Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Donnie Jones continues his strong recruiting at Central Florida

Donnie Jones certainly looks smart for making the jump from Marshall to Central Florida back in April.

We said the same thing back in August, actually. That was right after Jones had finished signing three high-major transfers -- Tristan Spurlock from Virginia, Josh Crittle from Oregon, and Jeffery Jordan from Illinois -- as well as Rod Days, a top 100 recruit in the class of 2011.

Things got better as the calender changed.

Jones landed a commitment on New Year’s Eve from the No. 4 center in the class of 2011, Michael Chandler.

Its a steal for Jones, there is no question about that, but its one that a lot of people may have been able to see coming. Central Florida is the third school that Chandler has committed too. He originally verballed to Louisville before backing out on that pledge back in May. In October, he announced his intentions to go to Xavier, a commitment that lasted all of three weeks. A possible reason for all this indecision is academics. There is speculation that Chandler will have a difficult time getting the necessary test scores to become eligible.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it?

Regardless, he is now headed to UCF, meaning that the crop of talent Jones has joining his program next season would be impressive for BCS conference school. What’s that say about the job Jones has done with a middling Conference USA program?

The scariest part?

UCF is ranked this year. They are undefeated in January. The two stars -- Marcus Jordan and Keith Clanton, who both average 16 ppg -- are sophomores.

This was supposed to happen next season, not this season.

And the Knights just beat Georgia in the Liberty Bowl?

Someone’s making a push for Big East membership.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.