Nov. 14, 2007
Baylor received signed National Letters of Intent to play basketball from Anthony Jones of Houston (Texas) Yates High School and Russian Artem Valov of Three Rivers Community College, head coach Scott Drew announced Wednesday.
Jones, a senior at Yates, is rated 46th nationally by Rivals.com and is a consensus top-70 recruit. He is rated No. 51 by Hoopmasters.com and No. 62 by Scout.com. Jones averaged 14 points and 12 rebounds last season as a junior for a Yates squad that finished 25-8 in 2006-07.
"Anytime a top four rated player in the state of Texas signs with your school you know you're getting quite a player," Drew said of Jones. "Anthony has tremendous potential and we are very excited to have him join our Baylor family."
A 6-10 forward, Jones is rated No. 8 among the nation's forwards by Rivals.com and ranked as the fourth-best recruit in the state by TexasHoops.com. Jones is ranked the top player in Houston by RCS Sports and was a first-team preseason All-Greater Houston selection.
Valov is a junior college sophomore who was recently named a preseason NJCAA first-team All-American. He is rated the No. 12 junior college recruit nationally by Rivals.com's JucoJunction.com.
"Artem has a physical style which will fit in well with the Big 12 Conference," Drew said. "He also has a good feel for playing in the post."
The 6-10 forward helped lead Three Rivers to a 26-11 record and into the second round of the NJCAA tournament. Valov was named to the 2007 NJCAA All-Tournament team. Valov finished his freshman season with averages of 14.0 points and 7.2 rebounds.
BAYLOR 2008 SIGNEES:
Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Yr. Hometown (School)
Anthony Jones F 6-10 190 Fr. Houston, Texas (Yates HS)
Artem Valov F 6-9 240 Jr. Novosibirsk, Russia (Three Rivers CC)
