Men's Hoops Signs Rickey Claitt - Oregon State University Athletics

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State men’s basketball team has signed point guard Rickey Claitt of Mineral Area College to a letter-of-intent, head coach Jay John announced today.

Claitt (pronounced like KLATT), who is 6-foot-2, 175 pounds, originally hails from Orlando, Fla., and graduated from Edgewater High School in 2005. He spent the past two years at Mineral Area College, a community college in Park Hills, Mo.

“I’m excited to get a mature player who’s got the skill level to perform in the Pac-10,” John said. “When we had an understanding of who would be on next year’s roster, we decided we wanted to get a junior college guard who had good collegiate game experience. Rickey will come in with the right mindset and won’t be afraid to compete for playing time. He believes he’s good enough to be on the floor and take somebody else’s time. He is a very good shooter and ball-handler. He has good vision on the court and is unselfish. He was on a junior college team full of scorers and his coach said that Rickey sacrificed his own scoring to get them the ball. He has a very good head on his shoulders. Rickey has a lot of winning in his background.”

Claitt visited OSU over the weekend and signed a letter-of-intent during his stay.

“It was a wonderful trip,” Claitt said. “Corvallis is a nice community and the coaches and players were great. I want to come win a Pac-10 championship and do whatever I can to make that happen. My strength is being a floor leader and distributing the ball. I can get to the basket and shoot. I played point guard the last two years and I was a shooting guard in high school and I’m not bad at either position.”

Claitt earned All-Midwest Community College Athletic Conference first team honors and was an all-Region XVI selection in 2006-07. He averaged 8.1 points, 5.2 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals his sophomore year. He shot 47% from the field, 46% on three-pointers and 71% from the free throw line. He helped Mineral Area reach the Region XVI Championship Series.

During his freshman year in 2005-06, Claitt made All-MCCAC honorable mention after averaging 7.0 points, 2.4 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals, while shooting 50% from the field, 38% on three-pointers and 76% on free throws. Mineral Area went 28-5, won the regional championship and advanced to the national tournament.

“Rickey has a special gift playing the game of basketball,” Mineral Area Coach Corey Tate said. “He can shoot the ball and is explosive to the hole. He will be very solid for Oregon State and will surprise you with the kinds of plays he can make. Rickey was so unselfish and was the rock of our team. He gave a lot up so he could make sure that everyone else was satisfied. Don’t be fooled by the numbers, he can really shoot it. He can do anything a coach asks of him.”

An assistant coach at Mineral Area, Sean Pryor, played at Oregon State in the mid-‘90s.

As a senior in high school, Claitt helped Edgewater, located in Orlando, Fla., to Metro and District championships. He averaged 15 points, four assists, four rebounds and four steals and earned All-Metro honors. Edgewater finished the season ranked #9 in Florida’s Class 6A. He also helped Edgewater win the state championship during his junior year.

The Beavers previously signed 6-foot-5 shooting guard Michael Stovall (Chicago, Ill./Marshall HS) last week and 6-foot-2 guard Calvin Haynes (Reseda, Calif./Taft HS/South Kent School [Conn.]) and 6-foot-7 forward Omari Johnson (Los Angeles, Calif./Dorsey HS) last fall. OSU still has one open scholarship.