2023 Recruiting

[tya1]

First offer for the rising high school junior class.

Riley Allenspach 6'10" post from Providence Day School in the Charlotte area has received a Paladin offer. He has earlier offers from George Mason, App. State, and East Carolina. He has interest from dozens of schools including ACC, SEC, A10, Missouri Valley, Ivy League, etc. He is smooth and agile with good low post moves and and a good outside shot.

His father and his father's twin brother both played D1 basketball. (Both were about 7'0" tall - Adam was 7'1" and played for Clemson and Brian was 6'11" and played for Davidson, before transferring to Western Kentucky.) Riley's 6'8" cousin A.J. signed to play basketball at West Point.

[apaladin]

Reading the above mark him in the no chance column. Still like the coaches for trying.

[tya1]

Lukas Walls, 6'4" wing from Webb HS in Knoxville, Tenn., just picked up an offer from Furman after an unofficial visit a couple of days ago. He has an earlier offer from Tenn. Tech.

Do it all kind of player - slick ballhandler, good off the dribble, and can knock down the jumpers.

https://twitter.com/lukastwalls1

A couple other players getting some interest from the Paladins include Jasen Brooks, a 6'1" guard from Cleveland, TN, who is known for his three point shooting and also has a lot of interest from a bunch of different colleges. Brooks is expected to make an unofficial visit to Furman early in October. Also the Paladins are interested in 6'1" Brandon Rechsteiner from Etowah HS in Woodstock, GA. Rechsteiner is quick, slick, and a good shooter but his passing really catches the eye most. He averaged 9 assists per game last year.

[tya1]

Reading the above mark him in the no chance column. Still like the coaches for trying.

Right now Allenspach is about the same height and weight as Garrett Hien, who some folks think is very skinny. Hien is probably more athletic. Of course, Allenspach is just starting his junior year in high school so there is time and expectation that he will get stronger and more athletic. At this point in his development he is mainly a finesse player with a nice shot.

[Monday]

For all the pro wrestling fans on UFFP (and I know there's quite a few of you), Rechsteiner is the son of WWE Legend "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner. If he is to sign with a SoCon team, Wofford and Mercer have also shown interest, he will be the second WWE offspring to play basketball in our conference. The first being Brian Pfohl, son of Lex Luger, who played for Mercer from 2004-08.

[tya1]

Latest offer - Evan Ipsaro, 5'10" guard from Covington Catholic HS in Park Hills, Ky. (Cincinnati, Ohio Metro area.)

Covington is an athletic powerhouse and has won two Kentucky state championships in the past few years - most recently in 2018. They just won their third straight district title. Ipsaro was named MVP of the district tournament. He is averaging over 22 ppg this year and hitting almost 90% of his FTs.

He has previous reported offers from Stetson, Radford, Bellarmine, Youngstown State and Cleveland State

[DungeonRealm]

[tya1]

Rogers has been excelling this spring in AAU play and has also picked up offers from Belmont, Lipscomb, Toledo and Indiana State in the past ten days. He will probably get a couple of dozen this summer unless he makes an early decision.
LINK

We’ve now seen back-to-back weekends of near dominance from one of Georgia’s hottest prospects. Rogers impressed across the board last weekend in Louisville at the Grassroots Showcase, he then picked up a slew of offers, and he followed it all up by doing it again at Bama Jam. Rogers was more than a handful for opposing post players this past weekend. Nobody he went up against had an answer for them on either end of the floor. Rogers averaged double figures over the course of the weekend—highlighted by an 18-point performance on Sunday—and put a hurting on some rims along the way. A thing that this Allstars bunch does well is limit second-chance points, and the big fella certainly did his part on the glass. You know a player is doing something right when the score and clock keepers start asking questions about him, and I fielded several about Rogers throughout the weekend. - Josh Tec

Lukas Walls, 6'4" wing from Knoxville, has committed to Samford.

[DungeonRealm]

My guess is that our staff is looking to sign for the 2023 class one guard to replace Bothwell and one big to replace Slawson, those will be the only 2 players with no eligibility remaining after this upcoming season

https://www.verbalcommits.com/schools/furman

[DungeonRealm]

[tya1]

No new offers to report but two of Ben Vanderwal's AAU teammates were at Furman on an unofficial visit at the start of summer workouts this week . A picture was posted of Vanderwal with 6'8" Drew Scharnowski from Burlington Central HS and 6'6" Nik Polonowski from Lyons Township HS. Both are players who are getting recruiting attention lately.

LINK

The breakout player arriving during the April live evaluation period is a little different than in the past.

Today, it’s more about garnering interest rather than securing offers. While offers have been extended for the lucky few, expect the majority of offers, especially for those on the cusp of being Division I players to come during June and July.

College coaches are still sorting through the pesky ordeal of the transfer portal and filling their rosters out with experienced, college-ready players first. Again, the high school kids will have to wait.

Nonetheless, the two spring April live periods provided a platform and several players took advantage.

Biggest Class of 2023 Stock Risers: Niklas Polonowski, Lyons and Drew Scharnowski, Burlington Central

The combination of Lyons’ Niklas Polonowski and Burlington Central’s Drew Scharnowski is a testament to players being discovered regardless of who and where they play.

These were two no-named prospects in the Class of 2023, but the college coaches have found them.

The junior tandem doesn’t play for one of the shoe-sponsored grassroots basketball heavyweights. But an ideal fit with Breakaway Basketball has provided the perfect platform for both. Breakaway plays in the Under Armour Rise, a complimentary travel basketball league to the shoe-sponsored Under Armour Association.

Polonowski, a genuine sleeper in the junior class, is set to establish himself as a Division I prospect.

In helping his Breakaway team to four wins last weekend, Polonowski averaged 11.5 points and 4.2 rebounds a game while knocking down 10 three-pointers. It’s that shooting, along with his size and strength as a 6-6 combo forward, that has grabbed the attention of college coaches.

While there hasn’t been an offer just yet, the 6-6 Polonowski has done his job over the past two live periods to generate interest. There is a growing list of interested programs, including Brown, Furman, Toledo, Lipscomb, Minnesota-St. Thomas and San Diego.

Scharnowski, who in early April the City/Suburban Hoops Report projected to be one of the biggest live evaluation period breakout players, is a 6-8 super skilled 4-man. He’s lived up to that forecast.

As a result of his play in April, Scharnowski is now hearing regularly from the likes of Dartmouth, Princeton, Bucknell, St. Thomas, Furman and Miami-Ohio.

[tya1]

Drew Scharnowski, 6'8" Burlington, IL Central HS reports he has received an offer from the Paladins.

Scharnowski is up to about 10 offers, most of them in the past week. He also has offers from Brown, Illinois State, Bradley, William and Mary, and Missouri State among others.

[DungeonRealm]

https://www.verbalcommits.com/players/drew-scharnowski

[DungeonRealm]

Also:

https://www.verbalcommits.com/players/kayden-fish

[DungeonRealm]

So far that gives us 4 players with good height offered to find a Slawson replacement, but we will still need to find a guard

The one guard we have offered is probably not the route to go, kid is only 5'10 and is apparently not very interested in Furman as he does not follow Furman coaches on his twitter at all despite following a bunch of other coaches at other schools, so if that is his interest level I hope we pass on the short kid

I would like to find a guard in the 6'1 to 6'4 range depending on what's out there