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Kansas lands PG Devonte’ Graham
By J-W Staff Report
Kansas University basketball recruiting.
Kansas University basketball recruiting.
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Less than 24 hours after learning that it was losing its starting point guard, the Kansas University men's basketball program landed another, when Devonte' Graham, a 6-foot-2 senior point guard from Brewster Academy in New Hampshire announced his plans to join the KU program.
Brewster basketball coach Jason Smith confirmed Graham's decision via Twitter just before noon today.
Graham, the No. 36 rated player in the Class of 2014 according to Rivals.com, had a final list of KU, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Providence and officially chose Kansas over NC State roughly 23 hours after senior-to-be Naadir Tharpe announced that he was leaving the program.
Graham originally signed with Appalachian State in the fall of 2012, his senior year at Broughton High in Raleigh, N.C. Eventually he asked out of his letter-of-intent, but was not granted a release by coach Jason Capel. So he enrolled at Brewster Academy and finally received a release after Capel was fired and Jim Fox hired at Appy State on April 10.
He visited KU April 18-20, then headed to N.C. State and Virginia within a week’s time.
“When he (Devonte) first contacted me last spring, when he made up his mind that he wasn’t going to App State, I saw video and talked to people and they said it was a no-brainer. Those people told me that he was a guard that could play at the highest level. From coaching Devonte all year, that is very evident,” Brewster coach Jason Smith told jayhawkslant.com.
“He’s as good as any point guard we've had during my tenure at Brewster,” Smith added. “He’s kind of a combination of a few different guys. He’s explosive like Semaj Christon (Xavier). He runs the team and makes decisions well. He guards like Dogus Balbay, who played at Texas, so I knew once Devonte received his release, he’d be recruited by the highest level programs.”
Of his game, Smith said: “He’s a little bit of both (point guard/shooting guard). Devonte can score if you need him to score, but he really shoots the ball well and he can defend. He was our leading scorer this year, but he still shot over 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from behind the arc and nearly 80 percent from the foul line.”
Graham said he has “true point guard skills. I control the game, I can pass and run the offense, but I can also make plays for myself and others. Most people call me a play making point guard.”
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