Local Men Competing in NCAA Division I Basketball
Basketball is off to a great start. There are 102 grads from Missouri and Kansas competing nationwide. Here is an early look as to who they are, where they are, and what they are doing.
Local men are going coast to coast on courts that are located coast to coast. The 102 players are from 70 Kansas and Missouri high schools. They come from the largest metropolitan schools and rural schools such as Hoxie which has 133 students. St. Louis based Vashon has 6 grads playing DI. There are seven schools with three and twelve schools with two playing DI. Leave a comment below if you would like that list of schools. These 102 athletes are playing for 70 colleges. They are on rosters of all five Power-5 conferences, plus those of the basketball centric Big East. They are also quite at home in academically selective conferences such as the Ivy and Patriot Leagues. These men are on five of the top nine teams in the country, including three of the top five. Truly, this area produces high quality talent.
Of the 102 players, 79 have scored. But, no more than by Ryan Kalkbrenner (Trinity Catholic/No. 7 Creighton) who leads the Bluejays with 16.6 points per game through eight games. Five others are also leading their college teams in scoring; Keshon Gilbert (Vashon/UNLV) with 15.9, Phillip Russell (Vashon/Southeast Missouri State) with 14.6, Carte’Are Gordon (Webster Groves/Grambling State) with 14.5, Kinyon Hodges (Central-Cape Girardeau/Eastern Illinois) with 11.1, and Spencer Jones (Bishop Miege/Stanford) with 10.7 points per game.
A big reason Ryan Kalkbrenner leads Creighton in scoring is his 77.78% field goal shooting parcentage. That is the 4th best in the country. Yuri Collins (St. Mary/St. Louis University) is good at dishing it out with the country’s best 93 assists. The former Dragon also leads the country with 11.6 assists per game. Yuri also takes good care of the ball as his 4.04/1 assist to turnover ration is the 14th best in Division I. Dajuan Harris (Rock Bridge/Kansas) isn’t far behind with 56 assists (5th best in DI) and 6.2 assists per game (11th best nationally). And being active on both ends of the court, Dajuan’s 21 steals ranks him 11th best in the nation.
I also want to note Kobe Clark (Vashon/Southeast Missouri State), yes that is the third former Wolverine to be mentioned today, for his all around play. The sophomore is averaging 7.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Kobe also has 23 assists, 16 steals and 12 blocks.
Here is the complete list of Missouri and Kansas grads competing in NCAA DI Bsketball:
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