Rice's crazy recruiting world heads to Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE -- Darius Rice has grown accustomed to the strange world of recruiting.
Well, almost.
Rice, a 6-10 forward from Jackson (Miss.) Lanier, is taking an official visit to Arkansas this weekend. Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson has told Rice that he is the Razorbacks' No. 1 recruiting target.
Rice, though, ranks a bit lower in the mind of an unidentified man who wrote Rice a letter recently. The man claimed to be an alumnus of Alabama and urged Rice not to join the Tide.
"His letter was advising me to stay in my own state," Rice said, laughing. "He didn't want me to come there. I was like, 'My goodness, I'm not even considering Alabama. Why would you think I'd want to come there?'
"I was going to write him back to tell him how I felt about that but my p.r. person -- my mom -- said, 'No, you don't need to do that.' I get some crazy letters."
Rice said he is considering Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Miami. He had a great visit to Kentucky two weeks ago, blasting rumors he had orally committed to Wildcats Coach Tubby Smith.
"People get wrong information," said Rice, who helped fuel the rumor when he canceled his Auburn visit after returning from Kentucky. "When I got back home, there was all kinds of stuff."
Earlier this year, there was a report on the Internet that Rice had committed to Georgetown.
"I'm really looking forward to coming there," Rice said of his Arkansas visit. "I'm still open despite all the rumors and everything.
"[Recruiting] is tiring, but it's amusing, too. Some of the things that people print is just crazy. When it gets tiring, I just to want to end it all right there but then I say, 'no, I don't want to mess it up.' I just want to pick the best school possible."
Rice said he doesn't want to sign early because he wants to be absolutely sure of his choice.
"I may decide early who I'm going to sign with late, but I don't want to sign now because I want to watch a few games on TV before I sign," Rice said. "If I'm really sure about that school, I might commit. I don't want to just jump out there and commit and have to change.
"That's why I want to sign late. I want to see who else they're trying to get in. I want to see them on TV and see how everyone else plays. If I can just see a few games, I might say, 'OK, I think I like that situation better.' "
Rice said the Arkansas coaches have called him every day this week as the rules allow because he is visiting.
"They said they are really looking forward to me coming up there and I get to see basketball instead of football," Rice said. "They're practicing now so I get to see how I fit in."

Brandon Crump, a 6-10 center from Klein, Texas, eliminated the Razorbacks this week after visiting Memphis. Crump canceled a visit to Arkansas scheduled for the Oct. 29 weekend.
Crump's mother, Norma Crump, who is from Memphis, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal on Tuesday that her son had eliminated Arkansas because of the "arrogance" of Razorbacks Coach Nolan Richardson.
"There was just this arrogance that we felt, like they thought we ought to be breaking their door down and not the other way around," Norma Crump said.
"The relationship between me and the coaches was not that good," Brandon Crump told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Wednesday. "They felt they didn't have to recruit me, I should want to go there."
Crump was scheduled to visit the Oct. 29 weekend but is now considering Tennessee, SMU, Memphis and Xavier. Richardson, when told of the family's statements to the Commercial Appeal and Democrat-Gazette, declined to comment on specifics.
"I don't want to comment when young kids say things," Richardson said. "I'm too old for this b*******. I'm not into that kind of recruiting. Some kids want you to glorify them. They come to this program if they want to be here."

Crump was just one of three of the Razorbacks' top five recruits who eliminated Arkansas this week.
Forward Ivan McFarlin of Houston Willowridge and David Anderson of Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., orally committed to Oklahoma State on Tuesday.
Both players had visited Arkansas for Midnight Madness this past weekend.
"[Anderson] felt comfortable there," Hargrave Coach Kevin Keatts said. "He said he liked the coaching staff and liked the players. He said he felt he could play in the program. That was a big decision he had to make.
"Certainly, he thought he had a great trip to Arkansas. He really liked the place."
McFarlin said he decided on the Cowboys shortly after his return from Arkansas. Although he and Anderson are AAU teammates, he said picking the same college as Anderson was coincidental.
"They have great coaches and a great campus, and I just liked the surroundings down there," McFarlin said of OSU.

The subtraction of three recruits bodes well for 6-8 forward Michael Jones of Little Rock Parkview.
Jones has been offered scholarships by UALR and Arkansas State and is the No. 1 target of both of those schools. He has not been offered a scholarship by Arkansas, which he will visit on the Oct. 29 weekend.
"I think that improves my chances," Jones said. "I really don't want to go away from home. [Arkansas] is still evaluating me. Both parties can't wait to meet up on the 29th."
Jones was not considered a major prospect until a sensational season in AAU this past summer. He said the Razorbacks called him Monday to see how his visits to UALR and ASU went.
"It's basically going to come down to those three," Jones said.

Defensive end Shawn Oglesby of the City College of San Francisco said arriving in Fayetteville while Arkansas was playing in Little Rock wasn't that big of a negative.
Oglesby (6-7, 240, 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash) took an official visit to Arkansas this past weekend, arriving late Saturday night while the Razorbacks were playing South Carolina. Oglesby said he was in town for just a couple of hours before some coaches returned to meet with him.
"It went all right," Oglesby said. "They said they had a place for me, and they could use my speed. I talked to all of them [coaches], all of them that were there."
Oglesby also met with Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt before returning home Monday morning.
"He's a nice guy," Oglesby said about Nutt. "He had a lot of energy."
Oglesby, of Hopkinsville, Ky., said he was considering Arkansas, Alabama and Arizona State. He said he was trying to find time to visit Alabama and Arizona State but may have to wait until the season was over.
Contact Marty Cook at marty_cook@adg.ardemgaz.com.

This article was published on Friday, October 22, 1999

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