Another Babineaux in Rebels’ future?

Kori Babineaux, left, with older brother Brandon.

Brandon Babineaux is one of four talented freshman wide receivers who will be reporting to their first fall camp at UNLV next week. But the rangy 6-foot-3, 190-pounder from Folsom (Calif.) High School was busy playing cheerleader this past weekend.

That’s because his younger brother, Kori, was in town starring for the Nor-Cal Pharaohs in the Reebok Summer Championships basketball tournament.

Kori Babineaux is regarded as one of the top 75 prospects in the Class of 2011 after earning All Star honors at the prestigious Reebok All-American Camp in Philadelphia earlier this month, one of just 11 juniors-to-be to receive that honor.

Schools like Stanford, Cal, LSU and Oregon State are among those already heavily recruiting Kori Babineaux. Count UNLV, which had assistant coaches Mike Shepherd and Greg Grensing both on hand at the game I attended Saturday afternoon at Coronado High School, as also being in the mix.

Seems the Babineaux family took in UNLV’s impressive 79-62 victory over Arizona at the Thomas & Mack Center last December during Brandon’s recruiting trip and came away very impressed with Lon Kruger’s program.

“My brother is always telling me fun facts about the basketball team … trying to persuade me (to attend UNLV),” Kori Babineaux said with a smile shortly after pumping in four second half 3-pointers in a 81-54 win over 707’s Finest. “It’s too early to say right now where I’m going to go to college but UNLV is definitely up there on my list.”

Kori Babineaux, who also plays wide receiver for the Folsom football team, is already 6-foot-3 and weighs 198 solid pounds. In the game I watched he appeared to be an excellent catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter with good basketball instincts, especially when it came to passing the ball. He’s also young (15-years-old) for a junior.

“He sees the floor really well,” Nor-Cal Pharaohs coach Jason Barton, who played college basketball at Chico State, said. “He’s a great point guard with the ability to score. He can get to the hole, is a great defender, is very long and has a great body. He can play point guard or two-guard, whatever we need. He’s also a good student and a great kid from a great family.”

Kori Babineaux said that the fact his brother Brandon is already a Rebel is a plus for UNLV when it comes to his recruiting. Another brother, Chase, is a wide receiver at American River College in Sacramento who also is eyeing UNLV, so it’s possible there could three Babineaux’s on campus one day.

“I’m hearing from a lot of Pac-10 schools basically but UNLV would definitely be great because I would be able to hang out with my brother some more,” Kori said. “UNLV would be a good fit. … I might be a Rebel in the future. (Brandon) going there probably helps out in that regard.”

Stay tuned.