Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell has dotted his roster with Columbia area talent and Friday he dropped an offer into the hands of 6-3 PG Joshua Beadle of Cardinal Newman. Clemson, with assistant coach Antonio Reynolds Dean logging the legwork, has been on Beadle’s trail for several months, so the offer came as no great surprise to him.
“They’ve been recruiting me for a while, and I’ve been to a few games,” Beadle said. “I went last year to the game they played Notre Dame and the game they played USC. And they came to some of my games. They came to multiple games and they sent out different coaches each game. Coach Dean has been recruiting me for a while and he really likes me. He’s the one who really pushed the offer to Coach Brownell.”
Beadle said the Tigers want him to have the ball in his hands and be the guy that runs the offense.
“They want me to play the point guard position,” Beadle said. “They say I have a high IQ and I have a good feel for the game, and that’s what they want and that’s what they need.”
Another ACC program, Wake Forest, also recently offered Beadle. The coach handling his recruiting for the new Demon Deacon staff is none other than USC’s all-time leading scorer BJ McKie.
“I was really thankful for that because he told me when we were on the phone, he said, he ‘s not offering me just because I’m from Columbia, and he’s not offering all the Columbia kids as well, but he really likes me personally, not just from a basketball standpoint,” Beadle said.
Beadle also has offers from VCU, UNC-Wilmington, Wofford, College of Charleston, Charleston Southern, Presbyterian, Upstate, East Tennessee, Furman, NC A&T and Saint Louis. USC also is recruiting him but Frank Martin has not yet made the move with an offer.
“I’m not really sure when an offer might be coming, but me and the coaching staff have a good relationship. We talk from time to time” said Beadle. “I’m not really sure about an offer. I’ve seem them play and I’ve heard people compare me to PJ Dozier, and he fit well with that play style at USC. Maybe I would too as well.”
Beadle said he wants to take official visits before a decision but he’s not yet decided on those. And he has an idea of what he’s looking for from a school both academically and within the basketball program.
“As of right now, the business school, because I think business is what I want to major in,” Beadle said. “And pretty much a family culture environment, as well as a coaching staff that I like and a coaching staff I feel like likes me as well.”
Last season Beadle averaged 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists per game.
