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WHAT'S MY NAME? WORDS. PHOTOS. Andrew Greif UCF Athletics Keith Clanton While you were inundated with news about the star that desperately wanted out of Orlando this summer, the city's university was waiting to see if its entire men's basketball senior class would bolt. One player stuck around to push his team and his NBA dreams in the right direction. Out of all the basketball news coming out of Orlando this summer – and there was a lot – the biggest story may have been what didn't happen. Dwight Howard's divorce from the Magic shifted the NBA's attention west but his departure was never a matter of if, only when after uttering his trade demand 10 months earlier. Across town though, Central Florida's four seniors were making their summer free agency decisions. Unlike Howard, they could go wherever they wanted and play immediately. The Knights were smacked hard on July 31 by the NCAA for recruiting violations by both the football and basketball programs – among other penalties, a one-year postseason ban, and a three-year show cause penalty was placed on head coach Donnie Jones, a punishment meant to infict future damage through immediate means. Suddenly given a golden ticket to transfer and play immediately, re-recruitment came quickly. The Orlando Sentinel estimated 25 schools contacted the seniors in the frst 24 hours after the NCAA decision was leveled. Josh Crittle chose to transfer closer to home to Illinois-Chicago. C.J. Reed went to Georgia Southern, where his father is an assistant coach. Unrelated to the sanctions, Marcus Jordan stayed in school but left the team. One remained. By deciding to spurn tempting offers from powerhouse programs to stick around UCF, Keith Clanton changed everything about his program's future, even if his status is offcially unchanged. "You have to look forward to the future," the 6-8, 230-pound forward said in late summer. "You can't go to the NCAA but we can still play 30 games and prove we're as good as teams in the tournament. I'm not angry at the coaches or staff, it just happened, there's something you got to deal with." A standout at hometown Orlando Christian Prep, Clanton laughs at the notion that he was the second-most sought-after player from the city this summer. He's not an NBA All-Star, but the Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year did hold a trump card on Howard with his nearly limitless options. Even Kentucky and Florida State offered pitches: Kentucky needed a vet around another young class of blue-chip recruits; the Seminoles needed his 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds as a junior to bolster their frontcourt. This season he's averaging 16.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game and shooting a conference-best 61 percent. His 3.1 assists per game are second-best on the team. In a 22 30-point game against Bethune-Cookman, Clanton shot 14-of-15 from the feld. So many schools recruited Clanton that he used a former high school coach as his go-between while he and his mother, Gloria Leeks, weighed each offer. Even after