Recruiting - 2020 Class (Optimal Vision Class)

[Cowboy]

46 minutes ago, courtside said:

The Highland Shootout lost Duke commit Jalen Johnson with his transfer to IMG Academy. But it gains another one. Whitney Young’s DJ Steward, 2020 combo guard, committed to Duke. Whitney Young plays Chaminade in the event. 

-it will be good a test for the youngsters of CCP against that level of competition 

[3star_recruit]

16 hours ago, RiseAndGrind said:

 

Will Bailey was just in Sarasota last week watching Markhi Strickland practice with his Victory Rock prep squad. Apparently the staff likes what they see.

[RiseAndGrind]

7 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

Will Bailey was just in Sarasota last week watching Markhi Strickland practice with his Victory Rock prep squad. Apparently the staff likes what they see.

I hope Strickland likes what he sees too. He seems like he could be an A10 guy

[Pistol]

On 9/18/2019 at 8:35 AM, RiseAndGrind said:

3star is on the money with Strickland for the Sarasota end. For the Indy end, it's gotta be Jalen Blackmon (2021):

Jalen Blackmon - G, 6-2, 160 - Marion, IN (Marion) - AAU: All Ohio Red (Nike EYBL) - Twitter: @Jalenblackmon1
Offers: Houston, Miami-Ohio, Akron.

Interest: Saint Louis, Xavier, Butler, Wake Forest, Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue, Texas Tech, Kentucky, SIU-Carbondale, Indiana State, Belmont, Ball State, Toledo, Illinois-Chicago, Middle Tennessee, Holy Cross, Lamar, Western Illinois, Southern.

Latest News: Blackmon has been playing well in the Team Focus Back to School League. (9/19/19)

Scouting Report: Blackmon is a big-time scoring guard who can absolutely fill it up from anywhere. He's a high-volume three-point shooter with a quick stroke. He has incredible feel for the game and tremendous vision. He can handle the ball and find his teammates. He reached 1,000 points mid-way through his sophomore season. His father is the head coach of his high school team and was the Mr. Basketball runner-up to Steve Alford in 1983, his oldest brother played at Indiana and is the state's 13th all-time leading scorer, and his other older brother is a sophomore at Indiana. Rankings: 247Sports: 121, 247Sports Composite: 184.

[slu72]

Looks like as long as IU doesn't offer we might have a shot. 

[HoosierPal]

3 hours ago, Pistol said:

3star is on the money with Strickland for the Sarasota end. For the Indy end, it's gotta be Jalen Blackmon (2021):

Jalen Blackmon - G, 6-2, 160 - Marion, IN (Marion) - AAU: All Ohio Red (Nike EYBL) - Twitter: @Jalenblackmon1
Offers: Houston, Miami-Ohio, Akron.

Interest: Saint Louis, Xavier, Butler, Wake Forest, Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue, Texas Tech, Kentucky, SIU-Carbondale, Indiana State, Belmont, Ball State, Toledo, Illinois-Chicago, Middle Tennessee, Holy Cross, Lamar, Western Illinois, Southern.

Latest News: Blackmon has been playing well in the Team Focus Back to School League. (9/19/19)

Scouting Report: Blackmon is a big-time scoring guard who can absolutely fill it up from anywhere. He's a high-volume three-point shooter with a quick stroke. He has incredible feel for the game and tremendous vision. He can handle the ball and find his teammates. He reached 1,000 points mid-way through his sophomore season. His father is the head coach of his high school team and was the Mr. Basketball runner-up to Steve Alford in 1983, his oldest brother played at Indiana and is the state's 13th all-time leading scorer, and his other older brother is a sophomore at Indiana. Rankings: 247Sports: 121, 247Sports Composite: 184.

His other older brother, Vijay, left IU (he was a walk on) and is a GT at Lindenwood. He had transferred to IU from St. Francis, DII.  He sat a year and played 12 minutes last season.  Dad played at Kentucky.

Jalen may be the best of the Blackmon clan.  He is on track to challenge Damon Bailey's Indiana HS basketball scoring record of 3,134 points, which is equivalent to the Holy Grail in Indiana. 

[Old guy]

HoosierPal, all of this sounds great. Let's hope he chooses us.

[DoctorB]

2 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Jalen may be the best of the Blackmon clan.  He is on track to challenge Damon Bailey's Indiana HS basketball scoring record of 3,134 points, which is equivalent to the Holy Grail in Indiana. 

Indeed?  The best ?? Then he would have to be pretty good.  You got my attention... Thanks for the memories, HoosierPal.

We can always use another Hoosier; right??  I remember his Dad: I think he started immediately as a freshman at KY.  If Jalen is better, his offers list is pretty bleak: why??  Not sure.  His Dad was choosing between IU, KY, MSU, and Michigan, etc.  But that is a lot of points, and yes, Damon Bailey = holy grail!  Article says Jalen scored 601 pts. as a freshman.  Playing for Marion, which plays all the giant programs.  WOW.

ps: if anyone can explain why a player like his Dad, Blackmon Sr., never played a single game in the NBA, I'd be interested in knowing.  He was a serious stud, back in the 80s.   Another ps for non-Hoosiers: Marion is one of the legendary HS programs in Indiana, probably in the country to be honest.  Their gym is -- wow!  Gotta be one of the biggest in the good ol' USA.  I think Seymour is now #1 by the way, maybe John Mellencamp gave them some money or something.

I did a quick Google and found this:

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/class-of-2021-jalen-blackmon-is-carrying-on-a-family-legacy/

[Pistol]

10 minutes ago, DoctorB said:

Indeed?  The best ?? Then he would have to be pretty good.  You got my attention... Thanks for the memories, HoosierPal.

We can always use another Hoosier; right??  I remember his Dad: I think he started immediately as a freshman at KY.  If Jalen is better, his offers list is pretty bleak: why??  Not sure.  His Dad was choosing between IU, KY, MSU, and Michigan, etc.  But that is a lot of points, and yes, Damon Bailey = holy grail!  Article says Jalen scored 601 pts. as a freshman.  Playing for Marion, which plays all the giant programs.  WOW.

ps: if anyone can explain why a player like his Dad, Blackmon Sr., never played a single game in the NBA, I'd be interested in knowing.  He was a serious stud, back in the 80s.   Another ps for non-Hoosiers: Marion is one of the legendary HS programs in Indiana, probably in the country to be honest.  Their gym is -- wow!  Gotta be one of the biggest in the good ol' USA.  I think Seymour is now #1 by the way, maybe John Mellencamp gave them some money or something.

I did a quick Google and found this:

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/class-of-2021-jalen-blackmon-is-carrying-on-a-family-legacy/

1. Because he's a 2021 recruit and this discussion should be happening in that thread. Scroll down the list of our 2021 offers and interests in the Recruiting Lists thread and you'll see that most of them have single-digit offers. The ones who don't are top 100 players already, and mostly top 50.

2. Because he's pretty small.

If he were just starting his senior season and had three offers, it'd be a different story. I imagine his offer list will look different fairly soon.

[Franchise_08]

Dont see SLU on the visit list

[DoctorB]

On 9/19/2019 at 12:26 PM, Pistol said:

1. Because he's a 2021 recruit

good point, sorry I missed it.  as for 6'2" being too small -- wow the times have changed!  used to be OK for a shooter.  Plus:  he is probably 16-17 so it is plausible has has more growth coming, especially considering his family...

[Franchise_08]

Is SLU going to make it?

[Pistol]

2 hours ago, Franchise_08 said:

Is SLU going to make it?

No.

He's already visited Dayton. He got three power conference offers since his top 10 was released. So we're looking at 13 whittled down to 5 and we're arguably the lowest-profile program in the bunch - not looking good.

[Pistol]

9 hours ago, DoctorB said:

good point, sorry I missed it.  as for 6'2" being too small -- wow the times have changed!  used to be OK for a shooter.  Plus:  he is probably 16-17 so it is plausible has has more growth coming, especially considering his family...

Exactly. Which is why he doesn't have more offers yet. If he were taller or more built at this age, his scoring ability would make him a no-doubter at the next level. Programs are trying to figure out how he projects physically (and how much he can build his skill set out) so they're holding off for now. We're right to get in early.

[3star_recruit]

8 hours ago, Pistol said:

Exactly. Which is why he doesn't have more offers yet. If he were taller or more built at this age, his scoring ability would make him a no-doubter at the next level. Programs are trying to figure out how he projects physically (and how much he can build his skill set out) so they're holding off for now. We're right to get in early.

Blackmon's stuck in the same category as Tramaine Isabell out of high school:  6'1 high-volume shooter, high turnovers, good but not great athlete. Just like Isabell, I expect he'll get high-major offers but Indiana and Purdue have in-state guys who are higher on their board.  I'd much rather recruit against the likes of Butler and Northwestern than Indiana and Purdue. 

[courtside]

Ryan Kalkbrenner committed to Creighton.

[slu72]

8 hours ago, courtside said:

Ryan Kalkbrenner committed to Creighton.

And they may be facing NCAA penalties. Huh. 

[RiseAndGrind]

This one stinks and shows how quickly things change. Before he broke out I wasn’t even sure he was good enough to play at SLU. 

[Pistol]

Kalkbrenner to Creighton surprised me. I saw that he announced them in his top three along with Purdue and Stanford - eliminating KU and their late offer - but I thought it'd be one of the other two.

Zed Key committed to Ohio State. Had a SLU offer but we weren't a contender there. He cancelled other visits after his OSU trip, too.

Keon Ambrose-Hylton eliminated SLU: 

His three offers since announcing his top 10 are all there, so only Dayton and Arkansas survived from that list. NC State, USC, and Alabama are the new ones. He's got OVs scheduled to all five.

[courtside]

9 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Kalkbrenner to Creighton surprised me. I saw that he announced them in his top three along with Purdue and Stanford - eliminating KU and their late offer - but I thought it'd be one of the other two.

Zed Key committed to Ohio State. Had a SLU offer but we weren't a contender there. He cancelled other visits after his OSU trip, too.

Keon Ambrose-Hylton eliminated SLU: 

His three offers since announcing his top 10 are all there, so only Dayton and Arkansas survived from that list. NC State, USC, and Alabama are the new ones. He's got OVs scheduled to all five.

Kansas tried to swoop in later with Kalkbrenner and Key. We hear sometimes that bigger name schools can do that and get the recruit. But many other times they don't. Kansas more recently on their pursuit of a 2020 5 has targeted Javonte Brown-Ferguson among others. He is expected to re-classify to 2020 class.

[RiseAndGrind]

Back to Sunrise! For Oden and Stone

 

[Pistol]

We also have an offer out to Kendall Brown (2021), but he's a Twin Cities kid and 5-star recruit who just transferred to Sunrise this season and calls KU his dream school. We're not getting him.

I love that we're making the push for Stone and Oden.

[RiseAndGrind]

8 minutes ago, Pistol said:

We also have an offer out to Kendall Brown (2021), but he's a Twin Cities kid and 5-star recruit who just transferred to Sunrise this season and calls KU his dream school. We're not getting him.

I love that we're making the push for Stone and Oden.

same. I feel like there is more to the story with Stone - his recruitment has really gone quiet - but I think he would be a perfect fit.

Don’t know as much about Oden but In Travis I Trust. 

[Slu let the dogs out?]

13 hours ago, courtside said:

Ryan Kalkbrenner committed to Creighton.

 I get that Creighton has had a lot more success than Stanford the past 10 years but this is still a bizarre choice to me. Stanford is still Stanford and Purdue is an ugly 7 footer basketball player factory. Kid skyrockets up the rankings and then settles on a Creighton program that might be in hot water.

 

[3star_recruit]

19 minutes ago, Slu let the dogs out? said:

 I get that Creighton has had a lot more success than Stanford the past 10 years but this is still a bizarre choice to me. Stanford is still Stanford and Purdue is an ugly 7 footer basketball player factory. Kid skyrockets up the rankings and then settles on a Creighton program that might be in hot water.

 

It's definitely a calculated risk. Easier to be an impact big as a skinny 7 footer in the Big East than the Big 10.

Creighton's Justin Patton was ranked similarly to Kalkbrenner and was a first round draft pick two years ago. Coach Ford sold Goodwin on the idea of being the next Marcus Smart. Recent success stories can be powerful influencers.