Gorman’s Rosco Allen to take official visit to UNLV next week

By Ryan Greene

Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011 | 10 p.m.

UNLV will be hosting its first official visit with a member of the 2012 recruiting class next week, and the visitor will be a familiar one.

Bishop Gorman senior forward Rosco Allen, who took a pair of unofficial visits to UNLV during the first week of August, will take an official trip to campus Sept. 7-8 — next Wednesday and Thursday — according to his father, Daniel Allen.

It will be the second official visit for the 6-foot-8 standout, who will head up to Palo Alto, Calif., to see the Stanford campus Tuesday morning, returning to Las Vegas Thursday afternoon. It was earlier reported that the Stanford visit would take place this past weekend, but Daniel Allen told the Sun on Sunday night that the visit was scheduled to be a mid-week excursion all along.

First-year coach Dave Rice and his staff will not only get an official visit next week from Allen, but they'll also have an in-home visit with the family on Sept. 9, 24 hours after the official visit concludes.

Also pushing still for a visit of some form is North Carolina, who offered Allen a scholarship earlier this summer. Allen and his father took an unofficial trip to Chapel Hill last season for the Duke-North Carolina game. Daniel Allen said North Carolina is trying to set up an in-home visit with the family on either Sept. 20 or 21, but the family has not yet decided if it will happen.

Allen, ranked by ESPN.com as the No. 55 prospect in the 2012 senior crop, is one of several local targets UNLV is targeting for its three remaining scholarships in the 2012 class. At Gorman alone, Rice & Co. are also chasing swingman Shabazz Muhammad — the consensus No. 1 senior in the nation – power forward Ben Carter and developing forward Demetris Morant. At Findlay Prep, though they're not born and raised Las Vegas prospects, UNLV is after senior big men Anthony Bennett, Winston Shepard and Matt Willms.

UNLV's two current commitments in the 2012 class are from Baltimore point guard Daquan Cook and California combo guard Katin Reinhardt.