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Every week, BTPowerhouse’s Big Ten Morning Power Bar details what’s going on across the league on the recruiting trail.
The holiday season is upon us, but that offers no reprieve for Big Ten coaches in their pursuit of prospects two to four years out. Multiple schools this week sent out offers to players around the country as the 2019 class and beyond come more and more into focus. Let’s take a look at some of the Big Ten’s activity this week.
Purdue Offers Top 50 Player, Malik Hall, Hosts Him On Unofficial Visit
The Boilermakers will be in the market for a dynamic small forward or power forward in the 2019 class and expanded that search by offering the talented player from Kansas.
I am Blessed to receive an offer to play at Purdue University. Boiler Up! #AG2G pic.twitter.com/XENjcjcNNC
— Malik Lorenzo (@iammalikhall) December 21, 2017
Hall also visited Purdue unofficially on Thursday night to see the Boilermakers blow out Tennessee State 97-48.
According to Rivals, he currently holds offers from such schools as Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Texas A&M and Oregon amongst others. Time will tell how much mutual interest there is between Hall and Purdue, but the Boilermakers are clearly leaving no stone unturned in the search for a star wing in the 2019 class. Take a look at some highlights of Hall below (courtesy of Courtside Films)
Illinois Offers Shooting Guards For 2019 And 2020 Recruiting Classes
After learning they were in Flo Thamba’s top four last week, Illinois kept up the recruiting grind by turning their attention to the backcourt and offering a pair of shooting guards for the 2019 and 2020 recruiting classes.
The 2019 offer is to 6-foot-5 guard Lester Quinones out of New York. Quinones is a three-star prospect with offers from Minnesota, St. Peter’s and Western Kentucky. Here he is dropping 38 points last week in prep action.
Quinones clearly shows a nice shooting touch in those highlights, but also wasn’t afraid to use his size to drive the lane and finish around the basket.
It could be an interesting Big Ten recruiting battle between Minnesota and Illinois for Quinones. Stay tuned for updates in his recruitment.
The second offer from Illinois this week went out to elite 2020 guard Julian Strawther. The 6-foot-6 Las Vegas native holds offers from such schools as Arizona, Cal, USC, UCLA, Florida, Florida State and Washington amongst others. Illinois is Strawther’s first Big Ten offer.
It could be tough sledding to get Strawther to come to Champaign, but if the top 15 player for the 2020 class starts visiting campus, that’s definitely a sign of interest. We’ll update his recruitment as it goes down. In the mean time, take a look at Stawther’s highlights.
Ohio State Offers Backcourt Pair For 2019 Class
Chris Holtmann continued his offering spree by extending Buckeye scholarship offers to 2019 point guard Desi “DJ” Carton and shooting guard Zach Harvey.
Carton is considered one of the top point guards in the midwest for the 2019 class and holds offers from Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Creighton and Missouri amongst others. Check out some of his highlights below.
According to 247, Carton seems high on the Badgers, but this recruitment seems far from over. It will be interesting to see what traction the Buckeyes can gain from this consensus top 100 player.
Harvey is another top midwest prospect, coming in at no. 38 nationally according to Rivals.
The 6-foot-4 shooting guard can light it up and can already put some people on a poster as evidenced by some of the highlights below.
Harvey currently has offers from Kansas, UCLA, Creighton, Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern amongst others. Like with Carton, Ohio State will need to make some in-roads with Harvey, but these two offers shows Holtmann isn’t afraid to cast a wide net in 2019 and go into recruiting battles with the best in the country. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out.