Photo: Courtesy of MN Basketball Hub
The University of Denver men’s basketball program landed another key recruit for the 2018-2019 season: JaVonni Bickham from Minneapolis’ Minnehaha Academy. Bickham announced his intention to attend the University of Denver next fall Wednesday evening. He will be joining DU’s other Twin Cities products Joe Rosga and Ade Murkey.
I'll be announcing my college decision this Wednesday at Minnehaha Academy Lower school/ Middle school @ 6:30pm All are welcomed
— JaVonni Bickham (@JavonniBickham) October 3, 2017
We wrote about Bickham and identified him as an ideal match for Denver basketball. While Verbal Commits has him listed as a 2-star national prospect, Scout and Rivals lists the Minnehaha Academy Redhawks power forward with a 3-star Minnesota rating. Scout had Bickham as a top 6 Minnesota prospect. That type of court quality is something Denver could only dream about before Rodney Billups’ arrival at University and Evans. To put this signing in perspective, even a power 5 conference team like the University of Colorado has more than half their squad as 2-star recruits.
Denver it is. Congratulations @JavonniBickham pic.twitter.com/peyiqd0ywo
— Minnehaha Academy Boys Basketball (@Minnehaha_BBall) October 5, 2017
The hope of all mid-major programs like Denver is to land strong up-side 2-star players and transform them into stars such as former Pioneers Royce O’Neale, Yemi Nicholson, and Chris Udofia. The MVP of the Summit League, South Dakota State University’s Mike Daum, was a 2-star rated recruit when he graduated from high school. Fort Wayne star guard John Konchar was a 2-star recruit as well. South Dakota’s skilled playmaker Matt Mooney wore the same 2-star label coming out of high school.
The news of Bickham’s announcement immediately reached the Minneapolis Star Tribune which noted Bickham took a pass on scholarship offers from New Mexico, Memphis, Towson (MD), Florida International, and University of Texas-El Paso to play for the Crimson & Gold.
The other thing to note about recent signings is the aggressive approach by the current DU staff to recruit early in the year and secure commitments by high school seniors prior to the start of the high school basketball season. In the past, Denver generally signed prospects after the high school basketball season ended and even picked up a number of uncommitted players during the summer, following their senior seasons.
We profiled two other highly ranked athletes during our ‘Big Shot’ series. It is highly unlikely that DU will land Twin Cities 6’10” center Joseph Hedstrom because he has been offered scholarships to Big Ten and the Pac-12 schools. Also, Jordan Guest, another 3-star player committed to BU after narrowing his choices to three schools, including Denver. As we reported before, Denver received a commitment from sharp shooting guard Jase Townsend of Dallas, Texas.
Expect Bickham to receive immediate playing time next fall as both Daniel Amigo and Christian Mackey will have graduated from the University of Denver. Denver will still likely pursue at least one more big man before the start of next season.
Welcome, JaVonni.
Great to see DU getting high quality recruits, which is the best way to upgrade the DU basketball program to get to NCAA tourney level.
Long term, it would also be nice to see DU land some more local stars to help excite the Denver area and help boost attendance.
Go Pios!
Welcome, JaVonni.
Great to see DU getting high quality recruits, which is the best way to upgrade the DU basketball program to get to NCAA tourney level.
Long term, it would also be nice to see DU land some more local stars to help excite the Denver area and help boost attendance.
Go Pios!
Interesting that this blog reports on new recruits, potential recruits, but when a returning starter leaves DU and transfers to a more major D1 program there’s no “article” about that. I guess only good news is news.
Sorry to break your heart FTP. We are called “LetsGoDU”.
Also, we did not report on the addition of Donovan Carlisle, a top 10 Indiana PF, during the summer either. Or, any other new summer additions to the DU roster. We will cover the additions and departures (C.J.) when we do the season preview. If Bobbitt was all-conference or all-American (like Zach Miller in lacrosse) we would have done a feature article on his departure in the middle of the summer but his departure was not that newsworthy in August.
Interesting that this blog reports on new recruits, potential recruits, but when a returning starter leaves DU and transfers to a more major D1 program there’s no “article” about that. I guess only good news is news.
Sorry to break your heart FTP. We are called “LetsGoDU”.
Also, we did not report on the addition of Donovan Carlisle, a top 10 Indiana PF, during the summer either. Or, any other new summer additions to the DU roster. We will cover the additions and departures (C.J.) when we do the season preview. If Bobbitt was all-conference or all-American (like Zach Miller in lacrosse) we would have done a feature article on his departure in the middle of the summer but his departure was not that newsworthy in August.
The loss of Bobbitt is substantial. He was a very solid player and sad to see him leave. However think we are heading in the right direction with recruiting
The loss of Bobbitt is substantial. He was a very solid player and sad to see him leave. However think we are heading in the right direction with recruiting
Bobbit was a pretty good player who was fun to watch and he certainly made contributions during his time as a Pioneer. I wish him all the best at NMSU.
That said, from what I understand, the coaching staff tried for a long time to get Bobbitt to elevate his academic efforts and his training habits, but did not get the results they were hoping to see. Perhaps its for the best for him to find a place that better fits his personality.
All in all, there are almost always transfers when coaching changes take place, and for Rodney Billups and his staff to only see one transfer during his time here to date is excellent.
Completely agree with this, the work that Coach Billups has done to get almost all of the returning players to buy into his system has been outstanding, it’s an underrated aspect of what he has done here thus far.
As far as C.J. in particular, he certainly showed flashes of brilliance and has potential, but it seems it is for the best on all sides that he transferred and I wish him the best at New Mexico State, as I’m sure we all do.
Bobbit was a pretty good player who was fun to watch and he certainly made contributions during his time as a Pioneer. I wish him all the best at NMSU.
That said, from what I understand, the coaching staff tried for a long time to get Bobbitt to elevate his academic efforts and his training habits, but did not get the results they were hoping to see. Perhaps its for the best for him to find a place that better fits his personality.
All in all, there are almost always transfers when coaching changes take place, and for Rodney Billups and his staff to only see one transfer during his time here to date is excellent.
Completely agree with this, the work that Coach Billups has done to get almost all of the returning players to buy into his system has been outstanding, it’s an underrated aspect of what he has done here thus far.
As far as C.J. in particular, he certainly showed flashes of brilliance and has potential, but it seems it is for the best on all sides that he transferred and I wish him the best at New Mexico State, as I’m sure we all do.