TU gets basketball commitment from Lawton's D'Andre Wright
BY ERIC BAILEY World Sports Writer
Monday, August 08, 2011
8/08/11 at 3:24 PM
D’Andre Wright, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound power forward from Lawton Eisenhower, has given a verbal commitment to play basketball at Tulsa.
Wright chose Tulsa on Monday over a number of scholarship offers, including Clemson, Creighton, SMU, TCU and Wichita State.
“I just really felt that Tulsa was the best fit for me,” Wright said by phone while driving home after taking visits to Creighton and Wichita State over the weekend. “After checking out the campus and facilities (last month), I knew it would be the perfect fit.”
Wright didn’t play in his junior season because of a broken leg and averaged 12 points and seven rebounds as a sophomore.
He made a big impact in the AAU circuit playing for Oklahoma Next Level Hoops Academy.
“He has the ability to shoot with his left and right, the talent down low and an excellent fadeaway jump shot,” said his AAU coach Marco Columbus. “He’s reminiscent of (former Oklahoma star) Harvey Grant back in the day, but he’s more agile than Harvey.”
Columbus said Wright was a late bloomer and the injury kept him under the radar.
“He is honestly the most underrated power forward out there,” Columbus said. “He’s just a kid from Lawton, quiet and highly underexposed. But once you see him, you will fall in love with him.”
Wright, who comes from a military family, likes the fact that he’ll play basketball three hours from home. He has an aunt and uncle who live in Tulsa, which will make the transition nice.
For now, he’s glad the process is complete.
“It’s definitely a big relief,” he said. “At the beginning of the recruiting process, it was fun. But after awhile, it gets old.”
“Now I can get busy on high school and then definitely focus on just Tulsa.”
