Denver entered the rare air of college basketball recruiting when they landed a prized, three-star (247 Sports ) recruit out of Illinois, Tevin Smith. According to Verbal Commits who assigned Smith a 2-star ranking on their board, Smith received offers from Miami (Ohio), Milwaukee, DePaul, Oregon and Bradley. Initially, Smith committed to Cal-State Fullerton.
According to The News Gazette , his commitment was, “tethered to Titans assistant coach and Bloomington native Brandon Dunson. So when Dunson last April was announced as the University of Denver program’s new associate head coach, Smith had a decision to make. Smith officially decommitted from Fullerton on May 27. He then picked up an offer from Denver coach Jeff Wulbrun’s staff one day later.”
Denver has recruited some high-level prospects in the past such as local Denver prep player Drick Bernstein, Jase Townsend out of Dallas and current roster member JaVonni Bickham who was a highly sought prep player before two major knee surgeries. However, according to DU athletics, this three-star recruit is the most significant freshman signing Denver has ever landed.
The 6’5″ shooting guard from Danville, Illinois can score from anywhere on the floor and his size will allow him to make plays on both ends of the floor in the Summit League. In high school, he averaged 20.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game as ranked #2 small forward and #8 overall player in the state of Illinois.
Up until this point, Jeff Wulbrun had added some nice experienced players to the roster and a developmental player in freshman Coban Porter. The addition of Smith adds a four-year starter and a much-needed scoring punch since Denver lost their top four scorers from last season. This move takes Denver closer to realizing Wulbrun’s vision of creating the most improved team in the nation following last season’s 2-19 finish.
Photo: News-Gazette
The key for Denver to crawl out out last place is to start getting players that other D-I schools also want. This one looks like a start.
This Smith commit was obviously based on the relationship that Smith had with Brandon Dunson, DU’s new assistant, who was at Fullerton before coming to the Pioneers.
Let’s hope he’s as good as the coaches hope he is…
the great untapped resource at DU is and has been BB from the year dot .. WE are a hockey school , which was started on campus from scratch including the purchase of the old barn (which was originally a barn , I believe) and which we used to play in while we were winning national championship after national championship (of the NCAA kind) to the great annoyance of many well financed (largely Taxpayer financed,” state. teams” I believe )from the north eastern and the far north of the country. thanks to the foresight of the university , students and outstanding alumni support amongst other things as well as brilliant recruiting the “team” flurished and continues to do so .
But is bb per se a game changer?
We have with hockey a workable blueprint for championship BB should we wish to go that route
The obvious question being do we wish to put all or a large portion of our athletic eggs into the new basket ironically called basket ball. or do we ignore the fame and glory that could come from the super athletes needed to produce the elusive fame and sporting glory.
The obvious un asked question being will we be required to de-emphasise hockey to feed the new monster that could grab all the oxygen in the room..?
European universities, for example do not ,as a rule, field such a wide variety of athletic teams as part of their primary function.as a university with the possible exception of rowing etc in England.,
My last. unanswered question Thanks to BB is DU now at a crossroad on where as a private university to spend its limited resources on athletics or academics? Some will say it’s not a new or unanswered question. but in today’s new environment in my view it is .
Thomas f Conlon, Bromley Kent, England
All fair questions.
Hockey, DU’s golden goose, will always have top billing and high level support. The current AD, Josh Berlo, and the board members stand solidly behind hockey competing at the highest level. There is no change there and plans to profit share and make capital improvements.
As for basketball, that is seen as a different fan base and revenue opportunity. The team can use ‘buy games’ to profit share and strategically spend on facilities to improve the experience and revenue. Basketball can be a revenue sport – but at this point has been a drain. The move to the WCC should help.
And, yes, there will always be a tension between the cost of athletics and academics. Largely, the athletic department has asked by the Board to self fund most improvements. There is not a bucket of cash available flwith declining enrollment for extra spending. Donors have been stepping up.