Billy Garrett Jr. Does The Expected And Commits To Big East School

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

April 7, 2011

2:00 A.M. CST

It was a foregone conclusion that Billy Garrett Jr. would be closing out his recruitment quickly and that once the decision came he would be announcing that he will be staying close to home.  As it turns out, people do not have to wait for the news any longer, as the 6'4 class of 2013 off-guard from Morgan Park High School in Chicago made it official last night by committing to DePaul University.  Garrett Jr. chose the Blue Demons over Florida State, Stanford and UNLV.

There is no question that DePaul had been the leader for Garrett Jr's services from day one and with good reason.  The biggest of which is the fact that his father is an assistant coach for the Blue Demons.  Combine that with the opportunity to play in the Big East conference, and had any other school been able to land Garrett Jr. it would have been considered a minor miracle.  That is why after it was initially believed that Garrett Jr. would offer up his commitment by the beginning of the summer, in the end he decided to get things over with even sooner.

Garrett Jr. provides Blue Demons head coach Oliver Purnell with a most significant recruit from the immensely talented 2013 class in Illinois and is one of the fastest rising prospects in the state.  While he is best known for being an excellent perimeter shooter with range that extends beyond the 3-point arc, Garrett has greatly diversified his game over the last year and that is what makes him such a valuable commodity.

In addition to being able to shoot it from downtown, Garrett Jr. is also Morgan Park's best defender.  He does an outstanding job of getting into passing lanes and converting points off of turnovers.  Not only that, but he has also made huge strides with respect to his ball handling, has gotten stronger and continues to grow.  To top it all off, Garrett Jr. is also top-of-the-line academically and is a super young man both on and off the court.

There is no question that Garrett Jr's commitment could prove to have a huge impact on how DePaul fills the rest of its 2013 recruiting class.  That is because Garrett Jr. is close friends with many of the local area recruits that are being pursued by the Blue Demons.  At the present time, Purnell and his hard-working staff of Billy Garrett, Dr. Ron Bradley and Brian Ellerbe have the Blue Demons involved with just about every big-name recruit in Chicago. 

In the 2012 class, DePaul is among the frontrunners for our #1 ranked player in Illinois--6'7 Steve Taylor from Simeon Career Academy in Chicago.  As for 2013, the list of top in-state prospects considering DePaul is endless, as it includes 6'7 Jabari Parker and 6'2 Kendrick Nunn from Simeon, 6'7 Alex Foster and 6'1 Jaylon Tate from De LaSalle Institute, 6'8 Russell Woods from Leo and 6'3 Lance Whitaker from Bartlett High School in Bartlett, IL among others.  And then there is also 2014!  But that is a story for another day.

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