Ben Sullivan Slices List To Two

Ben Sullivan, a 6-9, 215-pound forward from Lake Oswego High School, Lake Oswego, Oregon (8 miles outside of Portland), has narrowed his list down to two schools: Columbia and Cal-State Northridge.

Ben had previously narrowed his list to Columbia, Cal State-Northridge, UC-Santa Barbara, and Portland. But UC-Santa Barbara and Portland are no longer under

consideration.

Ben has offers from Cal State Northridge, Portland, Boise St., St. Mary's, Northern Arizona, Santa Clara, University of the Pacific, Loyola Marymount, Idaho St., Cal Poly, Army, Navy, and the Air Force Academy.

Other schools showing serious interest included Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Colgate, UC-Santa Barbara, Eastern Washington, and Idaho.

Ben took an official visit to Columbia September 28th. He took an official visit to UC-Santa Barbara on October 6th. He will visit Cal St. Northridge officially this upcoming weekend.

"The coaching staffs at Columbia and Northridge were the two I liked the best out of all the ones I met," Sullivan said.

"(Getting along with the coaching staff) is something that is very important to me. Style of play is also very important to me."

He added: "Columbia is the school that offers the best academic opportunities, while Northridge is the school that offers the best basketball opportunities,

considering their recent success. That is probably why those are my two finalists.

"Playing time as a freshman isn't a big

consideration, but both Columbia and Northridge will be graduating players at my position (so there will be opportunities to play). Distance from home wasn't a big factor. I thought about staying home and going to Portland, but I decided I wanted to go away from home for college, and spread my wings a little bit."

Sullivan does not have a leader. "Neither school leads right now. I couldn't have a

school lead without taking both visits."

Sullivan carries a 3.6 GPA in the classroom and scored 1150 on the SAT. "I'm going to take the SAT again in the spring. I'm hoping to score above 1300. The first time I took it I was sick (and didn't give my best effort)."

Sullivan will make an early decision.

While playing with the Portland Inner City Hoops team at the adidas Big Time Tournament, Sullivan impressed us with his ability to knock down the long distance jumper. He was one of the better shooting big men we witnessed this past summer.

As a junior at Lake Oswego, Sullivan averaged 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks per game.

Sullivan enjoyed a busy summer, starting out at the Pump's West Coast All-Star Camp in July. He then joined his Inner City Hoops squad at a trio of July events -- the finalscore.com Tournament in Seattle, the adidas Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas and the Best of the Summer Tournament in Los Angeles.