New schools jump in on Blinn point guard

With the last day of the late signing period passed, the possibilities are still vast for Blinn College point guard Maurice Barksdale.

When we checked in at Blinn, Barksdale was on his third official visit. After trips to Centenary and Eastern Illinois, the 5-foot-11 poiint guard is currently visiting Louisiana-Lafayette. But that is hardly all that's out there for Barksdale.

"I talked to him two nights ago and he said Auburn has been calling," said Blinn head coach Steve Spurlin. "Then Maryland jumped in. I'm not sure what's going on as far as that goes."

The Terrapins are a particularly interesting situation because Barksdale is a Baltimore native.

"I would be shocked if he listened any more," said Spurlin. "You've got to listen to Maryland because that's an in-state thing, but, and again, I can't speak for him, but Auburn..."

The Terps lost John Gilchrist recently and are looking for a quick-fix solution at the point.

"He's a C, D list type guy for those guys," Spurlin said. "He's on some lists, how far down is he? Who knows? Any of those three schools he's visiting, I think he could be successful in all three of those. The other two, they didn't recruit him early. I'm sure they have some questions or obviously they would have recruited him earlier."

Barksdale put the recruiting process on hold to focus on academics in the spring. That decision paid off as he logged a 3.6 GPA this semester.