Signature moment for Sotos with commitment to Bucknell

Conant's Jimmy Sotos made sure his pen had ink in it Wednesday when he signed his collegiate letter of internet on National Signing Day.

The senior looked up after signing the first page of his letter to attend Bucknell University and gave his mom, who had reached into her purse for a pen, a huge smile.

"I am very excited," said Sotos, who signed in front of his parents, brother, teammates, coaches and administrators at Conant. "This is a great honor for me."

Sotos, who has started since he was a freshman, led Conant to the Class 4A supersectional last season. He averaged 16.5 points and 4.5 assists as he helped Conant to its first Mid-Suburban League basketball title since 2008.

He capped his high school season by being chosen to captain the Daily Herald's Northwest all-area team. But the game, and the recruiting, didn't slow down for the 6-foot-3 point guard.

This summer while playing for his AAU team, the attention only grew. Sotos received offers from teams from the Missouri Valley, Ivy League, Patriot League and from the Colonial League as well as local offers include Loyola, Illinois State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"Going into the summer I had three offers," Sotos said. "I was happy with that. Then the offers just picked up and I rolled with it."

Sotos began taking unofficial visits each weekend as he began to narrow the list of contenders. He chose Bucknell because he would like to teach one day, and Bucknell has the program that will allow him to do that.

Sotos also liked the fact that Bucknell has had tremendous success in securing an invitation to the NCAA tournament via the Patriot League.

"I wanted to go to a place where basketball mattered a lot," Sotos said. "And that community is all Bucknell basketball. Every restaurant there is into it, and I liked that as well."

But many of his friends had never heard of Bucknell, which is located in Lewisburg, Penn.

"A lot of people don't know Bucknell," Sotos said. "The real college basketball fans know that they upset Kansas in the tournament. That is other reason I went there, because they have a great route to the NCAA tournament."

Conant coach Tom McCormack said it was not an easy decision for Sotos.

"It was kind of whirlwind for him this summer," McCormack said. "He had some tough decisions to make. But ultimately he made his visits and did his homework.

"But he had to do the hard stuff because he had to tell a lot of guys, 'Thank you, but I made another decision.' And that was tough for him. But in the end, it was great to see a guy work that hard in the classroom, on the court and in the off-season, to see it pay off this way."

Also at the ceremony at Conant was softball player Morgan Bihun, who plays third base for the Cougars. She signed her letter of intent to Wisconsin-Green Bay.

"I am really excited to go there," Bihun said. "It is the achievement of what I have been dreaming for ever since I was a little kid. I was always excited to go D-I and I was excited I could put my name on the paper."