Basketball Recruiting Update: Bye-Bye Brooks

I’ll be offering periodic updates to the list I began in my 2018 recruiting primer here. They will be happening every few weeks or as news happens.

Out of the Running

J’Raan Brooks

PF; Garfield High School, WA; 6’8”, 215

Scout: 4 stars, #86 Overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #60 Overall; ESPN: 4 stars

The hope was that Brandon Roy being in Brooks’s ear during the basketball season would give UW a chance to make up ground. While that’s still theoretically possible, it is now astronomically unlikely. Brooks put out his Final 5 yesterday and it includes three schools from California plus Oklahoma and Virginia. Brooks may go to school at Garfield but he is originally from San Diego and it certainly seems like he wants to end up somewhere with a little more sunshine.

Brooks is the best big man college prospect to come out of Seattle since possibly Josh Smith in 2010. To not even make the top-5 list is not a good outcome for Coach Hopkins as he moves forward. As you’ll read below, UW is still in decent shape for a number of other big man prospects so this isn’t full blown panic mode yet but it would’ve been nice to at least get him to include UW to feel like they were slightly competitive. Part of the reason to have both Dollar and Conroy on the staff was to keep a lock down on Seattle. Brooks was the biggest flight risk of the 2018 duo so if Kevin Porter Jr. also goes elsewhere and they don’t secure a 4-star big, then it’s reasonable to start questioning the approach.

Spencer Freedman

PG; Mater Dei High School, CA; 6’1”, 160

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars; ESPN: 4 stars

Freedman was Hopkins’s first offer after taking over as head coach at UW and the fact that he attended Hop’s old high school raised the idea that it might be a potential long-term feeder school. That quickly ended when Freedman committed to Harvard two weeks ago. It would be nice to get a true point guard in the 2018 class but there are other similar options out there so this shouldn’t be considered a tremendous blow.

Status Update

Bryan Penn-Johnson

C; Coronado High School, NV; 6’10”, 200

Scout: 4 stars, #98 overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #39 overall; ESPN: 4 stars

In an interview 10 days ago, Penn-Johnson reiterated the statement that Washington has been in contact every day. The new piece of information was that he said Utah was as well but that no one else was showing anywhere close to as much interest. That is good news for UW if this ends up being a 2 horse race between them and Utah for Penn-Johnson. But I expect that sometime soon the blue bloods will start to get involved. In the last month, he was upgraded into the top-100 on Scout and a top-50 ranking at 247. The other news was that he will be transferring to an academy in Utah for his senior season which probably doesn’t mean much but definitely won’t hurt Utah’s chances.

Kamaka Hepa

PF; Jefferson High School, OR; 6’9”, 215

Scout: 4 stars, #47 overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #48 overall; ESPN: 4 stars; #62 Overall

Hepa took an unofficial visit to the UW last week. He hasn’t given a proclamation about how it went but it’s always good to get someone on campus to try to make an impression. He followed that up with another unofficial to Texas and continues to draw national interest so we’ll continue to monitor the situation.

Add to the List

Jamal Bey

SF; Bishop Gorman High School, NV; 6’6”, 195

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars; ESPN: 3 stars

Similar to Hepa above, Bey took an unofficial visit to the UW on June 20th. Unlike Hepa, UW appears to have a very good shot at Bey. The competition is obviously somewhat less but this is Hop’s first interest in a prospect that plays at Bishop Gorman which is coached by assistant coach Dave Rice’s brother. Bey is probably the best prospect from the school for the 2018 class but this will continue to bear watching in the future as UW already has offers out to two 2020 prospects from Bishop Gorman. Also, UW already has 7 players between 6’5 and 6’7 on the roster so Bey is not a position of need. He has offers from Arizona State, San Diego State, UNLV, and USC.

George Conditt

C; Corliss High School, IL; 6’10”, 200

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars

Conditt is an interesting sleeper prospect to watch out for. He apparently didn’t even have a scout profile before last month but is gaining momentum. He grew 4 inches last year and could easily still be growing. Illinois was the first high major program to offer a scholarship with UW second (offered this Tuesday) and Iowa State third. Getting a kid to leave the Midwest when there are absolutely no obvious ties between him and the program is certainly difficult but I like that UW got in on the ground floor and have a chance for a kid with potential to break out this year.

The List

Serious Chance

• Kevin Porter Jr.

SG; Rainier Beach High School, WA; 6’5”, 205

Scout: 4 stars, #28 Overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #67 Overall; ESPN: 4 stars

• Nic Lynch

C; Seattle Prep High School, WA; 6’10”, 255

Scout: 3 stars; ESPN: 2 stars

• Bryan Penn-Johnson

C; Coronado High School, NV; 6’10”, 200

Scout: 4 stars, #98 overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #39 overall; ESPN: 4 stars

Have Visited Campus

• Kamaka Hepa

PF; Jefferson High School, OR; 6’9”, 215

Scout: 4 stars, #36 overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #37 overall; ESPN: 4 stars; #48 Overall

• Marcus Zegarowski

PG; Tilton High School, NH; 6’1”, 165

Scout: 2 stars; 247 Sports: 4 stars; ESPN: 4 stars

• Jamal Bey

SF; Bishop Gorman High School, NV; 6’6”, 195

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars; ESPN: 3 stars

• Ed Chang

SF; Papillon-La Vista High School, NE; 6’7”, 180

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars; ESPN: 4 stars

Have Offered

• Elijah Hardy

PG; Bishop O’Dowd High School, CA; 6’1”, 165

Scout: 4 stars; 247 Sports: 4 stars; ESPN: 4 stars

• Emmitt Matthews Jr.

SF; Wilson High School, WA; 6’7”, 175

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars

• George Conditt

C; Corliss High School, IL; 6’10”, 200

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars

• Nate Roberts

PF; Brewster Academy, NH; 6’11”, 220

Scout: 4 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars; ESPN: 4 stars

• K.J Hymes

C; St. Mary’s High School, AZ; 6’10”, 215

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 3 stars; ESPN: 3 stars

Frankie Policelli

SF; New Hartford Senior, NY; 6’7”, 155

247 Sports: 3 stars

• Ignas Brazdeikis

SF; Orangeville Prep, Ontario; 6’7”, 220

Scout: 4 stars, # 39 overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars; Rivals: 4 stars

• Marcus Bingham

PF; Catholic Central High School, MI; 6’10”, 195

Scout: 3 stars; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #83 overall

• Luguentz Dort

SG; Calusa Prep, Quebec; 6’5”, 220

Scout: 4 stars, #29 overall; 247 Sports: 4 stars, #64 overall; ESPN: 4 stars