Basketball Recruiting: Sherrard Brantley

Sherrard Brantley is a 6'2" 170 lb freshman shooting guard at Northwest Florida Community College. The former Dublin, GA native is holding offers from Georgia, LSU and a variety of mid-majors. I'm pretty sure the video above is from his senior year in Dublin. According to the TheBlueJayCafe.com (Creighton site), Brantley is at LSU this weekend, UGA next weekend and Creighton the following weekend.

According to TigerBait.com this is why UGA and LSU are interested in the kid

Brantley, who helped Dublin (Ga.) to the Class 2A state championship as a senior, enrolled at Northwest Florida last fall after failing to qualify academically. He would have three years of eligibility remaining with whatever Division I school he signs with.

Brantley, who has played in all of his team's 31 games, has shot 42.4 percent from two-point range and 78 percent from the free throw line.

But the true eye-opener with Brantley is his presence from the perimeter with his 43-percent shooting from the 3-point land with 105 makes on 246 attempts. (Emphasis added)

If Trey Thompkins comes back next season and Gerald Robinson, Jr. is the combo guard he's billed to be, Georgia will take a nice healthy step forward. The type of season where you make the NCAAs as a low at-large seed.

However, if Georgia adds a legitimate starter at the Shooting Guard or Small Forward position, it has the potential to take a huge leap forward. The candidate to give us some big time minutes at Small Forward is Dwayne Polee out of Los Angeles. If Travis Leslie improves his handle, he could move to the two guard spot with Gerald Robinson taking over at point guard.

But even in that scenario, Georgia still will need a bomber to replace Ricky McPhee and bust open the suffocating zones that Trey Thompkins will face every week. A kid that can hit 40% from three point land at the two guard spot is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Sign them both, and you've really got something potentially. That would give us a primary rotation of:

PG - Robinson / Ware
SG - Brantley / Robinson / Leslie
SF - Leslie / Polee / Ebuka
PF - Thompkins / Barnes / Lalanne
C - Price / Thompkins / Barnes

By the way, Mark Fox has an exceptional story to tell JUCO recruits. Fox played JUCO ball, and graduated from Garden City Community College before getting his bachelor's degree. Assistant Coach Kwanza Johnson also graduated from junior college before playing for Tulsa and going on to get a Law Degree. They respect the JUCO game, and their story resonates with JUCO players.

It's also tougher for the admissions committee to give Fox a tough time about JUCOs when Georgia is paying a JUCO grad over a $1 million to teach on campus.

See Also:
-- Fox's eye for talent - AJC

PWD