newsminer.com

Clemon Johnson is getting impatient.

All he can do is sit around and wait for his hard work on the recruiting trail to officially pay off. And those signed National Letters of Intent can’t get to him fast enough.

“The coaches are waiting impatiently,” the Alaska men’s basketball coach said.

They’re impatient because they think they have a class coming that will move the program forward by leaps and bounds — if those signed pieces of paper show up.

“I’m very excited about the upcoming season with the new faces, once we get the name on paper,” said Johnson, who’s been bringing players up for campus visits. “I’ve had people come in here, I’ve seen outstanding talent that I haven’t seen in the GNAC the year I’ve been here.”

Part of Johnson’s strategy for speeding up the rebuilding process for a team that finished 5-22 overall and 2-16 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference is to bring in a recruiting class that is heavy in junior college talent.

“Ninety to 95 percent of the guys we sign will be JUCO players,” Johnson said. “After I came in and experienced what we did this year, it was my position to go out and recruit JUCO for the experience. Most of the guys we sign this year will be JUCO, then next year we’ll go back to high schools. Hopefully, we’ll eliminate that term ‘rebuilding.’

“I’m also discovering it’s easier to convince a JUCO player to move here.”

Johnson added that, if this recruiting class plays out like he thinks it will, he’ll turn most of his recruiting efforts back to high schoolers next year.

“Hopefully when these (junior college) guys leave, we’ll have (the high school) guys who have two years of experience to move in,” Johnson said.

With eight true or redshirt freshmen last season, the Nanooks were one of the youngest teams in the league, taking their lumps as their young players were forced to learn on the fly.

Two of those youngsters won’t be back next year, though.

According do Johnson, guard DeRay Carger is looking to transfer to a school closer to Texas, where he grew up, and guard Kevin Campbell isn’t expected to return after showing some promise in his freshman campaign but getting sent home during a game late in the season for an emotional outburst.

“It was basically a decision by Kevin not to return,” Johnson said. “I haven’t spoken with him since the incident. I’m just taking it for granted that he has other options at this time.”

But since the signing period started on Wednesday, Johnson hasn’t been worried about who won’t be in uniform next season, but who will be.

And he expects plenty of new players.

“We’re having new faces at every position. I’ve informed the guys form last year’s team that all positions are wide open,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to move Collin Matteson from the four (spot) to a wing. We’re looking to sign two or three big guys.”

Due to NCAA rules, Johnson can’t comment on players who haven’t returned their NLI yet, but he expects to be able to announce at least one signing on Monday.

In addition to scholarship athletes, Johnson said he’s had 12 players express an interest in walking on to the team.

Basketball camps

For players hoping to attend one of Johnson’s summer basketball camps, the dates are as follows:

• The co-ed camp for grades 2-8 runs from June 2-9.

• The high school camp for grades 8-12 runs from June 6-8. Johnson said the high school camp is geared more toward guys, but girls are welcome if they want to participate.

• The team camp for grades 8-12 is June 9-14.

The team camp will also feature a coaching clinic put on by Tom Newell, a former Seattle SuperSonics assistant who coached Johnson when he was with the NBA squad. More recently, Newell has served as a head coach in China.

• A women’s basketball camp will be held after the guy’s camp, though Johnson was uncertain on the dates.

For information on the women’s camp dates, or any of the camps, contact Jocquis Sconiers at 474-5689 or Adriaan Wakefield at 474-1691.

Those interested will also be able to receive information at www.nlbccamp.com, though the Web site isn’t up quite yet.