Recruiting 2019

[VUGrad1314]

Is this the same Chris Payton who is from Bloomington-Normal and originally committed to Illinois State?

[wh]

It appears that Chris (verbally) committed to Illinois State before his junior year, then decommitted in January.

https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-state/bhs-star-payton-decommits-from-isu-reopens-recruitment/article_60b07871-496f-59cb-a108-f421e581cc16.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-siderail-latest

He is ranked no. 8 in IL and 3 stars by 247 Sports and Rivals.

Likes to push the ball and handles it well for 6-7. Looks aggressive with shot blocking skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkAberSkuAw

[VU2014]

I remember hearing he committed to ISU last year and decommitted after he started to get interest from other P5 schools.

According to his verbal commits page he only has one offer which is to ISU, but he has received interest from Illinois, SLU and Bradley. The last I heard is that Illinois' interest slowed down a bit and they aren't recruiting him too hard but ISU is still recruit him hard (but they've offered literally 15 people in the 2019 class already). Bloomington is his hometown so that may or may not offer a recruiting advantage to them. He seems to have a pretty high upside. I'm thinking his VC page isn't updated because he's considered one of the Top players from the state of Illinois for the class of 2019.

Status: Undecided
Year: 2019 (HS JR)
Position: SF
Height: 6-7
Weight: 205
Hometown: Bloomington, IL
High School: Bloomington High School
Offers: Illinois State, Valparaiso, I think I remember hearing he had a offer from UIC
Interest: Illinois, SLU, Bradley, Purdue, Indiana, Butler, Kansas State
Rank:
247: 3 star (NATL. RANK: 277, SF RANK: 57, IL RANK 9)
ESPN: 4 star (SF RANK: 35, IL RANK 9)

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/chris-payton
https://247sports.com/Player/Charles-Payton-94453
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/216203/charles-payton

[VU2014]

Wow. Brandon Newman has really raised his stock this summer. Rivals has him as a Top 100 recruit in the country now.

https://twitter.com/RobBehrend/status/1010955178399461378

[M]

Amazing what playing on an AAU team like MeanStreets can do for ya. Good for him making the most of his opportunities.

[VU2014]

Has anyone else heard the rumors that Brandon Newman will attend prep school his senior year? If so that's a bit of a bummer. Would love to see him make a run with VHS. I'll be rooting for him where ever he lands.

[IrishDawg]

Not sure about prep school - but got an IU offer
https://twitter.com/coreyevans_10/status/1011394638308085760

[Pgmado]

The rumors are certainly out there. I don't know to what extent they are true.

[wh]

As a life-long Valpo resident, I can attest that Valparaiso University men's basketball is held in low esteem by the vast majority of resident college basketball fans. Most have tunnel vision love for IU, Purdue and the Big Ten or the typical dose of Catholic affection for Notre Dame. Newman isn't coming to VU any more than Hummel and Martin were ever going to. It's a nice human interest story, but there's no there there.

[VU2014]

As a life-long Valpo resident, I can attest that Valparaiso University men's basketball is held in low esteem by the vast majority of resident college basketball fans. Most have tunnel vision love for IU, Purdue and the Big Ten or the typical dose of Catholic affection for Notre Dame. Newman isn't coming to VU any more than Hummel and Martin were ever going to. It's a nice human interest story, but there's no there there.

Agreed. I doubt we'll even seriously get considered.

[bbtds]

Could Newman end up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and come to realize after playing 1 or 2 years in the B1G that "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

It didn't happen to Hummel or Martin but it certainly would not be the first VHS alum to want to come home.

[vu72]

Could Newman end up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and come to realize after playing 1 or 2 years in the B1G that "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

It didn't happen to Hummel or Martin but it certainly would not be the first VHS alum to want to come home.

But it did happen to Casey Schmidt and David Redmon!

[IndyValpo]

Could Newman end up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and come to realize after playing 1 or 2 years in the B1G that "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

It didn't happen to Hummel or Martin but it certainly would not be the first VHS alum to want to come home.

But it did happen to Casey Schmidt and David Redmon!

And of course Rob Harden....Mike Jones committed to Ole Miss but I think there was a coaching change and I don't think he ever went south.

[IndyValpo]

As a life-long Valpo resident, I can attest that Valparaiso University men's basketball is held in low esteem by the vast majority of resident college basketball fans. Most have tunnel vision love for IU, Purdue and the Big Ten or the typical dose of Catholic affection for Notre Dame. Newman isn't coming to VU any more than Hummel and Martin were ever going to. It's a nice human interest story, but there's no there there.

Not sure the purpose of this post, were people claiming he might end up at Valpo?

[AranJacobs]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-ptb-spt-boys-basketball-valparaiso-brandon-newman-st-0602-story,amp.html

Here is a link to an article about Newman and prep school. From my understanding there is a better than 50% chance he's leaving VHS but don't hold me to that.

[bigmosmithfan1]

That makes less than zero sense in Newman's case. The reason to go to a prep school is if you feel you are somehow underrecruited, or if you need an extra year to develop and get seen against better competition. Between his AAU team and his h.s. program, which is a traditional power and plays at the highest level in one of the top states for h.s. talent in the country -- not to mention the fact that he already has multiple offers from ACC, Big Ten, and Big East schools -- going prep school doesn't seem to have much rationale behind it, unless he just wants to move out of Valpo one year sooner.

[wh]

Could Newman end up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and come to realize after playing 1 or 2 years in the B1G that "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

It didn't happen to Hummel or Martin but it certainly would not be the first VHS alum to want to come home.

But it did happen to Casey Schmidt and David Redmon!

And of course Rob Harden....Mike Jones committed to Ole Miss but I think there was a coaching change and I don't think he ever went south.

The situation at hand is whether a local high school kid might opt to stay home and sign a LOI with VU. I explained why it won't happen due to the local mentality.

As I said, history clearly supports the fact. If you eliminate Bryce from the discussion for obvious reasons, you have to go back more than 30 years to find a Valpo kid that signed with VU out of high school. That's not an indictment of the university, it's an indictment of a community with a parochial mentality.

[VU2014]

The situation at hand is whether a local high school kid might opt to stay home and sign a LOI with VU. I explained why it won't happen due to the local mentality.

As I said, history clearly supports the fact. If you eliminate Bryce from the discussion for obvious reasons, you have to go back more than 30 years to find a Valpo kid that signed with VU out of high school. That's not an indictment of the university, it's an indictment of a community with a parochial mentality.

"History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes," - Mark Twain

[bigmosmithfan1]

As I said, history clearly supports the fact. If you eliminate Bryce from the discussion for obvious reasons, you have to go back more than 30 years to find a Valpo kid that signed with VU out of high school. That's not an indictment of the university, it's an indictment of a community with a parochial mentality.

(Pushes glasses up on nose):
Technically, 27 years... Rob Cavanaugh.

Also, that's been 27 years? Oh man, I'm old. 

But yeah, look, it's not that we can't occasionally land the guy with P5 offers right out of HS, but I can't recall the last Valpo HS kid (Bryce excluded) that fell into that category. (Heck, I think Kenny Harris is the last Region kid who had P5 offers that we landed and that was what, 17 years ago?) It's an uphill climb for a number of reasons.

[IndyValpo]

As I said, history clearly supports the fact. If you eliminate Bryce from the discussion for obvious reasons, you have to go back more than 30 years to find a Valpo kid that signed with VU out of high school. That's not an indictment of the university, it's an indictment of a community with a parochial mentality.

(Pushes glasses up on nose):
Technically, 27 years... Rob Cavanaugh.

Also, that's been 27 years? Oh man, I'm old. 

But yeah, look, it's not that we can't occasionally land the guy with P5 offers right out of HS, but I can't recall the last Valpo HS kid (Bryce excluded) that fell into that category. (Heck, I think Kenny Harris is the last Region kid who had P5 offers that we landed and that was what, 17 years ago?) It's an uphill climb for a number of reasons.

Honest question, how many P5 offered kids have we gotten from anywhere (not counting transfers)?

Honest question#2, how many p5 offered kids has Valpo HS produced. I count 6 Harden1, Harden2, Schmidt ,Drew, Hummel, Martin with Newman on the way.  I may very easily be missing some.

[VU2014]

Honest question, how many P5 offered kids have we gotten from anywhere (not counting transfers)?

It's hard to define what is a "offer" from a Power Conference school these days. A lot of schools will "offer" but really it means interest. It's sadly become common practice to "offer" kids but in reality they are just Plan b, c, d, e, etc.

Alec Peters: had offers from Utah, Butler (Their interest stopped after a different kid they wanted more committed. There is actually a interesting backstory), Boston College

Derrik Smits: I believe had "offers" from  Power Conference schools: Butler was involved but they chose Nate Fowler of Smits, Clemson, Xavier and was getting interest from Purdue and Gonzaga at one point.

David Skara: had a offer from Virginia Tech

Jay Harris: Was a high recruit out of high school. What a bust... http://www.espn.com/chicago/teams/preps/columns/story?columnist=powers_scott&id=4957814

[wh]

As I said, history clearly supports the fact. If you eliminate Bryce from the discussion for obvious reasons, you have to go back more than 30 years to find a Valpo kid that signed with VU out of high school. That's not an indictment of the university, it's an indictment of a community with a parochial mentality.

(Pushes glasses up on nose):
Technically, 27 years... Rob Cavanaugh.

Also, that's been 27 years? Oh man, I'm old. 

But yeah, look, it's not that we can't occasionally land the guy with P5 offers right out of HS, but I can't recall the last Valpo HS kid (Bryce excluded) that fell into that category. (Heck, I think Kenny Harris is the last Region kid who had P5 offers that we landed and that was what, 17 years ago?) It's an uphill climb for a number of reasons.

Since you brought up Rob Cavanaugh, I thought I would post a terrific Paul Oren story about Rob from a few months ago. A great guy!

PROFILES IN SUCCESS: Cavanaugh takes hoops lessons into his work as an orthodontist

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-school/profiles-in-success-cavanaugh-takes-hoops-lessons-into-his-work/article_73ddef9a-2897-59b5-a650-afdd2aabacab.amp.html

[vu72]

Wasn't Todd Smith a good player out of Valpo High?

Todd went on to be an assistant coach at Rice.

This is part of his bio there:

The 40-year-old Smith, who was born in Valparaiso, Ind., played high school basketball at Valparaiso High. He was an all-conference prep performer, leading the Vikings to the "Sweet 16" in a state that is fanatic about its high school basketball. After graduating from high school in 1984, he went on to play at the next level for his father in his hometown.

[valpo64]

It often happens that a "local" star leaves his hometown to play at another school out of town... even in P5 situations.

[zvillehaze]

Alec Peters: had offers from Utah, Butler (Their interest stopped after a different kid they wanted more committed. There is actually a interesting backstory), Boston College

What's the backstory?