energized. After more than 25 years at UC Riverside, Masi is embracing change. To most college basketball fans, Masi's name means nothing. Buit he's now a member of an elite world that features big-name Division I coaching stars such as Rick Majerus, Roy Williams, Bobby Knight, and Mike Krzyzewski. In 2000, UCR's athletic program steps into the world of DI athletics, and Masi's men's basketball team will be the main attracdtion. The move fulfills a decade-long dream of moving the university, which is best known for citrus research, into the upper echelon of college athletics.

"It's very satisfying," Masi said. "I didn't think about it when I first got the job here." Earlier this month, Raymond Orbach, the UCR chancellor, made the announcment that the Highlanders would leave Division II to become a DI university and apply for membership in the Big West Conference. Masi already has been selling the move to potential recruites and it has paid off with three freshman signees.

"We've changed our recruiting style to bring in freshmen," Masi said. "In years past the CCAA has been a league of junior college transfers. Now we want to bring kids in for four years."

On Thursday, he sisnged Eisenhower guard Trenell Eddings to a scholarshitp. It was the schoo's first DI signing and another reason for Masi to be excited. But it's been a long time coming. Masi was on the ground floor of the DI plan when former athletic director Dick Perry first suggested the idea, but it wasn't until Orbach arrived that serious discussions began.

"It's called an opportunity," Masi said. "We've got our game plan going. I give all the credit to our chancellor." But there are still plenty of questions abou the future of the men's program, including what its schedule will be. "We're after all of the schools here," Masi said. "We've been in talks with UC Irvined and Cal Poloy San Luis Obispo. Pepperdine and Loyola have said they would like to play us as well as other Big West and Big Sky programs."

The Highlanders will remain in Divison II next season before moving to a DI independent schedule in 2000-2001. They will gain membership in the Big West in 2001, and if they win the conference tournament, they would receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. That's right--UCR in the field of 64. But don't expect it right away, Masi said. He expectes to take some lumps from bigger schools. It could mean some lopsided scores, especially against teams from larger conferences which the school would play to provide revenue for its program. "We're going to have to talk about guarantee games," Masi said. Those games would pit UCR agaisnt a possible big-name opponent for a big payday--and a whipping. That means playing Pac-10 schools like UCLA and USC could be in UCR's immediate future because both programs regularly schedule local opponents.

Pacific (We don't know how much to make of this, but the word is now that Marcus Moore (6'-4" Sr. PG) from Compton Dominguez, who transferred for his senior year from Redondo Union, is starting to get some attention from the Kentucky coaches. Marcus, one of the top unsigned point guards in SoCal and possibly the entire West Coast, is also getting some serious attention from USC, which is probably looking to get Marlon Parmer (6'-3" Sr. PG) from Verbum Dei as a first priority. The general consensus is that if Bibby misses out on Marlon, he's hoping to get Moore, but if Kentucky gets involved, Marcus might not be available.

The Kentucky angle is pretty interesting: Last year, Kentucky snatched Tayshaun Prince away from the SoCal area (and we mean the geographic "SoCal" and not USC, which was never seriously recruiting Tay, or if they were, he didn't seriously consider them), and a lot of people are speculating that Kentucky is using Marcus Moore as a way of "bridging" over until Tyson Chandler comes out in two years, the thinking being that Tayshaun will be a senior, Marcus will be a junior, and Tyson, who should be about 8' tall by then and the best player in the universe. . . . well, you get the picture.

Marcus will be playing this weekend at the Dada Classic, and we'll be attending the Saturday player luncheon, and hopefully, we'll be able to get some info from him on whether he is seriously being recruited by the Wildcats, and if so, whether he's interested.