8/11/2018 basketball Edit

Four-star PG Damion Baugh Narrows List To Ten Programs

Russ Wood • 1standTenFlorida

Basketball Recruiting

Russ has been covering Florida basketball recruiting on the Rivals Network since 2011. He is also a contributing national basketball recruiting reporter for Rivals and participates in player rankings.

Damion Baugh is a name Florida fans have begun to get familiar with over the past couple of months. Ever since the Gators offered him on June 4, Baugh has been on the fans, as well as the Florida coaches, radar. Friday night Baugh, the No. 83 ranked prospect in the Rivals150, took a step in his recruitment that will bring him into even sharper focus when he announced his “Final 10” via Instagram account.

Half of the programs in the four-star point guard’s list came as no surprise to GatorsTerritory.com because Baugh mentioned them when discussing schools he was hearing from the most consistently when we interviewed him in June.

“The schools that have made me a priority I would say are Houston, Georgia, Ole Miss, LSU, Florida and Vanderbilt. I plan on taking my official visits in September during football season,” Baugh said at the time.

Running with Memphis based Team Thad during the recently completed travel season, Baugh averaged 10.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.8 steals in 16 Under Armour Association games. Baugh led his team in rebounds, connected on 43.9 percent of his field goal attempts and he managed his ball handling duties well, posting a 1.86-to1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

GT REACTION

When we wrote about Baugh in June we mentioned that he repeatedly gets to the rim to score, is a very good facilitator and a terrific defender. We also felt that his strong play in the Under Armour Circuit during the spring and at the Pangos All-American camp, Baugh made a strong case to enter the Rivals150 in the July update. That is exactly what happened as Baugh went from unranked straight into the Top-100. The success that Chris Chiozza – a Team Thad alum – had in Gainesville is a huge plus in the Gators recruitment of Baugh. It would be nice for Cheese to get another ‘assist’ for Florida.

We expect UF to get one of Baugh’s official visits and for the Tennessee Prep Academy (Nashville, TN) to make his school choice in the fall and sign in the early period in November.