Georgia was already well down the road in its recruitment of Cameron Forte when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made his announcement that he was turning pro. So it didn’t necessarily seal the deal, but it made his decision to choose the Bulldogs that much earlier.
Forte, a 6-foot-7 small forward from Howard College, committed to the Bulldogs on Sunday and will sign a letter of intent “later today,” he said Monday.
“I’m just waiting for them to get all the paperwork together,” Forte said in telephone interview.
Forte averaged 22 points and 8 rebounds this past season at Howard, a junior college in Texas. A resident of Phoenix, Ariz., he originally signed with Texas Tech out of high school, redshirted with the Red Raiders, then transferred to Howard. So he’ll have three years of eligibility remaining at UGA but no opportunity to redshirt.
Forte said Georgia began recruiting him toward the end of this past season as Howard entered the national junior college tournament. He took an official visit to UGA April 12-14, then visited Washington State this past weekend. He committed to the Bulldogs upon his return.
“It was a nice place with nice facilities and I got along with the team real well,” Forte said. “The coaching staff is great and seemed real nice. I made my decision basically on going to a place where I felt comfortable with the coaches and players and where I had a chance to play, and that’s basically what it came down to.”
Forte said he also considered offers from Minnesota, Pitt, Long Beach State, Colorado State and Ole Miss.
Forte’s primary recruiter at Georgia was Kwanza Johnson, who reportedly has accepted a position at TCU. Neither Johnson nor UGA has confirmed that news to this point. But Forte said it won’t affect his decision.
“No, but I don’t really want to talk about that,” he said. “I don’t know what happened, but he probably won’t be at Georgia when I get there.”
While Forte’s odds of getting playing time increased with Caldwell-Pope’s departure, he’s not necessarily glad to the reigning SEC player of the year go.
“I would have loved to play with him,” Forte said. “We’d be that much better if we still had him. But I just wanted to go somewhere that I felt comfortable with the coaches and players and that was Georgia.”
Forte said he’ll enroll at Georgia this summer.
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