Gorman basketball player picks University of San Francisco

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011 | 2:18 p.m.

A Bishop Gorman High basketball player verbally committed this week to accept a college basketball scholarship.

It’s just not one of the players everyone is waiting to hear from.

Zhane Dikes, a rising senior combo guard on the Gaels’ girls' team, picked the University of San Francisco over offers from Loyola Marymount, San Diego and UNR. Committing in the summer is a common practice, giving players an opportunity to avoid distractions and focus on their senior season.

“Now I can settle down and get ready for my senior season. It’s definitely a relief,” Dikes said.

However, for at least one of Dikes’ classmates — namely, Rivals.com top boys' recruit Shabazz Muhammad — being patient is the luxury of being so heavily coveted.

Gorman is a basketball factory of sorts, with its boys and girls programs combining for eight state titles since 2002. The boys team, with the likes of top recruits Muhammad, Ben Carter and Rosco Allen, has six players with major Division I scholarship offers.

The interest from colleges is comparable for the girls' team, highlighted by the 5-foot-9 Dikes — one of the team’s leading scorers (14 points per game last winter) and rebounders last year.

San Francisco coach Jennifer Azzi, a women’s basketball legend who won a national championship as a player at Stanford and was part of the 1996 U.S. Olympic gold medal team, targeted Dikes as one of her first recruits for the class of 2012, said her dad, Kevin Dikes. The offer from San Francisco was Dikes’ first.

“She told us they were putting (recruiting another combo guard) on the back burner until the end of July,” Kevin Dikes said of the school’s interest.

The family visited the school in the spring and immediately was impressed with everything it had to offer. Zhane Dikes knew Azzi was sincere in her recruiting when she was front-and-center for several of her AAU games with the Las Vegas Elite.

“I just liked the location,” she said. “It is in a great city, a pretty diverse area. I love the coach, too. She is practically a celebrity.”

Dikes knows a thing or two about being around celebrities at Gorman. Everyone wants a piece of Muhammad and his teammates, eager to see where the top recruits will attend college. The players often play shooting-challenge contests or friendly pickup games.

“Our girls' team and boys' team are all very good friends,” Dikes said. “Just for jokes, we’ll play ‘horse’ and one-on-one. But they never let us win.”