BY JEFF WALKER

A-J SPORTS EDITOR

As he prepares for Friday’s season opener, Pat Knight got a glimpse of his future on Wednesday, the first day players were allowed to sign national letters of intent.

Joining Texas Tech for the 2009-10 season will be three junior-college players and two high school players, including arguably the most heavily-recruited player in this coaching staff’s tenure.

Brad Reese, a 6-foot-7 swingman from Gulf Coast Community College, was one of two players to send in letters of intent on Wednesday.

Reese, who previously gave LSU an oral commitment before re-opening his recruitment, chose the Red Raiders over the Tigers, Oklahoma State, Alabama and Iowa State.

“I didn’t like that because I really just made my decision based on distance,” said Reese, who is from Laurel Hill, Fla., a city on the Florida Panhandle close to the Alabama border. “I picked LSU because of distance, it’s about three hours from my house.

“I picked Tech because I felt it was a really good fit for me. It’s been very hard. I think I signed with good people, as well as good coaches who can help me when I’m finished playing basketball.”

Reese averaged a team-high 16.7 points per game last season for the Commodores while converting 78 percent from the free-throw line. Gulf Coast, which produced Tech 7-foot center Esmir Rizvic, is off to a 3-0 start this season.

“Brad’s a combo player, he can play the 2 or the 3,” Gulf Coast head coach Jay Powell said. “He runs well, he jumps well and has a 7-2 wingspan. His biggest thing, though, is he’s tall and long but he can also shoot the three. He shot 36 percent from 3-point range last year and he’s well above that so far this year.”

Joining Reese in sending the Red Raiders signed national letters of intent was this year’s first recruit to commit — Clovis, N.M., guard Jaye Crockett.
Crockett, a 6-5 guard, helped Clovis to a 29-2 record last season that ended at the state championship game.

Expected to send letters of intent today are junior-college forward Theron Jenkins, a 6-6 forward from Itawamba (Miss.) Community College, and 6-3 guard Mike Davis.

Tech also received a verbal commitment from South Plains guard David Tairu, who is expected to sign his national letter of intent during the spring signing period.

Tairu is averaging 21.7 points per game for the Texans in three games.

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