JULIAN WRIGHT

WRIGHT, JULIAN EMIL-JAMAAL

Hometown:  Homewood-Flossmoor (H-F) High School

Wright commits to KU sans visit , Chicago prep tells Self during in-home meeting he'll join Jayhawks

By Gary Bedore, Assistant Sports Editor , KUSports.com, Saturday, September 11, 2004

Bill Self's in-home visit with Chicago-area high school basketball player Julian Wright went well Thursday night.  So well, in fact, that Wright orally committed to Self's Kansas University basketball program.

The 6-foot-8, 220-pound blue-chip senior prospect out of Homewood-Flossmoor High chose the Jayhawks over Arizona and Illinois -- two schools he had visited -- plus DePaul, a school he was supposed to visit next weekend.  Wright, who is rivals.com's No. 10-rated player, and theinsider.com's No. 5 rated player, committed without even visiting KU's campus.

He has been in the area, however, having played in an AAU tournament in Shawnee the past two years.  "I felt this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said Wright, who beckoned Self back to his Chicago Heights, Ill., home 15 minutes after Self left Thursday night to give the coach the good news.  "It's a sense of feeling comfortable with coach and the school," added Wright, who figures to make a triumphant appearance at Late Night in the Phog as part of an official campus visit Oct. 15.

"Coach Self has always been honest, cool, laid-back, speaking his mind. He's a great coach and person. He's great inside and outside the lines. I knew him from when he was at Illinois. This might be a shock to some, but I always liked coach Self and Kansas."  Wright averaged 10.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists a game his junior season. He is known as a guy who can do it all on the court.

"I can't be tagged with one position," Wright said. "I may have a big game at the 3 and OK game at the 1. Then I may have a good game at the 1 and a great game at the 4 or 5. I think it's hard to put a label on me. Growing up, I didn't need to have the ball, but if the coach needs me to have the ball, I'll take it."

Wright -- known as a player equally adept at shooting from both the perimeter and inside as well as a player with a nose for the ball on the boards -- explained how he could commit to KU without the benefit of a campus visit.  "Just knowing it's the place," he said. "I go to high school and didn't want to be in a situation where I was gone every weekend. It felt right. I've known about the prestige and tradition of the school and decided to make the commitment."

His mom, Gina, was quite comfortable with her son's decision.  "I was surprised as first, but once I was sure he was sure and made the decision for the right reasons, I was 100 percent behind him. There were a lot of hugs," she said of the scene between she, her son and Self on Thursday.  "We had already been interested in Kansas (before Self's visit). I had done quite a bit of research and gathered as much information as I could on my own over the last year or so. So we're familiar with the program and already know the coach from when he was at Illinois."  She never has been to Lawrence, either.

"You can gather all the facts and look at everything on paper and everything that's printed and verbiage everybody has to say," Gina Wright said. "You have to feel it's right, a lot is a faith walk. This feels right."  She said the coaches of all the runners up accepted the news with class.  "They were surprised of course, as everyone is," she said. "They were all respectful of our decision and wished Julian well."

So what kind of player is future Jayhawk Julian Wright?  "Wright is a quick and athletic defender with a 7-1 wing span," Jerry Meyer of rivals.com said. "On the offensive end, he excels at slashing to the basket and passing the ball, which he can do effectively with either hand."  Added Larry Butler, Wright's AAU coach for the Illinois Warriors, "Julian has a chance to be one of the all-time elite players in the range of Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, Dwayne Wade. I love him, he is so multi-skilled."

KU has filled three available scholarships with four available this recruiting year.  The Jayhawks also have received oral commitments from Mario Chalmers, 6-1 from Anchorage, Alaska; and Micah Downs, 6-8 from Bothell, Wash. It is believed KU's final target is C.J. Miles, 6-5 from Dallas.  Wright's commitment likely takes KU out of the running for Kevin Rogers, 6-8 from Dallas.

Blue-chip hoops recruit surprises Kansas with pledge

By JASON KING

The Kansas City Star, Sat, Sep. 11, 2004

LAWRENCE — He didn't even have to visit the campus.  Instead, Julian Wright needed nothing more than a face-to-face visit with Kansas coach Bill Self to convince him to become a Jayhawk.  Wright confirmed Friday that he made an oral commitment to sign with KU after his meeting Thursday with Self in his native Flossmoor, Ill.

Wright, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, is the nation's 10th-best prospect, according to rivals.com.  He's also the highest-profile player to commit to KU during the Self era — not that the others have been scrubs. Self now has commitments from three of the country's top 15 seniors. Point guard Mario Chalmers (No. 12) and shooting guard Micah Downs (No. 14) have also vowed to sign with KU in the early signing period in November.  “It was a sense of me feeling comfortable with Coach and the school,” Wright said. “Coach Self has always been honest. He's a great coach and a great person. I knew him from when he was at Illinois.”

Wright's venture to Kansas comes as a bit of surprise, considering the Jayhawks weren't even on his radar two weeks ago. It was then that he requested a face-to-face meeting with Self in his hometown. That meeting took place Thursday, just four days after Wright had returned from an official visit to Arizona.  Self and Wright talked and, by the time Self left Flossmoor to return to Lawrence, he had gained a commitment from Wright. Coaches from Arizona, Illinois and DePaul — the other schools Wright was considering — have already been told by Wright about his decision.

Wright, who weights 214 pounds, has been described as a “positionless” player, meaning there isn't a spot on the floor where he can't play. Although he is best at scoring around the basket, Wright can handle the ball on the perimeter, allowing him to slash. He has a 7-1 wingspan, which helps defensively. 

Forward commits to Kansas

By Kevin Haskin, The Capital-Journal

LAWRENCE -- The Kansas basketball team on Friday acquired its third oral commitment for the 2005 recruiting class with a pledge from Julian Wright, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound small forward from Chicago Heights, Ill.   Wright committed despite not taking a visit to KU.

Apparently, he was impressed enough by KU coach Bill Self during an in-home visit on Thursday, as well as the style Self used when he coached at Illinois, that Wright became sold on the Jayhawks.   He also considered Illinois, Arizona and DePaul.

"I felt this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Wright said. "I felt comfortable with coach Self and the school. I've known him for awhile when he was at Illinois. He's always been cool, honest and laid back."   During his junior season at Homewood Flossmoor High School in suburban Chicago, Wright averaged 10.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists.

The versatility he packs with a solid frame attracted elite programs. Wright played all five positions for his AAU summer team.   The commitment is the third for the Jayhawks. Micah Downs, a 6-8 swingman from Bothell, Wash., and Mario Chalmers, a 6-1 point guard from Anchorage, Alaska, committed last spring. KU has one additional scholarship to give based on the four seniors it will lose from the 2004-05 squad.   Its focus remains on 6-5 guard C.J. Miles of Dallas, who took an official visit during a public scrimmage KU conducted a week prior to its four-game exhibition tour of Canada last weekend.

Overview
A versatile player who can play point guard to power forward, which will create mismatches for opponents... Great ball handler who can take it to the hole... Has good range.

High School
McDonald's All-American, first team all-state and was named to the USA Junior National Select Team following his senior season... Averaged 14.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists his senior campaign at Homewood-Flossmoor (H-F) High School... H-F handed eventual USA Today national champion Oak Hill (Va.) Academy one of its two losses in 2004-05... H-F finished 2004-05 with a 27-4 record... Best game stat-wise was 19 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and eight blocked shots... H-F won two regional and sectional championships Wright's junior and senior seasons... MVP of the Nike Peach Jam and a third-team all-state selection as a junior... Averaged 10.4 points, seven rebounds and 4.9 assists in guiding Homewood-Flossmoor (31-3) to the state runner-up finish in 2003-04... Was an all-tournament selection in the ISHA Class AA State Tournament... Homewood-Flossmoor was a combined 78-23 in Wright's career... Coached by Roy Condotti who retired from Homewood-Flossmoor following the 2004-05 season.

Off The Court
Full name is Julian Emil-Jamaal Wright... Born May 20, 1987 in Chicago, Ill..