Clifford Picks Up First Offers
Dennis Clifford picked up the first two division I offers of his still young career earlier this week after visiting both Northeastern and Princeton unofficially.
“I liked both schools, especially both coaching staffs, very much,” Clifford told the New England Recruiting Report.
While Clifford now has offers from Northeastern and Princeton he said he’s also hearing quite a bit from Brown, Lafayette, Cornell, Sienna, and Holy Cross. He’s also been contacted by Vanderbilt, Rhode Island, Quinnipiac, Providence, and Boston University.
“It all happened so fast,” he said of his recruiting interest. “I thought I might get a couple [of interested schools] but it really got jump started as soon as July ended.”
A year ago, Clifford wasn’t on very many division I school’s radars. But he did a nice job during his junior season at Bridgewater-Raynham and followed that up with a very successful spring and summer playing with the Bay State Magic on the AAU circuit. Now that he’s decided to transfer to Milton Academy, repeat his junior year, and join the class of 2011 he has become a priority for a number of division I programs.
“I always knew I’d improve,” Clifford said of his recent development, “but not necessarily that dramatically or that it would be this noticeable.”
But Clifford has improved dramatically in a short period of time and college coaches have taken notice.
“I’m not really sure what I’m looking for yet in a school,” he said. “I just want to play good basketball.”
For now, Clifford is very excited to be heading to his new high school, Milton Academy, to play for former division I assistant coach Lamar Reddicks.
“I’m very excited for school and to play for Coach Reddicks,” Clifford said. “I think he’s going to help my game drastically and going to Milton will prepare me for college on and off the court.”
In the meantime Clifford is going to continue to take his recruitment in stride. He said he hopes to visit both Boston University and Lafayette sometime in the next month but is nowhere near trimming his list and doesn’t anticipate having a good idea as to what he will do until next summer.
So while Northeastern and Princeton may have been the first schools to offer the junior big man, you can bet they won’t be the last.
Dennis Clifford