By JACOB POLACHECK
Charles Bassey, the 6-foot-10 power forward and No. 3 player from the class of 2019, will be transferring to Aspire (KY) Academy.
Doug Strothman, whose private Catholic school will educate the players competing for Aspire Basketball Academy, told My San Antonio he expects Bassey to be on campus when classes start Aug. 11.
Bassey and St. Anthony’s first-year international players were ruled ineligible by the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) before the start of the 2016-17 season. They all became eligible when St. Anthony ended its 19-year association with TAPPS, the state’s largest governing body for private-school athletics, and joined the San Antonio-based Texas Christian Athletic League (TCAL).
“We’re expecting him as a student,” Strothman said Wednesday. “He has not officially, to my knowledge … enrolled.”
Coming from Nigeria, Bassey and several other St. Anthony players were ruled ineligible last November, prompting the school to leave the governing body it was associated with (TAPPS).
Aspire Academy is relocating from Arizona to Kentucky for the upcoming year. Participants in the program attend classes at DeSales in Louisville.
Bassey does not have a Kentucky offer yet but they have shown interest. He took an unofficial visit to Kentucky earlier this year (June 21).
“It is a good program,” he told Lex18.com last year. “They have good players and good competition. They have top guys who compete. I met (Malik) Monk and the new recruits.”
He currently holds offers from schools such as Kansas, Baylor, LSU, Texas A&M, UCLA, and Western Kentucky. Bassey also took an unofficial visit to UCLA earlier this year (June 6).
“It may give us some exposure and some marketing,” Strothman said of the arrangement. “We’re just a small school that we thought would be a good fit for those kids to come in and have a great experience.”
Bassey is considered by many to be the top player in the 2019 class following RJ Barrett‘s decision to reclassify.
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