Polee Jr. remains committed to USC; more basketball camp notes

ORLANDO, Fla. -- When Dwayne Polee Jr. smiled Friday, he revealed a mouthful of braces, each adorned with a USC-gold rubber band. Two years ago, when the now 6-foot-6 wing forward from Los Angeles committed to the Trojans before he started ninth grade, plenty of people told him he'd be sporting another school's colors by now. But with a little more than 16 months to go before he can officially sign with USC, Polee doesn't expect a change of heart.

"A lot of people were saying I'd change my mind, but I don't think I will," said Polee, a rising junior at Westchester High in Los Angeles, said last Friday at the conclusion of the Vince Carter Nike Skills Academy. "I like the school. Tim Floyd is a real good guy. And it's right by home."

Polee was among the first to offer a pre-high school commitment. Fellow SoCal forward Taylor King offered such a commitment to UCLA in 2003, but by the time he'd reached the summer prior to his junior year, he already had reopened his recruitment. He wound up signing with Duke and has since transferred to Villanova. It's unlikely Polee will follow suit unless Floyd gets fired. Last year, Polee's father, Dwayne Sr. -- a former UNLV and Pepperdine player who played briefly with the Clippers -- was hired as USC's director of basketball operations 10 months ago. Since Polee committed, eighth-grader Ryan Boatright committed to the Trojans in 2007, and eighth-grader Michael Avery committed to Kentucky in May. Those commitments produced much hand-wringing, and the practice of recruiting tweens drew a sharp rebuke from the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

That doesn't mean coaches have stopped recruiting the youngsters. Also at the Vince Carter camp -- a fundamentals-heavy clinic for shooting guards/small forwards -- was Michael Gilchrist, a 6-5, rising 10th-grader from St. Patrick's (Elizabeth, N.J.). Gilchrist, who turns 15 in late September, said he already has received interest from Memphis, Louisville and Rutgers, among others. Still, don't expect a commitment from Gilchrist anytime soon. "I'd say it's way off," Gilchrist said. "Because I want to keep my head in the books."

In the cases of Polee and Gilchrist, the coaches probably are safe to assume their young recruits will be able to compete at the high Division I level. The youngsters held their own last Friday playing with and against several players who will be enrolled at colleges this time next year, including rising senior Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (a UConn commitment), John Henson (a North Carolina commitment) and Solomon King (a rising star in the class of 2009 who has collected several offers in recent weeks).

Though Polee must wait to sign with the Trojans, he's already begun recruiting for them. His top priority, a player already signed to play for USC. Polee would love to talk guard Demar DeRozan -- one of the Trojans' incoming freshmen -- into staying two extra years so the pair can play together. That isn't likely; DeRozan should be an NBA lottery pick next year. Still, Polee joked that it never hurts to ask.

Before their final workout at the camp, players had a question-and-answer session with Carter and special guest Amare Stoudamire. Stoudamire and Carter each stressed that the players should remain friends with one another and eliminate hangers-on who would only siphon away money from them should they reach the NBA.

One camper asked the players what they thought of Shaquille O'Neal's freestyle rap about Kobe Bryant that appeared on TMZ.com last week. Stoudamire, O'Neal's Phoenix Suns teammate, laughed and said O'Neal is well known in NBA circles for his freestyling. Carter, meanwhile, told a story about moving into an offseason home in the same swanky Orlando subdivision as O'Neal.

Shortly after Carter moved in, he arrived home to find his house, yard and cars covered in toilet paper. After a lengthy cleanup, Carter searched for the culprit with no luck. A few days later, he ran into O'Neal. "Did you ever figure out who toilet-papered your house?" Carter remembered O'Neal asking. It was only then that Carter realized he'd been dunked on by The Big Charmin.

Shawn Williams and Roger Franklin from Duncanville, Texas, were the only set of high school teammates at the Carter camp, but Williams and Franklin go back much farther than Duncanville High.