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closeAlready with a commitment from a Division I transfer this month, the Cal Poly men’s basketball team landed another over the weekend.
Hartford guard Drake U’u, a 6-4 freshman who played three seasons alongside Mustangs recruit Kyle Odister at Rio Americano High in Sacramento, said he called new Cal Poly coach Joe Callero to commit to the Mustangs on Friday.
Callero, who now appears to have brought in seven new recruits since taking over for Kevin Bromley in April, also got a commitment from University of San Francisco transfer Chris O’Brien earlier this month.
Like O’Brien — another 6-4 guard — U’u (pronounced Yu-yu) will have to sit out a season under NCAA Division I transfer guidelines before having three years of eligibility remaining.
Callero could not comment on U’u’s commitment on Sunday, but was asked about the team’s needs for the season after next, the earliest any Division I transfer into the program could be eligible.
“If you looked at it on paper and you started putting together needs, really a shooter is pretty important because we’re losing Lorenzo Keeler,” Callero said.
Keeler and Charles Anderson, both outside shooters, will be seniors next season. U’u said his reputation is as an outside shooter but that he can bring more to the table, too.
“One of my strong points is probably shooting,” U’u said. “But there’s also different aspects of my game that I feel are assets. I like to slash to the basket, take it off the dribble. I’m just a tough-nosed kid. I like to be physical, especially when you play against quicker guards.”
U’u had a trying transition to college basketball in his one season at Hartford, an America East Conference school in West Hartford, Conn.
Battling through a broken bone in his foot that caused him to miss more than 10 games midway through the season, U’u started five of 18 games he played at Hartford. He averaged 2.9 points and 1.7 rebounds in 11 minutes per game.
U’u said his time on the East Coast toughened him up on the court. He also got experience running the same kind of matchup zone defense Callero is bringing to Cal Poly.
And he found out that being so far away from home wasn’t for him.
“I decided to leave Hartford the last couple weeks of school,” U’u said. “Basically, it had nothing to do with basketball. It was basically me wanting to come closer to home. I felt kind of homesick and wanted to see my family more.”
Since he made his mind to transfer, U’u was getting recruited by San Francisco, Portland, UC Davis and Callero’s old school, Seattle.
Coming out of Rio Americano, where he played alongside Odister, U’u said he had offers from UC Davis, UC Riverside, Loyola-Chicago and Columbia.
“I’ve been talking to (Odister), working out with him,” U’u said. “It would be kind of cool to get that Rio Americano backcourt going again.”
Odister, an incoming freshmen signed by Bromley, isn’t U’u’s only tie to Cal Poly.
U’u also played alongside current Mustangs point guard Justin Brown for the North in the 1 Dream Foundation All-Star game at Mott Gym in 2008.
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