All-American Meads Signs Letter-of-Intent With BYU

PROVO -- McDonald's All-American Garner Meads has signed an NCAA letter-of-intent to play basketball at BYU for head coach Steve Cleveland. The highly recruited 6-foot-8 power forward adds to what was already rated a top-20 fall recruiting class for the Cougars.

A Sandy, Utah, native, Meads will join the Cougars for the 2000-2001 season before leaving on an LDS Church mission. The Utah 5A Most Valuable Player, Meads averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds a game during his senior season while leading Brighton High School to the 5A state championship game. A third-team Parade Magazine All-America pick, Meads was also invited to play in the McDonald's All-American basketball game, one of only four Utah high school players to do so.

A three-time all-state selection and four-year letterman, Meads also earned academic all-state honors at Brighton High School. He was listed by Pac-West Hoops as the top-rated power forward among seniors in the west and was rated by Midwest Hoops as the No. 2 center in the country behind only Zach Randolph.

"Garner is an outstanding student-athlete, but more importantly a young man with great character and maturity," Cleveland said. "Garner will be a leader on and off the floor and has an opportunity to make an immediate impact on our program. I love his work ethic and competitive spirit. Garner joins an outstanding recruiting class that will play a major role in recapturing the tradition of BYU basketball."

Meads is the sixth player to sign with the Cleveland and the Cougars since November. This past season Cleveland guided BYU to a 22-11 record and NIT quarterfinal appearance after taking over a 1-25 program three years ago. The breakdown of this year's top-20 recruiting class is listed below:

GARNER MEADS

6-8, 215 Forward

Sandy, Utah

Three-time all-state forward at Brighton High School ... averaged 21 ppg, 12 rpg while being named a McDonald's All-American and Parade Magazine Third Team All-American ... named the Salt Lake Tribune 5A MVP, Deseret News Utah Mr. Basketball Honoree, Gatorade Utah Player of the Year, Rival.com Utah Player of the Year, Utah Tipoff Club, Frank Layden Player of the Year and Region III MVP as a senior... earned academic all-state and academic all-region honors ... selected first-team all-state as a junior and senior and second-team all-state as a sophomore ... three-time first-team all-region III selection ... named to the all-tournament team at the Reno Invitational and selected to the Adidas Camp All-American Team ... three-year starter and four-year letterman ... recruited by schools including Stanford, Utah, Syracuse, Kentucky, UCLA, Arizona and Notre Dame.

1999-2000 Recruiting Class

Player Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown (previous school)

Jesse Pinegar* F/C 6-9 215 Fr. Salt Lake City (Brighton HS)

Derek Dawes* C 6-11 220 Fr. Salt Lake City (Cottonwood HS)

Jacob Chrisman* F 6-9 210 Fr. Provo, Utah, (Provo HS)

Austin Ainge*+ G 6-1 160 Fr. Gilbert, Ariz. (Higland HS)

Travis Hansen* G/F 6-6 225 So. Orem, Utah (Utah Valley SC)

Garner Meads F 6-8 215 Fr. Sandy, Utah (Brighton HS)

* November signees

+ Will go directly on an LDS Church mission before enrolling at BYU