Dumars Headed South

Joe Dumars has another reason to look forward to his road trips to the Sunshine State. Beginning in the fall of 2009, son Jordan Dumars will call the Tampa area home.

The basketball education of Jordan Dumars will continue in the Big East. The 6-foot-4 wing out of Detroit’s Country Day School, committed to South Florida after looking at the Bulls and Duquesne Dukes.

“Obviously, Coach Heath being from (Michigan), he’s familiar with the area,” Dumars said. “He’s known my dad. At the time, me Donovan (Kirk) and DeShonte (Riley), we had open gyms. South Florida came in one day and we had a good run that day. Coach Heath liked me.

“I went down there for a visit about three weeks ago and it was a wrap about two weeks later.”

Dumars, a member of the Class of 2009, shoots the ball extremely well. He indicated the Bulls plan for him is to play some shooting guard and also the small forward. “I have to drop some weight to play the two but that’s no problem.”

Dumars saw South Florida as an up and coming situation with room for him to grow within the program. “You can’t get better than the Tampa Bay area. Basketball-wise, it came down to conference. Me and my dad always said we’d pick a big conference but do it different than most.

“You can’t sit 10 all-americans so South Florida is an up and coming program and they don’t have 10 all-americans. If I work hard, I can come into a big conference and still play good minutes.”

Like his peers, Dumars wants to play in the league. If it doesn’t work out, he’ll rely on what he learns from his father, the general manager of the Detroit Pistons. Jordan Dumars is slowing getting initiated into the family business.

Dumars rolls with The Family on the traveling team circuit. He missed half his junior season with a sprained knee.