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Sidney confirms serious interest in Sun Devils

Chris Karpman
ASUDevils.com

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In recent months, ASUDevils.com has reported on the recruitment of the nation's current No. 1 ranked 2009 basketball prospect, Renardo Sidney, who has been the subject of much speculation due to the his high profile status and infrequent granting of interview requests. 

Over the weekend we spoke with Sidney at the Arizona Cactus Classic about his interest in Arizona State, and how he will approach the rest of the recruiting process. 

Sidney's LA Dream Team was bounced from the event in the first round of bracket play after winning all three of its pool play games. He averaged 12.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, and didn't appear to play anywhere near his best in any of the games we saw. 

The consensus opinion of those in attendance seemed to be that Sidney's effort and conditioning left something to be desired, and we would concur with those sentiments. 

More importantly, so would Sidney. 

"I think I got to get a little weight down so I can get quicker," the 6-foot-10 power forward admitted. "I'm already powerful so I just got to get my conditioning a little bit up and then I'll be a beast. Maybe lose 10-15 pounds or something like that." 

Sidney, who is affectionately called "Suge" by teammates due to his facial resemblance to Death Row Records CEO Marion "Suge" Knight, seemed to be frustrated by the way several of his games were officiated. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and can sometimes be baited by opponents, which contributes to his unfortunate tendency to be distracted. 

We tend to believe a lot of it is simply a lack of feeling challenged. For whatever his shortcomings, it's impossible to ignore the reality that Sidney is a phenomenally gifted young man. He moves exceedingly well for someone his size and has a level of skill few can match given his age. 

It's no wonder Sidney is one of the most hotly pursed recruits on the circuit. The list of schools he's considering -- ASU, Kansas, Memphis, Texas, UCLA and USC -- rolls of his tongue with ease and all of those schools would probably love to have him despite the reality he's probably destined to play just one season in college before moving on to the NBA Draft in 2010. 

There have been conflicting reports over the last six months on what Sidney is likely to do for college, but even he seems to not really know what he wants or is looking for, especially when he talks about the timeline for a decision. Even though recruits in Sidney's class can sign as soon as November, he is considering waiting until April. 

"I'm being real chill about it honestly," Sidney said. "I'm going to just get this year out of the way and don't let it all get too much in my head with college until next year. I just want to get my grades up and focus on the (high school) season and then we can get down to really figuring out things. 

"That way you can see what's going on with other schools, who is going to be leaving schools, going to the draft or whatever, you can see how teams look during the season and just get a better feel for everything."

One of the schools Sidney is seriously considering is Arizona State. The name of the school doesn't exactly have the same panache as the others on his list, but the Los Angeles-area resident, who attends Fairfax High School, said that he has a strong affinity for the program. 

Sidney visited ASU unofficially for its game against Cal in February, and he came away impressed. It doesn't hurt that he has a strong friendship with James Harden, with whom Sidney played at Artesia High School as a sophomore in 2006-07. He also knows assistant Scott Pera, his recruiter and a man who coached at Artesia and left to take a job at ASU just prior to Sidney's arrival at the school.

"ASU, I love it at Arizona State man," Sidney said. "The people there are great and you got James Harden there, man he is good. When I went out there everyone welcomed me like I was a brother to them already. It really made me feel really good because I'm from Mississippi originally and I come way out here to ASU and the people treat me that good, everyone in the stadium was real nice and it was just a great feeling out there. I loved it.

"If James stayed (for his junior season at ASU, which would be Sidney's freshman year of college) that would be real good because me and James are like brothers. He's in L.A. right now and I'm going to go hang with him when I get back after we finish this tournament. I could definitely see myself going to ASU if he stayed. If he left, it would still be an option because like I said, I loved Arizona State and that's not just because of one person. I really liked everything about it from the coaches to the school and everything. After James leaves you still have some players there that are already good and some others coming in that are good. So either way I know I'll be looking at ASU in the end."