KU offers hoop scholarship to No. 22-ranked player in class of 2021. This + much more
Daimion Collins, a 6-foot-9, 180-pound senior-to-be power forward from Atlanta (Texas) High School, has been offered a men’s basketball scholarship by Kansas, he reported via Twitter.
The No. 22-ranked player in the recruiting class of 2021 by Rivals.com is being recruited by KU, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Houston, LSU, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, Tulsa, Stephen F. Austin and others.
He averaged 24.6 points, 13.7 rebounds and 7.7 blocks per game in his junior season for Atlanta High.
“My strengths I think are shot blocking and rebounding and I need to work on getting my jump shot better and my ball-handling,” Collins told wholehogsports.com.
Collins last summer played for Team Griffin, an AAU team based out of Oklahoma that won the Peach Jam championship. This year’s AAU season is on hold because of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
Louisville offers Jaden Bradley
Louisville is the latest to offer a scholarship to Jaden Bradley, a 6-foot-3 junior-to-be from Cannon School in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Rivals.com.
Bradley, whose nickname is “Silk,” averaged 23 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 2.5 steals a game this past season.
He has a long list that includes KU, North Carolina, Kentucky, Florida State, Texas Tech, Wake Forest, Florida State, Auburn, Xavier and others.
In his sophomore season, he averaged 23.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 7.0 assist and 2.5 steals a game.
Bradley’s high school coach, Che Roth, gave Bradley, the No. 8-rated player in the recruiting class of 2022 by Rivals.com, the nickname “Silk.”
“It came up in open gym. We were playing pickup, 5-on-5, getting up and down the court. I think he calls me “Silk” because of the way I was moving up and down the court. I guess it looked effortless,” Bradley told prospectiveinsight.com. “It just stuck from there. I rarely get to hear ‘Jaden’ from him anymore. I made my teammates call me Jaden though,” Bradley added.
Of his game, he said: “I like to get everybody involved, so a pass-first point guard. Downhill, when I get in transition, I like to attack the basket. I can stretch the floor and shoot it. I like to defend. I think defense starts great offense, so I’ve got to get it done on the defensive end.”
Ingram considering Purdue
Harrison Ingram, a 6-7 senior-to-be forward from St. Mark’s High School in Dallas, is said to be favoring Purdue, Rivals.com reports.
The No. 13-ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2021 also has KU, Stanford, Baylor, Houston, Louisville, North Carolina and many others on his list.
“No one has recruited him harder than the Boilermakers and their mix of academics and winning has intrigued Ingram. Do not count out Kansas, Louisville, Memphis, North Carolina or Texas A&M, either, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise if a few other blue bloods entered the picture,” writes Corey Evans of Rivals.com.
Self misses going to work on campus
KU coach Bill Self was asked by former Jayhawks and Creighton player Nick Bahe to describe what it’s been like working at Self’s West Lawrence abode instead of Allen Fieldhouse the past seven weeks because of the pandemic.
“I miss going in the office,” Self told Bahe on last week’s “Nick Bahe Podcast.”
“I don’t miss recruiting much at all. I don’t miss getting on planes. I am missing my staff, my administration. I don’t see any of them. I talk to them, but don’t see them,” he added of all individuals who work in the basketball office.
“The thing I miss most is the players. I did a Zoom the other day with every player and their families to give them an update, where we are, when can you come back, do you get a check, what about parking fees, how do we enroll for summer and fall semester, is it all going to be online, what do you have at home to work out with?
“General things … trying to get them educated on how everything works. You hang up and say, ‘Gosh I miss those guys.’ I really do,” Self added. “We’ve only been gone six weeks (but) the way our season ended, you have such a good year and absolutely nothing to show for it. I don’t even know if we got a T-shirt. I don’t know a lot of things. There’s not much to tell those guys, just how much you appreciate them for all the sacrifices they put in during the season.”
Walters’ workout routine
Here’s former KU guard Rex Walters, 50, who lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he was associate head coach on Danny Manning’s Wake Forest coaching staff last season, on his life during the pandemic:
“Not bad. Every morning I’ll wake up and run or walk four miles,” Walters said. “It’s little more like a ghost town here. In the neighborhood there are a lot of people walking or exercising. People are respectful of distance. There’s a lot more cooking at home .Deanna (Rex’s wife) is cooking up a storm. I do exercise and am getting good caloric intake.”
Ostertag praises Shaq
Former KU and NBA center Greg Ostertag, during a recent interview with The Star, issued a tribute to former superstar big man Shaquille O’Neal.
Hall of Famer O’Neal, 48, averaged 23.7 points and 10.9 rebounds a game in 1,207 career NBA games over 19 seasons
“Shaq in the league now would average 40 points, 20 rebounds a game,” Ostertag said of the 7-foot-1 center who weighed about 300 pounds during his playing days. “Being his size, not being able to guard guys on the perimeter, he’d make up for it guarding inside. Nobody would score on him inside. You don’t have back-to-the basket guys anymore.
“At 320 pounds he could run the floor. He would guard the paint. He would score at will inside. They don’t play that kind of game any more (in NBA). He would dominate. He would dominate.”
Hawkins likes TV work, too
Former KU guard Jeff Hawkins, the new boys basketball coach at Pembroke Hill, tells The Star he’d like to continue his TV work in some capacity next season. He served as an analyst for some KU basketball pregame and postgame shows during the 2019-20 season on ESPN-plus.
“Hopefully I’ll still be able to work some games in my schedule. Some games obviously fall on weekends. I could do some of those if it would work with my schedule,” Hawkins said. “I would love the opportunity to do some games. I really enjoy it and love talking Kansas basketball.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 10:08 AM with the headline "KU offers hoop scholarship to No. 22-ranked player in class of 2021. This + much more."
