Recruiting: 2018

[FWalum]

Great advice from his unlce and we all know Valpo only offers to priority recruits (they don't offer for just having interest like most schools).

My gut says as of right now greatest competition for Javon Freeman-Liberty will be Loyola, but they'll have 8 other guards on the roster barring any transfers when he'd be a freshman (6 Shooting Guard & 2 Point Guards). Also I think Akron is a threat.

This pretty much what happened to Bakari Evelyn at Nebraska, they had a whole slew of guards, recruited Glynn Watson over top of him and brought in two guard transfers, including Anton Gill from Louisville. Not exactly what you want to see as a freshman sitting on the bench. 

I would tell both player and parent to do their homework and not get caught up in the hype of some schools padding their depth charts.

[VU2014]

Guard offer for the 2018 class.

Name: Trevon Faulkner (any relation to Northern Kentucky PG Mason Faulkner?)
Position: PG
Height: 6-4
Weight: 180
Hometown: Harrodsburg, KY
High School: Mercer County High School
Rank: currently unranked by ESPN/Rivals/Scout but 247 Sports ranks him as a 3 star.
Year: 2018 (HS SR)

Current Offer: Valpo, Murray State, UL Lafayette, Middle Tennessee, Wright State, Western Kentucky
https://verbalcommits.com/players/trevon-faulkner

https://twitter.com/MercerTitansBB/status/892735358747672576

https://www.hudl.com/profile/3529781/trevon-faulkner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GLvNxwGyi4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiVEMIJpq6w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRPe3Ib-XHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TE3Z-uTh5c

[covufan]

Add Israel Barnes

http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=2221.125

[VU2014]

Add Israel Barnes

http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=2221.125

New Valpo offer: Israel Barnes

Year: 2018
Position: SG
Weight: 170
Hometown: Wichia, KS
High School: Wichita Southeast High School

Star Rank:
ESPN: 3 star
Rivals: 3 star
Scout: N/A
247 Sports: 3 star (2nd best player from Kansas in the class of 2018)

Current Offers: Valpo, Weber State, Tulsa
http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/israel-barnes

https://twitter.com/Ilb_12/status/889277343772143617
https://twitter.com/TheHoopFocus/status/889185574455738368

[VU2014]

Is it really that big of a deal? 

[FWalum]

I don't know that it is a big deal, just unusual to insert a video of another player into a post about VU offering a completely different player.  If you had made it the last video of the four and inserted a note saying " Here is a video of Mason Faulkner", then I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

[VU2014]

Reversed it and put it as the last vid.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/MOvering/status/895333741656027138

http://www.amnews.com/2017/08/09/mercer-county-two-sport-star-trevon-faulkner-excited-to-be-back-on-the-gridiron/

Mercer County two-sport star Trevon Faulkner excited to be back on the gridiron
By Matt Overing
Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Trevon Faulkner is happy to be back on the football field.

The Mercer County two-sport star is a favorite for Mr. Basketball and will be one of the top playmakers on the gridiron in Class 4A.

Mercer County basketball coach Josh Hamlin kept using one word to describe Faulkner: Unique.

"He's not only a really, really good player. He's an exceptional kid, a great person," Hamlin said. "He's one of the most hard-working kids I've ever been around. If you were around him, you'd never guess he was a Mr. Basketball candidate. The way he handles himself, the way he goes about his business — he doesn't want all of the attention. That's why this college thing is unique for him. He just wants to go out and play football and basketball, hang out with his friends and at the end of the day make a decision.

"It's unique when you get a kid that is as talented and humble as he is. That's what I take away from it. He works hard for everything he gets, and he deserves it."

....

Very good article. I recommend you give the whole article a read.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/xpinson4/status/894934771733860352

I believe Valpo only has interest at this point. Xavier Pinson took a unofficial visited to Valpo back in January. He was at the game vs UIC at the ARC when Valpo absolutely crushed them 96-65 and the walk-ons got some run in the game.

Xavier Pinson is seen as a sleeper recruit by many. There was some "controversy" last month when he decided to transfer High Schools for his Senior year in Chicago. He transferred from transfer from St. Patrick's (a very good program) to Simeon (a Basketball Powerhouse) on the south side. Some speculate that he transferred to Simeon to "get more exposure". Problem is some people think he won't get the same amount of playing time he would have at St. Patrick's where he was the Star player.

Current Offers: Indiana State, Evansville, Drake, Buffalo, George Mason, Hofstra, Cleveland State, IPFW, Toledo, Kent State, UWM, SIUE, WIU, Chicago State

He may be a steal for someone. I knew Valpo was showing interest but I'm not sure if we will offer. I really like the group of guards they've offered for the 2018 class. They all seem to be high ceiling guys. To be honest my favorite player they've offered is Alex Hemenway who is in the 2019 class. He is a straight up sharp-shooter. He's been getting high major interest but I'm hoping he loves Valpo and the staff & sees the opportunity at Valpo.

Xavier Pinson
Year: 2018 (HS SR)
Position: PG
Height: 6-3
Weight: 160
Hometown: Chicago, IL
High School: Simeon Academy

Rank:
Rivals: NA
ESPN: NA
Scout: NA
247: NA

Xavier Pinson Highlights Vids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq99oX46k6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mSlr4bC6Wo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgki380aiNU

[VU2014]

Sounds like Valpo has offered 2018 PG Shakur Daniel.
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/895355397032357889
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/895355930568781824

Shakur Daniel
Status: Undecided
Year: 2018 (HS SR)
Position: PG
Height: 6-5
Weight:
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
High School: Carlisle School

Rank
Rivals: NA
Scout: NA
ESPN: NA

Current Offers: Valparaiso, Southern Utah, North Florida, Abilene Christian
Interest (according to the reporter above): Arkansas, Iowa State, Arizona State, Little Rock, Akron, South Florida

Maybe he's a diamond in the rough. He's from Canada but the last year or so he's played his High School ball and AAU ball in Arkansas. Sounds like he a floor general type PG with some size and excellent court vision.

He mentions in this video from April that he was being recruit by Missouri and a few other High Major programs. My guess is Coach Emanuel is very familiar with Daniel from his time at Mizzou before he joined the Valpo Coaching Staff.
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/854167061613998081

Shakur with the lookahead pass.
https://twitter.com/AlamoCityHoops1/status/822916806528684032
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/823733979513753605
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/823756762167803904
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/824803290441457665
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/824824567315185664
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/830253902343847936
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/830255733904117761
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/830288428935815168
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/830289123609034752
https://twitter.com/sully7777/status/830291090905452544
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/830526132617375744
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/830533914397724677
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/830534460030480384
https://twitter.com/CliveDanielUTO/status/846897622195449859
https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/854124020656205825

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/09/10/canada-basketball-shakur-daniel-andrew-wiggins/15386179/

Shakur Daniel: The next product of Canada's basketball blueprint
By: Eric Prisbell
USA TODAY Sports
Date: Sept. 10, 2014
Shakur Daniel, a 15-year-old from the Toronto area, is following an increasingly successful basketball path.

LAS VEGAS — By the time Andrew Wiggins shook commissioner Adam Silver's hand at June's NBA draft, the creation of the next Andrew Wiggins was already well underway.

It began in early summer of 2012, as the Canadian Wiggins garnered attention that would make him the most touted amateur player in a decade. A Toronto man named Ro Russell, an influential and polarizing summer-league powerbroker who boasts of training Wiggins in middle school, sat down with a 12-year-old and his dad.

"Here is the Andrew Wiggins blueprint," Russell told the spindly adolescent, Shakur Daniel, and his father before explaining in exhaustive detail how Daniel could follow in the footsteps of a teen-ager who was virtually unrivaled in athleticism and hype. "Shak, I'm not talking about you being the next random high-major college player. Wiggins will be the number one pick and will go down in Canadian history — you can be the same.

"Are you ready to sacrifice your friends and girls and time? Are you ready to listen and be that guy because your life is not going to be the same? You are not going to have a regular life that everybody else has."

Regardless of how Daniel's career unfolds, his story illustrates the extent to which some influencers go to try to re-create not only a phenom but also a phenomenon. The ingredients: the guiding hand of a controversial summer-league coach, a father's leap of faith on a secondary school whose courses currently lack NCAA approval and a teen-ager's conflicting desires to be both extraordinary and ordinary.

STARTING FIVE: Previewing the 2014-15 NCAA hoops season

It also represents the inevitable next step for a country in the midst of a basketball boom. Already home to the past two number one NBA draft picks — Anthony Bennett in 2013; Wiggins in 2014 — and three of the top 18 picks in June's draft, Canada is now mimicking America's basketball world in another respect: engaging in the often-elusive chase for the next homegrown prodigy.

"Trying to be a number one draft pick is a great idea, but the path to get there is always tougher than people think," says Melvin Ejim, the former Iowa State standout who played for the Canadian national team at the 2013 World University Games. "You have to do it reasonably. The reality and weight on your shoulders have to be realistic."

With an uneven (at best) track record, Americans have long tried to anoint the next transcendent basketball star, those quests littered with cautionary tales. For Canada, where amateur basketball has flourished in recent years, here is a prospect in Daniel — now 15 and considered among the top players in the high school class of 2018 — who has been placed on a regimen to try to follow a once-in-a-generation high school talent in lockstep.

Just as Wiggins did when he attended Huntington Prep (W.Va.), the 6-foot-4 Daniel, a combo guard proficient in fundamentals, plans to play high school basketball in the United States to benefit from the best competition and most exposure. His father, Clive Daniel, is so committed to that plan that he left his job in Toronto more than a year ago to move — without a full-salaried job — to the Phoenix area, where his son plans to join a fledgling basketball program, Elite 1 Academy for Academics & Athletics, beginning in the fall of 2015.

Elite 1-affiliated players take classes at a three-year-old charter school, The Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies. Odyssey is "fully accredited," says Russell, who later adds that he is unaware if the school's courses have already been approved by the NCAA.

.........

An interesting article. Give it a click & a read.

[VU2014]

Some Valpo Recruits on this list.
https://twitter.com/MidwestHoopsSL/status/895046681716297728

http://midwesthoopsspotlight.com/rankings/

2018 Midwest (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana) Top 100 Rank:

18. Javon Freeman   Whitney Young High School (IL)   6'4''   SG
21. Xavier Castaneda   Whitney Young High School (IL)   5'11'' PG
26. Deavion Washington   Terre Haute South High School (IN) 6'3'' SG
39. Walter Ellis   South Bend Adams High School (IN) 6'4" G/F

[VU2014]

Valpo recruit from South Bend Walter Ellis will spend his final year of high school at a boarding school named Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. I'm assuming this move is being made to put a greater focus on basketball and get more attention & offers. Seems like more & more kids are doing this these days.

https://twitter.com/iamwalterellis/status/897238927752519680

[FieldGoodie05]

Valpo recruit from South Bend Walter Ellis will spend his final year of high school at a boarding school named Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. I'm assuming this move is being made to put a greater focus on basketball and get more attention & offers. Seems like more & more kids are doing this these days.

https://twitter.com/iamwalterellis/status/897238927752519680

Could be telling those that recruited him, thanks but no thanks.  Mark it up to another delusions of grandeur young man.  Oh well, not the first recruit to have bigger dreams.

[vu72]

As I recall, this is the same move that Vashil made.  Doesn't mean we won't get him and, it could be academics as well as another year to play at a higher level.

[VU2014]

Very tough situation. "Grant felt he was lied to by the Indiana staff & not given a chance"

As far as I know Valpo hasn't pursued the local prep product Grant Gelon nor did we have any scholarships available. He's only going to have 2 years of eligibility left after next year at community college. The coaching staff is most likely very familiar with Grant. I'm not sure he's a fit here but I've heard some fan chatter/speculation on twitter that maybe he'd land at Valpo. I think he'd be ideal walk-on player and then maybe earn a scholarship but I can't blame him for want to find a scholarship somewhere. Our coaching staff has been recruiting some high ceiling guards for the 2018/2019 class.

His High School Coach said, "Grant's a tough kid, a great competitor. This would be tough on anybody. I wanted to let him know he had options. He got beat up his freshman year at a Big Ten school with a program like that," Swan said. He was trying to keep his head above water. He got better. I know how competitive he is. He wanted to go there and give it a go. I know it hurt him. It was frustrating. I absolutely know he has D-I options."

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/basketball/college/indiana-university/crown-point-s-grant-gelon-unhappy-about-treatment-at-indiana/article_bfe85faa-0936-5407-b1c0-11ef2705bec9.html

https://twitter.com/nwi/status/899073600392581120

[VU2014]

We have a big time official visit set with Javon Freeman-Liberty for September 1-3.

https://twitter.com/scottybscout/status/899683806281650177
https://twitter.com/PrepHoopsIL/status/899743469912170496

https://www.prephoops.com/2017/08/javon-freeman-sets-trio-officials/

Javon Freeman Sets Trio of Officials

...........

Freeman told us briefly what he likes about each program

Valpo: "It's close to home."

Akron: "Have a coach connection with the coaches."

Florida Gulf Coast: "I love that the school is in Florida and on the beach."

What will the smooth wing be looking for on these visits?: "Gyms, the dorms, the environment."

Freeman mentioned that VCU and Drake are still in the mix as well. He does not have a timetable for a decision at this time. Freeman helped lead the Dolphins to state title last year and played a key role for Meanstreets run to a Peach Jam bid.

He currently ranks as the #7 overall prospect in the state's 2018 class.

[vu72]

We have a big time official visit set with Javon Freeman-Liberty for September 1-3.

https://twitter.com/scottybscout/status/899683806281650177
https://twitter.com/PrepHoopsIL/status/899743469912170496

https://www.prephoops.com/2017/08/javon-freeman-sets-trio-officials/

Javon Freeman Sets Trio of Officials

...........

Freeman told us briefly what he likes about each program

Valpo: "It's close to home."

Akron: "Have a coach connection with the coaches."

Florida Gulf Coast: "I love that the school is in Florida and on the beach."

What will the smooth wing be looking for on these visits?: "Gyms, the dorms, the environment."

Freeman mentioned that VCU and Drake are still in the mix as well. He does not have a timetable for a decision at this time. Freeman helped lead the Dolphins to state title last year and played a key role for Meanstreets run to a Peach Jam bid.

He currently ranks as the #7 overall prospect in the state's 2018 class.

ESPN has him No.4 in the state.

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/226203/javon-freeman

[covufan]

Florida Gulf Coast: "I love that the school is in Florida and on the beach."

We better hope that it is not unseasonably cold and overcast when he leaves Chicago for the FGCU trip.  Otherwise, the beach, warmth, sun and coeds may win out. 

[FieldGoodie05]

Florida Gulf Coast: "I love that the school is in Florida and on the beach."

We better hope that it is not unseasonably cold and overcast when he leaves Chicago for the FGCU trip.  Otherwise, the beach, warmth, sun and coeds may win out.

The only beach FGCU has is self created on a man made lake on campus.  But nice beaches are within a 30-45 minute drive.  That school seems to be where well healed snow birds hatchlings attend.

[wh]

From the first day Homer Drew arrived on campus and continuing today, what Valpo has to offer is a coaching staff with a burning desire to prepare every player (without regard to basketball ability) for a lifetime of success as well balanced men of great character, and players and coaches who genuinely love and support each other - on and off the court.  Beaches and warm weather don't hold a candle to that.

[FieldGoodie05]

From the first day Homer Drew arrived on campus and continuing today, what Valpo has to offer is a coaching staff with a burning desire to prepare every player (without regard to basketball ability) for a lifetime of success as well balanced men of great character, and players and coaches who genuinely love and support each other - on and off the court.  Beaches and warm weather don't hold a candle to that.

To well centered mature recruits that set aside glitz and prestige.....bingo.  But what % of high school seniors have such mature characteristics?  Or more than likely an adult that can keep them centered.

[covufan]

From the first day Homer Drew arrived on campus and continuing today, what Valpo has to offer is a coaching staff with a burning desire to prepare every player (without regard to basketball ability) for a lifetime of success as well balanced men of great character, and players and coaches who genuinely love and support each other - on and off the court.  Beaches and warm weather don't hold a candle to that.

I realize this, many former players can attest to this, but sometimes 17-18 year olds don't always share the same viewpoint.  These points do intend to impress the parents and other adults in the equation.

Well put and thanks!

[vu72]

From the first day Homer Drew arrived on campus and continuing today, what Valpo has to offer is a coaching staff with a burning desire to prepare every player (without regard to basketball ability) for a lifetime of success as well balanced men of great character, and players and coaches who genuinely love and support each other - on and off the court.  Beaches and warm weather don't hold a candle to that.

I realize this, many former players can attest to this, but sometimes 17-18 year olds don't always share the same viewpoint.  These points do intend to impress the parents and other adults in the equation.

Well put and thanks!

This sounds a lot like LaVonte Dority, who found the warm weather and white sand of South Florida too appealing but later realized that being close to Chicago was the better fit.

[M]

Hope the team and staff can show him a bit more to be excited about besides "it's close to home".

[FWalum]

This sounds a lot like LaVonte Dority, who found the warm weather and white sand of South Florida too appealing but later realized that being close to Chicago was the better fit.

If someone knows him or has some connection, he ought to be hooked up with a link or recording of LaVonte Dority's interview last week on Union Street Hoops.  His words should make for a great recruiting tool!