Ute basketball team gets another Texas recruit

News that the Utah basketball team has secured another commitment out of Texas is good news for the program and shows that the Utes are making a serious effort to recruit the state, just as the football program has made a push in recent years.
The fact that Jim Boylen coached in Houston for over a decade gives the Utes an advantage in Texas they haven’t had. In the past, Utah’s recruiting base has been southern California and Utah. Boylen still wants to recruit California, but adding Texas should help the Utes’ recruiting in the future. Boylen’s first-ever recruit as Ute coach was Chris Hines, a guard from Houston, who is joining the team this fall.
In Marshall Henderson, the Utes are getting an excellent shooting guard in the Nick Jacobsen mold. At 6-1, 160, Henderson isn’t as big as Jacobsen, but like Jacobsen, is the son of a coach and apparently very competitive. In talking to Henderson’s father earlier this afternoon, I could tell how excited he was for his son’s decision to choose Utah over several other top programs that were after young Henderson, such as Gonzaga, Stanford and Marquette.
For those who didn’t see the article on the web, here are more details on the Ute commit:

The University of Utah basketball team has received another commitment for the 2009-2010 season.
Marshall Henderson, a 6-foot-1, 160-pound guard from L.D. Bell High School in Hurst, Texas, committed Monday to join coach Jim Boylen’s program.
“He’s extremely excited about it and we are, too,” said Willie Henderson, Marshall’s father and high school coach. “We think he made a great choice.”
Henderson averaged 24.9 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals per game as a junior in Class 5A, the largest school division in Texas. His high school is located between Dallas and Fort Worth.
His father calls Marshall a “combo guard,” who has played point for his high school team, but it’s his shooting that has “put him on the map.” He’s made 340 3-pointers in his high school career and is on track to become the top 3-pointer shooter in Texas prep history.
“He plays hard ‘ he’s a competitor who absolutely hates to lose,” Willie Henderson said. “He’s extremely intense.”
Henderson had narrowed his choices to six schools that had offered him a scholarship and chose Utah over Gonzaga, Stanford, Notre Dame, Marquette and Bradley.”
According to Willie Henderson, “it was the total package” that attracted his son to Utah.
“Over time he built a great relationship with coach Boylen and coach (Jeff) Smith,” Willie Henderson said. “Utah has everything that was most important to him.”
Earlier this spring, Utah signed Jeremy Olsen, a 6-11 forward from Georgia.