Jim Naveau: Recruit's story has familiar ring to it

It took a while for the name to come back to me but eventually it did.

As I was reading about how 6-foot, 6-inch, 350-pound offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson is still in no hurry to sign a national letter of intent to USC and that Ohio State might still be in the running, it all sounded very familiar.

Henderson, anointed as the No. 1 recruit in the country this year, announced on national signing day earlier this month that he would go to USC. But because of the possibility of NCAA sanctions of the Trojans’ football program, he didn’t sign his letter of intent.

He has until April 1 to sign it or change his mind and sign with another school.

Rumor is that his father, a 37-year-old who has an interest in a music career, is orchestrating the whole thing. If Henderson ends up going to USC, his dad reportedly will move with him to Los Angeles from Minnesota.

People who follow Ohio State recruiting might remember Derek Morris, a 6-6, 350-pound offensive tackle with a big reputation and a father who was very involved in the recruiting process.

That’s the name I was looking for.

Morris signed with Ohio State in 2002 and was hailed as, “as good a catch as we could ever hope to have out of state,” by coach Jim Tressel on signing day.

Morris and his family moved from North Carolina to Columbus but he never qualified academically. So, in mid-October 2002, the family left Ohio and began the recruiting process again. He landed at North Carolina State but didn’t become the dominant lineman he was projected to be coming out of high school.

After going undrafted in the 2006 NFL draft, he was signed and cut by the Kansas City Chiefs before training camp began.

This is not to say Henderson will be a bust, just because there are similarities between him and Morris, including the highly involved dad.

But who knows if Henderson will ever live up to the hype? He could turn out to be the next Orlando Pace. Or he could be the next Derek Morris.

Recruiting is an inexact science, no matter how many top 100 lists a player appears on.

A few other things:

SECTIONAL VERSUS SUPER SECTIONAL: I wrote about this in last Thursday’s Sports XL in The Lima News, a story I first began talking with coaches about in early January.

My impression is that the smaller sectionals in northwest Ohio and the bigger super sectionals in other parts of the state each have good points and bad points.

Super sectionals reward accomplishment. You don’t end up with four teams with 15 or 16 wins in the same sectional while at another site there are four teams who haven’t won 16 games combined.

But playing early-round games in the tournament in smaller sectionals in high school gyms might create a better atmosphere than playing them in huge college arenas, as sometimes happens in super sectionals.

The University of Dayton Arena is a great place to watch a college game with 13,000 fans in the seats. I’ve watched games there since the 1970s.

But if you put 2,500 fans in it for a high school game, the atmosphere is not as good. The crowd gets taken out of the game.

ARIZONA UPDATE: The predicted high temperatures for the next five days in Goodyear, Ariz., site of the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians spring training camps, are: 72 degrees, 76 degrees, 77 degrees, 70 degrees and 75 degrees.

THAT’S A LOT OF POPCORN: Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary High School boys basketball coach Dru Joyce II told the Mansfield News Journal he has seen “More Than A Game,” which chronicles the early basketball careers of LeBron James and his friends, 12 times.

Eleven of those times came at movie premieres he attended with James, including trips to Paris, London and China.