The Wyoming men’s basketball team received a verbal commitment from Western Nebraska wing Francisco “Paco” Cruz this week. Cruz is expected to give UW a lift shooting the ball. For more in his stats see the story in today’s paper at http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2010/02/23/sports/20sports_02-23-10.txt.
I talked to his high school coach, Vince Valdez, at Lincoln High in Denver this morning. Like any coach he had several kind words for Cruz and described him as a “tremendous shooter.”
Valdez also gushed over Cruz’s work ethic and desire to get better.
Cruz is from Mexico arrived in Denver his junior year of high school. Valdez said Cruz was part of back-to-back Class 4A state titles at Lincoln, and went to Western Nebraska mainly because a lot of his credit transfers from Mexico to this country didn’t allow him to qualify for Division I schools.
Cruz is the third player Valdez has had that has played for UW coach Heath Schroyer and assistant Fred Langley. Valdez and Langley appear to have a solid working relationship, and Valdez described Langley as one of the “top recruiters in the country.” The other two players Valdez had played for Langley and Schroyer when both were assistants at Fresno State.
Recruiting Web sites and even the Western Nebraska athletics Web site page lists mostly small school to have recruited Cruz. However, Valdez said Gonzaga, Iowa State and some Pac-10 schools also showed some interest.
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