After a Frank Martin visit, USC basketball big man target schedules trip to Columbia

The early forecast for Oct. 5 in Columbia calls for 80 degrees and sunshine. Given a second try, Wildens Leveque should make it here this time.

Leveque is a listed 6-foot-9, 210-pound power forward who ranks as a three-star recruiting prospect in the 2019 class. Hurricane Florence washed out his originally scheduled visit to South Carolina, but plans have been tweaked accordingly. Leveque will now come to USC on Oct. 5-7 and will presumably take in the Gamecocks’ football game with Missouri that weekend.

Cory McClure, Leveque’s coach at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, revealed as much to The State on Thursday. Carolina coaches Frank Martin and Chuck Martin were at Gould on Wednesday to see Leveque.

“They spent the latter part of the afternoon here,” McClure said. “We had our typical afternoon workouts and what-not and they had a chance to spend time talking to Wildens before they departed.”

Leveque is visiting VCU this weekend and UMass next weekend. After his trip to USC, there’s plans for a trip to Penn State on the weekend of Oct. 13.

“I don’t know if he takes all four visits,” McClure said. “I don’t think he really likes the recruiting process. As I told Frank and Chuck, I got to help get it to the point where he gets down to South Carolina. I don’t think he’s going to pull the trigger, but I can see him getting tired of the process really quick.

“But I think South Carolina’s in pretty good shape.”

Leveque averaged 14 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks per game for Gould last season. The son of Haitian immigrants, Leveque is originally from Brockton, Massachusetts.

Martin, a former assistant at Northeastern University, has found success at recruiting that area of the country to USC. (See Chris Silva and Alanzo Frink as recent examples.) McClure is a former assistant at the University of New Hampshire. They’ve known each other for close to 20 years.

“There’s a comfort level with me, comfort level with his AAU coaches in a way that maybe some other coach from down south we wouldn’t have that level of comfort with,” McClure said. “Not to say that South Carolina wouldn’t be appealing, but it’s made more appealing by who’s running the ship.”

Leveque is expected to make his final decision this fall.

South Carolina, with Hartsville’s Trae Hannibal, has one commitment in its ‘19 class.

This story was originally published September 20, 2018 at 2:38 PM.