Chinese National Center Commits to Dons for 2012-2013 Season
DONS SOCIAL MEDIA HUB
(San Francisco) – San Francisco men's basketball announces the signing of Chinese National Center Tao Xu to a Grant-in-Aid to play basketball at the University of San Francisco for the 2012-13 season.
San Francisco owns a long and distinguished history of recruiting globally to one of the nation's most diverse and innovative universities. Long before Yao Ming made history in the NBA and long before "Linsanity" became a trending topic, San Francisco Hall of Fame guard Willie "Woo Woo" Wong made history as the first Chinese-American to play at Madison Square Garden. The year was 1950 for Pete Newell's Dons.
Last season, USF's basketball roster featured three Asian Americans: Walters, one of the first Japanese-Americans to play in the NBA, Japanese-American and former UC Davis star Danny Yoshikawa and Taiwanese-American guard Jay Wey.
"As an Asian American myself, and being in San Francisco, you understand all the opportunities you have here," Walters said. "Tao being from China definitely opened a lot of doors and I think a lot of people are really going to be excited to watch him play. We didn't sign him because he's Chinese. We signed him because he is an outstanding student-athlete. The fact that we can reach out to our Asian population and our Chinese Americans here in the City, they'll really enjoy getting to know and see and watch him grow."
Xu is the first Chinese National to sign with the San Francisco basketball program and the second Chinese native overall. Sung "Samson" Fong, a 7-0 center from Hong Kong, played for the Green and Gold from 1993-1995 under head coach Jim Brovelli.
