Crumble pushes back decision until next week

By Patrick Klein

Arizona Daily Wildcat

The wait on the decision of prep basketball recruit Ricardo Crumble will stretch on at least until next week, his high school assistant coach said yesterday.

Crumble, a 6-foot-7-inch, 220-pound forward from Virginia's Oak Hill Academy, pushed back his decision on whether to attend Arizona or Chicago's DePaul University until next week, said Chuck Price, an assistant coach at Oak Hill.

Oak Hill's head coach, Steve Smith, had said Tuesday that Crumble would make a decision by yesterday.

"Ricardo pushed it back until early next week. He just doesn't know yet, it's a tossup right now," Price said.

Arizona had been the favorite to get Crumble's commitment after he visited Tucson late last month, but DePaul entered the picture after Crumble's family wanted him to look at a school closer to Cleveland, where the family lives. He visited DePaul last weekend.

Both universities have tried to get an indication of what Crumble's position was and to try to do some last-minute campaigning for their respective programs.

"Both schools have been in contact with Ricardo to try and figure out what he's thinking," Price said. "But I think the schools understand it's a tough decision for him and they're trying to give him some space to make a decision."

Arizona has already received four verbal commitments for the 1996-97 season. They are Stephen Jackson, a forward and teammate of Crumble's at Oak Hill; Quynn Tebbs, a guard from Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah; Mike Bibby, a guard from Phoenix's Shadow Mountain High School; Bennett Davison, a forward from West Valley Community College in Saratoga, Calif.

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