Jeff Halbert Selects Ohio University

This is from the Halbert family. We thank them for their help.

Jeff Halbert, 6'5" wing guard from White Bear Lake High School (White Bear Lake, MN) has made a commitment to play basketball for the Ohio University Bobcats.

As a junior, Halbert set the all-time scoring record for his high school with 1,303 career points. Halbert's honors as a junior included being named All-State and All-Conference for the second year in a row. On the summer Nike circuit in 2001, he played for the 17-U Howard Pulley Panthers and was named MVP at the Rumble in the Bronx tourney won by the Panthers.

During an intensive recruiting process, schools on his list included William & Mary, Boston University, Cornell, UCONN, Central Michigan and others.

Recently Halbert was named by collegebasketballnews.com as the top senior in Minnesota. Athlon included him in its list of 200 top senior nationwide.

He will be joining a top MAC school that is beginning a new era under first-year Head Coach Tim O'Shea. O'Shea came to Ohio after being part of a remarkable turnaround of the Boston College program. As associate head coach, O'Shea helped the Eagles go from worst-to-first in the Big East, securing both the regular season and conference tournament championships in 2000-01 with a record of 27-5.

O'Shea has established himself as one of the top recruiters in the country. He was instrumental in bringing First Team All-American Troy Bell (also a former Pulley player like Jeff) to Boston College. And his first signee at Ohio last spring was Zach Kiekow, who led Osseo to the 2001 Minnesota State Championship.

Making things even more exciting for the 2001-02 season and years to come is

O'Shea's aggressive scheduling philosophy. Wisconsin and DePaul will be on

the schedule for the next three years, and the Bobcats will also be going

head to head with the ACC.

They will journey to Chapel Hill in February

to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in a nationally televised ESPN game, and already have secured a visit to Ohio University from Virginia for the 2002-03 season. Throw in a Preseason NIT appearance for the 2003-04

season, and it is not hard to see what went into Halbert's decision.