Fairfax’s Higgins Finally Decides: It’s UCLA

A day of contradiction for Sean Higgins, prep basketball star, began at approximately 12:30 Tuesday morning with a phone call to his father in suburban Detroit. It was a call, Earl Higgins said, that his son left the house to make.

“It was like he was under duress, and it was undue,” said Earl, a former professional player with the Indiana Pacers of the ABA. “He made up his mind what he wanted to do, and then someone changed it. I don’t know who and I don’t know why.”

That early morning call to tell his father that he would sign a letter of intent Tuesday to play for the University of Michigan was only the start of activities for Sean, the Fairfax High School senior rated as the top college prospect on the West Coast and one of the best in the country.

He stayed up all night, discussing the situation with his mother and stepfather at home in Los Angeles. He skipped a press conference that had been scheduled for weeks, leaving confused and apologetic Fairfax officials to cover for him without explanation.

And, finally, in one of the few matters that all parties were willing to discuss for publication, he decided to stay home and attend UCLA, giving Bruin Coach Walt Hazzard his third recruit in what turned out to be an outstanding early signing period.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” Higgins said later in the day. “I wanted to go to UCLA, but then I thought, ‘Shoot, I don’t want to make a bad decision.’ ”

Said his mother, Vicki Benson-Bey: “It’s like when you’re cramming for finals, pulling an all-nighter. It’s been a marathon. All the schools were equal, so it went right down to the wire.”

Higgins signed the letter of intent at 7:15 a.m., 15 minutes before his press conference was set to begin. He didn’t show up for the press conference, though, and it was left to Warren Steinberg, Fairfax principal, to deliver the news at 8:20, moments after Benson-Bey called the school.

Higgins’ mother also called Hazzard at home shortly after 7 and said she wanted to deliver the signed letter herself.

“I jumped out of bed and got here,” Hazzard said. “As a matter of fact, I started walking around campus to make sure she didn’t get lost.”

She didn’t, and Hazzard had his man. The Bruins were one of the finalists for Scott Williams last year, but the Hacienda Heights Wilson center picked North Carolina. This year, the best player in the West is staying put.

“He is a tremendous outside shooter and we feel he will help fill the void that will be created when Reggie Miller graduates after this season,” Hazzard said. “Just as important as his physical ability is the fact that Sean is a quality person who we feel will fit in quite nicely with the other players in our program.

“Our nucleus for the future is now solid.”

UCLA also announced the signing of two girl basketball players: Rachelle Roulier, a 5-10 shooting guard from Colby, Kan., a honorable mention All-American according to Street & Smith magazine, and Michelle Miles, a 5-7 all-state point guard from Thornton, Colo.