WESTFIELD, Ind. — Every spring and summer, high school basketball prospects get the opportunity to play in front of various college coaches in a different tournament at a new venue seemingly every weekend on the AAU circuit. The hope, of course, is to earn scholarship offers.
And perhaps no recruit in the 2017 class — and certainly none in the state of Ohio — has benefitted more from it and had a hotter start on the recruiting trail this spring than Kyle Young.
“Michigan State, N.C. State, West Virginia and Old Dominion were my four new offers this past week,” Young said this past weekend at Session 2 of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League. Add in offers from Florida and Northwestern on Tuesday, and that’s six in quite a short period of time.
But it’s certainly easy to see why Young is blowing up a bit this spring. He is a 6-foot-7 wing who possesses a unique ability to play both inside and out, he can shoot the ball well from deep and his versatility — Young says college coaches tell him he can play either forward spot at the next level — makes him a dynamic player.
Through the first two sessions of the EYBL, Young is averaging 13.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the King James Shooting Stars.
“They always tell me how versatile I am. Being 6-7, I can go on the wing and I can shoot, dribble stuff like that,” Young said. “That’s what they tell me that catches their eye and my athleticism and all that.”
Currently, Young is rated as a three-star prospect and the No. 148-ranked player in the 2017 class, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. That will almost certainly change at the conclusion of the AAU circuit, though, because if schools like Michigan State, West Virginia and Florida all want someone, it’s clear Young is a quality player. He also has offers from Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois and others.
So now, the question becomes where Ohio State fits into this picture. Young is a native of Massillon, Ohio, so he’s an in-state prospect only a short drive away from Columbus. He’s also an AAU teammate with another one of the Buckeyes’ top targets in 2017: point guard Markell Johnson.
Ohio State head coach Thad Matta watched Young and Johnson on Saturday morning play against All-Ohio Red. There were Buckeyes assistants that checked out King James a couple of other times throughout the weekend, as well.
Young said Ohio State, like a lot of these other high-major schools, only started recruiting him recently, but the interest is certainly building.
“[Ohio State] just started recruiting me a couple weeks ago,” he said. “I got a text from coach [Jeff] Boals and he started contact with me. Then he moved to Stony Brook so now coach [Greg] Paulus and coach Matta called me like two nights ago so they’ve just started recruiting me.”
So it’s clear the Buckeyes are only in the early stages of evaluating Young. Ohio State has to be cautious with its scholarship situation as it only has two open spots remaining for 2017 and at least one will go to a guard whether it be Johnson, Nojel Eastern, or any of the other top guard targets.
But there’s no denying the interest there from both sides. And Young said he’s in no hurry to make a college decision — he hopes to get that done before his senior season begins at Massillon Jackson — but does hope to make a visit to Ohio State sometime in the near future.
“They’re the home school and stuff like that,” Young said. “Ohio State, I always grew up watching them so [hearing from OSU] was pretty cool.”
So while Young is blowing up a bit nationally this spring, an offer from the in-state Buckeyes could change things a bit in his recruitment. The only question that remains now: Will Ohio State pull the trigger and extend an offer?
“It would be an awesome to get an offer from Ohio State,” Young said. “They’re a great school so yeah, that’d be pretty cool.”
