Give Jared Grasso credit.
The guy’s been the interim head coach at Fordham for about a week and he’s already landed not one, but two commitments.
One day after landing point guard Rayner Moquete, Fordham picked up a verbal commitment from 6-foot-8 sophomore power forward Amadou Sidibe of Cardinal Hayes in The Bronx.
“He just did it, I’m excited for Jared,” Hayes coach Joe Lods said Friday by phone.
Sidibe won’t be able to sign with Fordham until the fall of 2011.
“I think he’s going to be a great player,” Lods said. “He’s 6-8 already. He’s 15 years old. He projects higher than that [Fordham] but Jared got it done.”
Sidibe’s parents are from the Ivory Coast and, like many children of African parents, he grew up playing soccer.
“My father played soccer,” Sidibe said in the fall. “I used to play soccer. That was my first sport. I gave it up before basketball.”
Because of his height, people always told the young man to try basketball.
Eventually he did.
During his freshman season at Hayes, Sidibe averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks for a freshman team that went 22-2. They lost in the A-League Catholic championship game because Sidibe couldn’t play after suffering a hairline fracture in his leg.
Grasso was the first coach to offer him a scholarship when he was an assistant under Dereck Whittenburg and Sidibe visited Fordham in late September.
Now that Grasso is the head man, Sidibe pulled the trigger.
“Jared does a good job of staying on the kids,” Lods said. “He’s been to my gym a bunch of times. As long as Jared is there, he [Sidibe] is there.”
FONTAN VISITS MIAMI
Former Fordham point guard Jio Fontan will visit Miami Saturday-Monday for his first trip since getting a conditional release from the A-10 school.
“We’re going to Miami until Monday,” said Jorge Fontan, Jio’s father.
Next weekend the 6-1 guard plans to visit USC.
Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Tennessee are also involved, but Indiana is now out of the mix.
(Photo courtesy of Justin Simon, Hayes)
.
