Jamal Turner Commits to Fairfield
There are a lot of factors that can go into a player’s decision making process when trying to decide where he wants to play college basketball. But for Jamal Turner it came down to who he wanted to play for…and that was Fairfield Head Coach Ed Cooley.
“Coach Cooley is the reason why I want to be there,” Turner said. “He’s a good person on and off the court and I know he’ll be behind me no matter what.”
Turner got a chance to visit with Cooley and see the Fairfield campus late last week when he took an unofficial visit to the school. After going home and talking it over with his family he offered his commitment on Sunday night.
“When I got on campus it was a no brainer,” he said. “It was a place I could see myself at, so why wait until July when I have a place that is already interested and I know what they’re all about…It’s a trust factor too, Coach Cooley did his homework on me and I did my homework on him.”
Although Cooley is entering only his second season as the Head Coach at Fairfield his relationship with Turner extends beyond that to when he was an assistant coach at Boston College.
“He was looking at me when he was at BC,” Turner said of his future Coach. “He’s been evaluating me for a long time and he has faith in me. Why would I want to play for a coach who only sees me play once or twice in July?”
But before arriving at Fairfield in the fall of 2008 Turner will spend his senior season at a new high school as he has finalized plans to attend Tilton this year. With a roster that will also include the UConn bound duo of Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs they should have one of the most potent lineups in all New England.
This summer Turner will continue to play with Connecticut Phenom Elite as they travel to the Harley Davidson Jam Fest in West Virginia as well as to Las Vegas at the end of the month.
Alex Oriakhi
Jamal Turner