With two recruits unsuccessful in meeting academic requirements for entry, USD men's basketball coach Bill Grier yesterday announced the signing of what amounts to their replacements.
Patrick McCollom, a 6-foot-3 guard from San Diego High, and Luciano de Souza, a 6-7 forward from South Plains Community College in Levelland, Texas, were the academic casualties. Grier said McCollom is enrolling in a prep school and de Souza has moved on to the University of Idaho.
Joining the Toreros, with immediate eligibility, are Matt Dorr, a 6-4 sophomore wing from Spokane (Wash.) Community College, and Devon Braswell, a 5-11 freshman guard from Communication and Media Arts High School in Detroit.
“The strength for both of them is the ability to shoot the ball,” Grier said. “Even with the (three-point) line being moved back a little this year we expect them to help us with our perimeter scoring.”
In the 20th anniversary year of its inception, the three-point line for the men has been moved back a full foot, to 20 feet, 9 inches, by an NCAA rule approved for the coming season.
“We're losing a little in size (from McCollom and de Souza) but we could be gaining in shooting depth (in range and roster talent),” Grier said.
Grier, who led the Toreros to a 22-14 record, a West Coast Conference Tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament opening-round victory over Connecticut in his first season at USD last year, went back to his roots for Dorr.
Grier spent 16 years in Spokane as an assistant at Gonzaga. Dorr is a graduate of Mt. Spokane High and played last season for a Sasquatch team at SCC coached by Mike Burns, who was hired this spring as a USD assistant when Walter Roese left for Nebraska.
Dorr averaged 12-plus points per game for a Bigfoot bunch that relied on balanced scoring in posting a 30-2 record and finishing second in the Northwest Community College Tournament. Dorr was an all-regional and all-tournament selection.
Grier considers Braswell a combination point/shooting guard, but his 5-11, 218-pound physique suggests he might also qualify as a pulling guard for the football team.
Grier said Braswell averaged 24 points as a senior in high school.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
