The Haverford School's Tao Xu, a 6-11 center, has given a verbal commitment to the University of San Francisco.

Xu, who has completed his studies on Lancast Avenue, has qualified through the NCAA's Clearinghouse and will be eligible to compete for the Dons next winter.

“They want him yesterday,” Fords coach Henry Fairfax said of USF.

Xu averaged seven points, three rebounds and two blocked shots in his first and only season at Haverford School, to which the Chinese U-19 national team player transferred at the start of the 2011-12 school year.

Fairfax said Xu kicked around offers from Tulane, Mississippi State and Drexel, before deciding upon San Francisco.

“Tao told me he considered every offer he got,” Fairfax said. “He said to me, 'Coach, I came 7,000 miles to get here (to Haverford School). What's another 2,000 for college?'”

NOTE: Haverford School rising sophomore Sammy Foreman already has gotten more than a few Division I looks. The point guard turned heads in his first year at the high school level. He even earned MVP honors last week in the freshman game of the All-City Classic, at Community College of Philadelphia. Said Fairfax: "His team was down 20 with four minutes to go, and I said to my wife, 'Watch this.' Then he goes off for 20 in the final four minutes to send the game to overtime." According to Fairfax, Foreman recently received his first non-form letter, a hand-written piece of correspondence from a PAC-12 team.

The Haverford School's bid to win the Inter-Ac League title for the first time since 1999 sustained a roadblock Tuesday.

Junior center Tao Xu will miss the Fords' next game - Friday night at Germantown Academy - after incurring a pair of technical fouls in The Haverford School's 61-52 victory over Penn Charter.

Xu picked up the first technical foul in the fourth quarter, when he responded with a shove after taking a two-handed push to the back on an uncontested lay-up attempt. The 6-11 Chinese exchange student has a history of back injuries, including three broken vertebrae.

He got whistled for a second technical later in the fourth, when he issued a salute after knocking down a 15-foot baseline jumper.

"He's been doing it all season, so we don't know," first-year Haverford School coach Henry Fairfax said. "He was saluting our fans and our JV kids. It's something he's done all year.

"In response to the other one, he got shoved in the back," Fairfax continued. "He broke three vertebrae in his back, so he thought they were going after him. He's not a malicious kid, so I hope this doesn't paint him as a kid he's not. I think it would be a huge injustice if they didn't let the kid play."

Xu said he has made a habit of doing the Jaromir Jagr-esque salute "after big plays."

Fairfax told me that he would "start the (Inter-Ac) appeals process as soon as I'm done speaking with you." He later texted me to say the appeal was denied.

Xu had 17 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots in Tuesday's victory. He is averaging 8.3 points per game this season, his first in the states.

(Times staff photo / ROBERT J. GURECKI)

Haverford High coach Terry McNichol and the Fords had a rough go this season, finishing with only two wins.

Still, the longtime coach and his players decided to have some fun last month during their last practice of the season. Per tradition, the Fords arrive at Juenger Gymnasium wearing retro clothes. That's retro look AND retro fit, as you can tell by the photos. It's a nice way to turn the page on a tough year. (Though, it is worth noting that Haverford High won two of its final five games.)

The other photo here is of McNichol, right, and senior Dan McWilliams, who arrived to practice trying to replicate what his coach wears. (Pretty good guess on McWilliams' part.) Anyway, McWilliams missed the whole season due to injury ... but he didn't miss any practices. Retro Day certainly was no exception.

Kudos to the Fords for keeping a good attitude during a tough season.

They had only minutes earlier finished off their biggest rival in a game decided by four points. They had, in the moments prior to that game, honored their two eldest players in Senior Day festivities.

Needless to say, The Haverford School coach Steve Cloran's players have not considered playing in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Tournament, which begins next month.

The Fords (11-8, 2-4) were more trained on winning out the rest of their Inter-Academic League slate, which includes two important games with league-leading Chestnut Hill Academy. But they know only four games separate them from the Indy Tourney, which is for all the marbles.

It used to be that representatives from the Inter-Ac and the Catholic leagues - and a host of other smaller schools from outside the Philadelphia area - would play for the state title. Now, with the Catholic kids playing in the PIAA, it's mostly an Inter-Ac heavy playoff. That doesn't alter its importance.

But Cloran's players - and the coach himself - don't want to think about that just yet. They have important games to win.

"You kind of, with high school players, you don't want to put too much in their heads," Cloran said Thursday. "So we might only quickly talk about that with them. Our main goal this year is to win more games in the Inter-Ac League. We're not there yet, but we'll continue to stay in the present."

Added junior center Andrew Acker: "We haven't really talked about that tournament all that much. I think he wants all of us to focus on finishing up the Inter-Ac. ... We've got some tough ones coming up first."

The Pa. Independent Schools tourney kicks off Feb. 15 at the higher seeds' home gyms, and finishes Feb. 19 and 20 at Montgomery County Community College.

COMING TOMORROW: An updated look at the Inter-Ac standings, and what The Haverford School and Episcopal Academy need to do to finish near the top as the season nears conclusion.

Haverford School coach Steve Cloran thinks he's only coached two 12-point comeback victories – one of them being Saturday's stunning 47-45 thriller over Penn Charter at Cabrini University.

The Fords erased their dozen-point deficit by applying a pressure defense that prevented the Quakers from getting into their offensive sets even just once in the fourth quarter. It resulted in an 18-4 scoring advantage for the Fords in the fourth.

After starting 0-3, the Fords (9-3, 1-0) have won nine in a row. That's thanks largely to the play of underclassmen. They have only two seniors on their roster – guard A.J. Jones and forward Matt Lengel. Their primary six-man rotation includes three sophomores and a junior.

“I think, with so many young guys on our team, they get frustrated when the shots aren't falling,” Cloran said. “When the ball isn't going in, they hang their heads. The important thing for them is to keep coming, keep trying and just trusting that the shots will fall.”

Sophomores RaShaan Hollman (12 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals), Brendan Purcell (11 points) and Zach Thomas (3 points, 3 steals) were integral to the win. So was junior Andrew Acker, who had 8 points and 14 rebounds.