Herbert, Asher Make Travel Plans Lake City Pair Shopping For Future Hoop Homes

Before they even dribble a basketball this season, the Lake City High School girls basketball team’s top two players will know where they will play in college next year.

Beginning this weekend and through the end of October, Lindsay Herbert and Alison Asher will be making four or five campus visits.

First, Herbert, a 5-foot-11 guard and arguably the best player in Idaho last year, will fly to Oregon State while Asher, a 6-foot-4-1/2 post who may have been the most improved A-1 player in the state, will travel to the University of Portland.

On consecutive weekends, Herbert will visit Colorado, Idaho, San Francisco and Utah. Asher, who plans to take one less visit than Herbert, will be going out of town for stops at three California schools, Saint Mary’s, Pepperdine and the University of the Pacific.

Both players said they’re already leaning toward one school, but declined to name the schools.

Both said they could rank the prospective schools in order of preference.

“I’m taking the trips to make sure that I want to go where I want to go,” Herbert said. “I want to make sure I’m not overlooking something.”

Said Asher: “I feel I need to make all my visits and give each an equal chance.”

Both girls said they plan to sign letters of intent early. Both are considering announcing an oral commitment before the early signing period begins Nov. 12.

Both had final in-home visits Monday. Oregon State coaches were at Herbert’s home while Nevada’s coaches were meeting with Asher.

The players trimmed their choices from a longer list of seven to 10 schools.

Asher related a strange but eye-opening experience she had fielding numerous phone calls from coaches in the past three months.

“This one coach from back East had called about four times and I decided I wasn’t going to consider the school,” Asher said. “So I told him and he started yelling at me on the phone. It was weird.”

Most of the schools Herbert will visit are affiliated with middle- to upper-level NCAA Division I conferences. Colorado is in the Big 12, Oregon State in the Pacific-10; Utah in the Western Athletic Conference, San Francisco in the West Coast Conference and Idaho in the Big West.

Three of the four schools Asher will visit are in the WCC, and Pacific is in the Big West.

All the schools involved told Herbert and Asher that they would fill their topneed areas and play right away.

Neither player is locked into making all visitations.

“If I decide after visiting a school that I want to go there, then I won’t waste my time or the other schools’ time,” Herbert said.

Herbert averaged 14.8 points and six rebounds on LC’s state runner-up team last year. Asher averaged 10.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.1 blocks while shooting 60.1 percent from the field. She also broke her own school record for blocks in a season (152), pushing her three-year varsity total to 354.

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