Kansas basketball recruit Downs adjusting to another new school

By Gary Bedore     Sep 20, 2004

Micah Downs should have no problem adjusting to life at Kansas University next school year.

The future KU basketball player from suburban Seattle knows all about major change, having attended seven high schools — three in Nevada, two in Montana and two in Washington — the past four years.

“I am so excited about playing at KU after my senior year. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Downs, who indicated he had fit in well thus far at Juanita High.

The Kirkland, Wash., school is located right down the road from Bothell High, where the 6-foot-8 senior shooting guard averaged 19.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists his junior year.

“It’s going real well. The kids are real nice with good teachers,” Downs said.

Downs — who along with family members has moved a lot in his young life, some because of his dad’s work in the construction field — made the switch in schools for his senior year partly because of Juanita hoops coach Ezechiel Bambolo.

Bambolo worked with Downs’ AAU team, Seattle Friends of Hoop, last summer.

“Their record last year wasn’t all that great,” Downs said of Juanita, which went 3-17 compared to Bothell High’s 16-7 mark. “They have a new coach, the type of coach/teacher who will not be a leader just in basketball but off the court as well. I hope to do what I can to help make it a winning program again.”

Bambolo definitely is ready to work with Downs, who committed to the Jayhawks over Duke and Gonzaga in April and will sign his letter of intent in November.

“He (Downs) learned who I am this summer, and I think he thought that he could thrive knowing my values and priorities,” Bambolo told the Seattle Post Intelligencer. “I don’t think it’s something that we have (at Juanita). It’s not like we’re a basketball powerhouse.

“I think you have to see his family and his values and what they’re trying to achieve there. I think what we can provide for each other is in terms of his being a man first, a stand-up person in society. It’s not about basketball.”

Downs blossomed in hoops during the 2004 summer season. He finished as rivals.com’s No. 14-rated player nationally.

“I helped myself a lot,” Downs said. “A lot of people didn’t think I had heart, desire. I think I showed those things. I think I showed people I could play defense. I don’t pay too much attention to what is said. I try to stay focused.”

His goals for this year are simple.

“To become a better leader, to play well my senior year and to make the McDonald’s team,” said Downs, who welcomed KU coach Bill Self into his home for 5 1/2-hour in-home visit Friday, which included a cookout. “I want to get stronger and improve my game — shooting, dribbling, everything.”

His goals for KU — a team he and his family members watched in person earlier this month in Canada after making the three-hour drive from Washington- are equally lofty.

“They’ve got great big guys and really good guards. I think they have a good chance of winning the national championship,” Downs said. “It’s a dream come true to play at a Division One university. Kansas is one of the great ones. I can’t wait.”

Downs plans to attend Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 15. Also expected to be on hand is Julian Wright, a 6-8 senior from Homewood-Flossmoor High in suburban Chicago. Wright recently committed to KU over Arizona, Illinois and DePaul, despite the fact he never has been on KU’s campus.

“It’s like when you’re buying a new car,” Wright told the Chicago Tribune. “When a feeling comes over you like, ‘This is the one,’ you don’t need a test drive.”

Asked by the Trib about the possibility of heading straight to the NBA out of high school, he said: “I don’t see myself going pro after high school. I’ve been doing my research, and the draft is deep at the perimeter position the next two years with a lot of Europeans at the 2-guard and small-forward spots, which is where I play.”

In other recruiting news, Brandon Costner, 6-9 from East Orange, N.J., who is slated to visit KU next weekend, had a successful visit to North Carolina State last weekend.

Costner, who has told reporters he did not orally commit but had a “great time” on the visit, attended N.C. State’s 22-14 football loss to Ohio State.

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