UC signs Parker

After the spring signing period ended May 20 without any announcements, many Bearcats fans were left wondering if Mick Cronin would find a backup point guard.

They received their answer Tuesday, June 2, when the University of Cincinnati announced it signed 6-foot-4-inch guard Jaquon Parker to a national letter of intent.
Parker played point guard and both wing positions for King’s Fork High School in Suffolk, Va., and is expected to help backup Cashmere Wright.

“It was vitally important that we get a guy that can play the point,” said associate head coach Larry Davis, who was the lead recruiter on Parker.  “Getting him was a tremendous relief from a coaching standpoint. He can play three perimeter positions because he’s got size and physically, he’s a powerful kid.”

Although he’s 19 years old, Parker was just in his third year of high school last season.

He was held back in elementary school because his family moved around a lot. Because of his age, Parker found out he was not going to be eligible to play another year for King’s Fork.

“Word got out that he wasn’t going to be able to go back to King’s Fork to finish his senior year because he was too old,” Davis said. “So everybody assumed he wasn’t a good student and they thought he was going to have to go to prep school for a year. Well, really the opposite was the truth.”

Davis did some investigating into Parker’s situation and discovered he was two classes shy of the NCAA core requirements and was only three classes shy of graduating from King’s Fork. He had a good SAT score and he had already passed the Virginia state exit exams.

There were several other schools recruiting Parker, but they thought he was going to have to go to prep school. UC offered him a chance to play in the Big East on national television next year instead of going to prep school and he
took it.

Parker still needs to pass three classes during the summer before he will be cleared to play for the Bearcats, but Davis said he expects Parker to complete his course load without any problem.

Last season, Parker averaged 18.5 points, 10 rebounds and 4.5 assists while leading the Bulldogs to a 31-1 record and a state championship. The Associated Press and the Virginia High School Coaches Association both named him the player of the year in Virginia for the 2008-09 season.

Davis said Parker is an explosive athlete with a well-rounded game and he competes on both ends of the floor.

“When I saw him play in the state tournament in the semifinal game, he dominated the game offensively,” Davis said. “He took it to the basket, made pull-ups, posted up, got offensive rebounds and stuck it back in. He did a little bit of everything. In the finals, he dominated the game defensively. They were down 21 at halftime and he took the other team’s best player and just shut him out.”

Aside from having the talent to compete in the Big East, Parker has the mentality that head coach Mick Cronin and Davis look for.

“He’s just a tremendous competitor,” Davis said. “He wants to win. I don’t care what he’s doing, if he’s playing pick-up basketball he wants to go 7-0. He called me one night after he committed and he was mad because he went to the rec center and lost two pick-up games. That’s the kind of kid he is.”

Parker is the third member of the 2009 recruiting class, along with Ibrahima Thomas and Sean Kilpatrick. Davis said fans can expect the new class to provide some offense, an area where the Bearcats struggled at times last season.

“I think you are going to see scoring out of those three guys because they can all make shots,” Davis said. “Jaquon and Kilpatrick can both score the ball. They can drive to the basket and finish on big guys, they can make a jumpshot, a three or a pull-up, they just know how to score. And Ibrahima Thomas is one of the best shooters we have, even though he’s 6-foot-10 he can really shoot the ball.”