Prep Review / Tom Hamilton : Mater Dei’s Lewis Won’t Make His Decision Until He Returns From Dallas

It’s three days before prep basketball players can sign a national letter of intent, but don’t look for Mater Dei High School’s Tom Lewis to make an announcement for at least another week.

Lewis, considered the West Coast’s best player, won’t even be in town on Wednesday. He’s scheduled to leave on Tuesday for Dallas, where he’ll compete with 24 of the nation’s top seniors in the eighth McDonald’s All-American game Saturday night at Moody Coliseum.

Although Lewis has narrowed his choices to Syracuse University and Nevada Las Vegas, he won’t announce his decision until he returns from Dallas. The state’s fourth all-time leading scorer is scheduled to meet with Jerry Tarkanian, Rebel coach, this afternoon and Jim Boeheim, Orangemen coach, tonight.

“Tark and Boeheim are kind of playing Ping-Pong,” said Pat Barrett, Lewis’ legal guardian. “It’s down to those two schools, although you can’t entirely rule out UCLA.”

Barrett said the Bruins fell out of the forefront when no one from Westwood showed up for the Dapper Dan All-Star game in Pittsburgh last Tuesday. Barrett coached the U.S. team that included Lewis and UCLA-bound Jerome Richardson. Walt Hazzard, UCLA’s coach, opted to attend The Times’ award ceremony for Southern California players at Los Angeles.

“Just about every major coach in the country was in Pittsburgh, including John Thompson, who had lost in the NCAA finals the night before,” Barrett said. “UCLA was in our gym only once. They made one home visit. (The NCAA allows three).

“Tom’s right in their backyard, and they’ve only been to three or four games. That doesn’t show interest to me. They should have been in Pittsburgh and they should have been to at least half of Tom’s games.”

Here’s how Barrett rated Lewis’ three finalists:

Syracuse--The competition in the Big East, the exposure of the Orangemen’s program, the reputation of East Coast basketball, the 32,000-seat Carrier Dome and a wealth of returning talent give Boeheim a slight advantage.

“Jim Boeheim has played, assisted and now coached nine years for Syracuse,” Barrett said. “He’s not going anywhere. He’s made it very clear where Tom fits in their program. He doesn’t recruit junior college players. I think Tom likes Syracuse the most.”

Nevada Las Vegas--Tarkanian’s reputation as the winningest coach in Division 1 basketball, the Rebels’ running style, great facilities and the fact that Lewis has been the school’s No. 1 recruit are inviting.

“They’ve done the best job of recruiting Tom,” Barrett said. “They had someone at every one of Tom’s games. Tark told me he’s watched Tom play more than any other high school player he’s recruited. The question mark is the number of JC transfers and redshirts they attract. You never know who’s going to be dropping in.”

UCLA--Barrett said the Bruins would be “the ideal choice.” Local and national television exposure, the hometown team recruiting a hometown player, the program’s great tradition and competing in the Pacific 10 are all appealing. But there are reservations.

“You wonder about their talent and where Tom fits in,” Barrett said. “Tom could wind up playing center or power forward there, and that’s not his position. He’s a big guard or a small forward.

“Walt Hazzard is new at the job, and he probably did the worst job of recruiting Tom. UCLA is not recruiting Tom as a player, but as a mantelpiece. Walt Hazzard wants to be able to tell everybody he got the No. 1 player in the state.”

Package Deal: Barrett, at his own expense, accompanied Lewis on all of the recruiting trips, and hopes to join the coaching staff at the university of Lewis’ choice. Some call it a package deal, but Barrett denies that he’s taking advantage of the situation.

“We’ll do what’s best for Tom Lewis,” Barrett said. “I don’t want a job just because of Tom. As a coach, I want to work for what I get. I don’t want to make the situation tough for Tom.”

Barrett said he has received coaching offers from every school that is recruiting Lewis. Arizona State and UNLV offered assistant positions. Syracuse said he could scout and eventually work his way into a coaching job.

“The worst situation for me would be Syracuse, but that’s the school Tom likes the most,” Barrett said. “We’ll do what’s best for Tom. If I was doing this for myself, he’d sign with Arizona State, but the uncertain future of their entire athletic program ruled them out.”

Merely Speculating: So where will Lewis go? All things considered, look for him to head east. After watching Syracuse defeat Georgetown in front of 32,000 fans in the Carrier Dome, Lewis asked Barrett, “Why am I considering anywhere else? This is it.”

Prep Notes

Tom Lewis was named the Player of the Year by Cal-Hi Sports of Sacramento. The publication also named Ocean View sophomore Ricky Butler and Mater Dei senior Mike Mitchell to its all-state team. Melissa Fejdasz (La Quinta), Carrie Egan (Brea-Olinda) and Jennifer Osur (Foothill) were named to the girls’ all-state team. . . . Richard A. Ready, an offensive line coach at Miami University of Ohio, has been named the football coach at St. Paul. Ready, 28, replaces Jim Walker, who resigned earlier this year. . . . LaVell Edwards, Brigham Young University football coach, will be the guest speaker Tuesday night at the 16th South Coast Plaza award ceremony for the county’s top football players at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel. . . . Former La Quinta three-sport star Junior Utu, when asked by the campus newspaper at Golden West College, “What is the greatest possession one can have?”: “I’d like my truck back.” . . . Denny Spradlin, a first baseman-catcher and cleanup hitter for La Quinta, has been lost for the season with a broken hand suffered while weight lifting last Wednesday. Spradlin helped the Aztecs gain a 12-1 start, batting .425 with 16 RBIs. . . . Newport Harbor dropped a nonleague doubleheader to Torrance on Saturday, 4-2 and 18-3. Torrance scored two runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead in the first game and had an eight-run third inning to highlight the second game. Newport Harbor, which plays host to Laguna Beach in Sea View League play on Wednesday, made 7 errors and left 13 runners on base in the second game.