Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Thursday, May 30, 2013 | 10:45 a.m.
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Turns out Katin Reinhardt will honor his original commitment after all.
Two years after giving a verbal commitment that later fell through, Reinhardt will attend USC, he told Scout.com. The former UNLV guard confirmed the news on his Twitter page.
News broke over Memorial Day weekend that Reinhardt, despite ranking second on the team in minutes and shot attempts as a true freshman, was unhappy with his role at UNLV and wanted to leave Las Vegas. USC was always the assumed destination and on Thursday, a day after visiting campus in Los Angeles, Reinhardt made it official.
“We watched film for about 45 minutes and coach (Andy) Enfield showed me their style of play and how I would fit in," Reinhardt told Scout.com. "He said that he doesn't want me to be pigeonholed into one thing; I would be a playmaker, and I felt very comfortable with that."
Reinhardt will have to sit out a year per NCAA transfer rules. He'll be eligible for the 2014-15 season.
During his junior year, Reinhardt, who played at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif., about 45 minutes southeast of Los Angeles, told then-USC coach Kevin O’Neill that Reinhardt would be a Trojan. Months later, he wanted to reopen his recruitment but still keep USC in the mix, something that didn’t sit well with O’Neill.
That’s how the Dana Point, Calif., native ended up at UNLV, where he averaged 10.1 points in 29.1 minutes per game. But Reinhardt and his father, Ernie, believe the guard’s NBA future depends on minutes at point guard, which wasn’t guaranteed with the Rebels.
So they decided to leave. Reinhardt is the second player from the 2012-13 squad to transfer to the Pac-12 (Mike Moser to Oregon) and the third player to leave the program early (Anthony Bennett to the NBA).
Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.
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