Rice fits Stevenson's Cashaw nice
The white "Rice 52" jersey with blue numerals and red trim that Connor Cashaw slipped on for his Texas-sized announcement fit almost to a T.
No surprise.
The Stevenson senior guard would seem a perfect fit for any basketball team. He's able to play second fiddle to a megastar, able to dominate during stretches in a game, able to shoot from the perimeter, drive the lane, rebound and defend, able to rise to the occasion in big games.
"(Rice) is getting a tremendous kid, a kid that's just a winner," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said Tuesday night after Cashaw verbally committed to Rice University in Houston. "He knows what to do on the court. He's so poised, he's so calm, and he's so together. I'm really impressed with him as a young man."
New Rice head coach Mike Rhoades apparently saw the same qualities in Cashaw, who, in the end, chose the Owls over Lehigh and Harvard. He visited all three schools in the last month after having received, by his count, around 20 scholarship offers.
"It was in my gut," Cashaw said of choosing Rice. "This is Coach Rhoades' first year so he's really pumped and excited, and I can't wait to have the opportunity to play for him."
A couple of weeks after his teammate Jalen Brunson held a news conference to announce his decision to attend Villanova, Cashaw invited a smaller, but no-less-excited group to share his news. Like Brunson, he wore a zipped hoodie and then unzipped it to reveal his choice, before donning a Rice cap. The jersey was once worn by his uncle Terrance Cashaw, who sported it about twenty years ago as a 6-7 forward for Rice's Owls.
"He gave it to me after I committed," Cashaw said. "We were just thinking about ideas. My dad (Brad) thought of it."
Rice named Rhoades, a former assistant at Virginia Commonwealth under Shaka Smart, as its new coach last March after the Owls went just 7-23. They play in Conference USA.
Cashaw averaged nearly 18 points and better than 6 rebounds per game as a junior in helping Stevenson place third in the state. He also started on the Patriots' state runner-up squad as a sophomore.
Cashaw has grown a couple of inches since last season and now stands nearly 6 feet 5, he says. He boasts a 3.7 GPA and scored a 24 on his ACT. Choosing Rice over Harvard and Lehigh was anything but an easy decision for him.
"It was very tough on him - very tough - because those schools were very intense and very persistent," Ambrose said. "A lot of schools were on him throughout the process him, but then more schools came on. It's not like it dropped off. It just ramped up."