A recruiting Shocker: Quincy Ballard chooses Wichita State over hometown Syracuse
Isaac Brown has his first recruiting upset of the spring.
The Wichita State men’s basketball team were the stunning winners in the two-school recruiting battle for 7-foot sophomore center Quincy Ballard, a Syracuse, N.Y. native who turned down the hometown Orange to join the Shockers in an announcement on Saturday.
“I feel like the best path for my future is to become a Shocker,” Ballard said in a short video sent to The Eagle. “To all of the Shocker Nation family, I love you already. Get ready for a beast of a season.”
Not only did Brown and his staff — assistant Tyson Waterman spearheaded the recruitment — beat out Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim and the hometown Big East destination, but they also secured a mobile, 7-foot rim protector the program has been searching for since joining the American Athletic Conference. WSU has only had two true 7-footers (Asbjorn Midtgaard from 2017-20 and Ehimen Orukpe from 2010-13) the past decade.
Ballard and his parents took an official visit to WSU the final weekend in March and left raving about the experience. But anytime WSU drives a recruit to the airport without a commitment with plans of taking an official visit elsewhere, there’s always some nerves in the process. In the end, Brown’s first impression was remembered.
“Coach IB is fantastic, he really is,” Regina Ballard said. “He’s like the most personable, trusting and caring coach. Q was really impressed by that. He spent a lot of time with Q and I was really impressed by that as well. You can tell he really cares about his players and that’s so important to us and well-appreciated.
“It seems like a very strong program and a really tight-knit family and that’s what Q and his family is looking for.”
WSU has had success in the past playing a three-man rotation at center and the Shockers appear to be on their way again with the addition of Ballard and the expected addition of Alabama transfer James Rojas, a fifth-year senior, this weekend to join incumbent sophomore Kenny Pohto. There could even be a scenario where Pohto, a 6-foot-11 pick-and-pop specialist, plays at the same time as Ballard, a 7-foot rim protector.
Ballard’s statistics from his two seasons at Florida State won’t impress: he played sparingly in 36 total games with averages of 1.1 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in 4.1 minutes per game. Ballard and WSU both believe what he needed was a fresh start in Wichita to show what he can do on the court.
Despite his limited playing time, his shot-blocking should translate immediately with a 7-foot-5 wingspan. His 15.8% block rate came in much too small of a sample size to qualify for national leaderboards, but for perspective, it would have ranked No. 3 nationally this past season.
“He’s one of the most athletic kids you’re going to meet,” Regina Ballard said. “He wants to go somewhere that needs a good, strong big. He wants to go to a place where he can show out and show his ability and work as part of a team. He met some of the (WSU) players (on his official visit) and he thought they were pretty terrific. It definitely looks like it’s a really good situation.”
The Syracuse native was a late riser in the spring of 2020 recruiting class following a post-graduate season at Quality Education Academy in North Carolina, where he averaged 14 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks. He went from an unknown prospect to choosing between Florida State, Syracuse, Cincinnati, North Carolina State and Maryland.
By the end of the weekend, WSU is expected to have at least three players committed from the NCAA transfer portal in Ballard, Rojas and Drexel guard Xavier Bell. The Shockers are expected to have at least eight scholarships to hand out for their 2022 recruiting class, leaving them with five spots still remaining on the 2022-23 roster.
This story was originally published April 16, 2022 at 11:07 AM.
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