Gipson attracting a following

Largely behind the efforts of sophomore standout Thomas Gipson, Cedar Hill (Texas) High School made it to the 5A state championship game before falling to DeSoto (Texas) High School. A 6-foot-7, 240-pound power forward, Gipson had a legion of college coaches come to Texas to watch him play this year.

According to Gipson, SMU is the only school who has offered him at this point, but Gipson listed Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Duke, Memphis, Tennessee, Illinois and Syracuse as schools who watched him play this year.

Out of that list, two schools sit at the top for Gipson, who averaged 15 points and eight rebounds per game.

"Texas and Oklahoma State standout," said Gipson. "Oklahoma State is probably recruiting me the hardest. I get a lot of mail from them."

Gipson admitted that staying in the region and playing in the Big 12 was attractive to him, but he will also be looking at how the post players develop at the schools recruiting him.

"I'm looking for a school that will be good for me academically and in basketball," he said. "If I don't make it in basketball, I want to be prepared to be a sports agent. As far as basketball goes, I'm looking for a powerful team and a really good coach. I want to play for a coach who is good with post players and sends most of their post players to the NBA."

On this year's travel circuit, Gipson will run with the Dallas Heros.