Big East Bound For Swingman

Cortez Davis, a 6-7, 190 pound small forward from the Laurinburg Institute in Laurinburg, N.C., will likely give the Rutgers basketball program an oral commitment within the next 24 hours.

According to Laurinburg Head Coach Chris Chaney, Davis is currently taking his official recruiting trip to Rutgers.

"It looks pretty good that he is going to end up going to Rutgers," Chaney said on late Wednesday afternoon. "It's a good situation because Coach Waters knows Cortez and his brother is close by, and he should have a chance to play right away, so there's lots of plusses."

A native of Washington D.C., Davis visited Memphis and Auburn earlier this spring. He became a hot recruiting priority late for many colleges after he achieved a qualifying test score.

This past season at Laurinburg, Davis averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds for the prep school team at the North Carolina based school.

"He's 6-7, very long and has a great midrange game," Chaney said. "He rebounds well on both sides of the court and knows the game well. He will need to get stronger, but he is an adequate shooter and ball handler."

Davis first came to the attention of the Insiders Report/Rivalshoops.com at the 2000 adidas ABCD Camp in New Jersey, where he was one of the top sleepers to emerge from that event. He played that summer with the P.G. Jaguars program, and left the Washington D.C. area the following fall to transfer to Bridgton Academy in Maine.

After spending a year at Bridgton, Davis was seeking a new school last spring when he committed to Maryland out of the blue last June. However, Davis later reneged on the commitment and enrolled at Laurinburg in the fall of 2001.

Chaney said that Davis only needs to finish up solidly in the classroom in order to meet NCAA minimum standards for the core GPA.

We will keep you posted on Davis' situation over the next 24 hours, so stay tuned.