1997-98 Kansas Basketball Recruiting
Updated 8/6/98
News and Info
1998 Commitments 1998 Recruits

Intro - To get a better picture about recruiting, John's Unoffical KU Basketball Home page has a FAQ page on recruiting. Lots of other links back at GrayHawker's KU Sports Page. Here is a quick link to the 1998 recruiting targets, if anyone is interest (thought so!). USA Basketball has a great web page with bios on all the players for the Junior World team and the World University team. Some recruits and college freshmen are listed with KU and Big 12 ties.

1998 Recruiting summary: KU now has four signees and one verbal to complete the class. All KU fans everywhere were excited when they heard the news that Jeff Boschee signed. Then someone that bleeds crimson in one leg and blue in the other signed. John Crider has signed which will keep one Kansan at least on scholarship next year. The one verbal is Luke Axtell who is not bound to attend KU until he enrolls in classes this fall and will be elgible to play in the fall of 1999. It is unclear how many years of elgibility he will then have. Now Marlon London and Ashante Johnson have signed to complete the class.

I don't promise anything! Due to the fluidity of recruiting, you can count on changes. Remember - most of this information comes from newspapers (KCStar and LJW), talk forums, emails, news services (ESPN, TSN) and recruiting services like PrepStars and Insider's Report. So enjoy but don't take any of this as factual or substantiated even if linked with a newspaper article!

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Known KU Commitments


As of 4/13/98
Signed
 Player
 Position
 Ht.
Wt.
 From school
 Rating
 Signed Over
Verballed 4/12/98 Luke Axtell
 SF
 6-9
Austin, TX
Westlake HS		 All-Freshman BigXII
UT Transfer 		Kansas Over:
UT, T-Tech
Signed 11/12/97 Jeff Boschee
 PG/SG
 6-1
 175
 Valley City, N.D.
 Top 25, Top 5 PG
1997 N.D. USAToday POY
1998 CNN/USAToday North Dakota POY
1998 N.D. Mr. Basketball
1998 McDonald's AA
PrepStar Dream Teamer
1998 Parade AA		 Kansas Over:
Arizona, Minnesota
Signed 4/8 John Crider
 SG
 6-4
 180
 Horton, KS
 1st Team All-St
St.Joe Press KS 1998 POY
1998 KBCA Mr. Basketball
1998 CNN/USAToday Kansas POY		 Kansas Over:
OU, KSU, SMSU, Tulsa, Ill.St.
Signed 5/4 Ashante Johnson
 SF
 6-8
 215
 San Diego, CA
Canada College		 1st Team All-Cali JC
Kansas Over:
Xavier, Pepperdine, Florida State
Signed 4/17 Marlon London
 SG
 6-4
 185
 Chicago, IL
St. Joseph's
St. Joe's Best 		Kansas Over:
Indiana, Minnesota, Penn St, NM St, Ill St

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6/18-Still waiting on hearing whether qualified or not. Williams expressed confidence he will qualify. Will be on campus in the next two weeks.
6/25-Marlon has qualified by scoring a 19 on the English portion of the SAT (previous score of 15). He is expected to be on campus shortly to get aquainted and will participate in some of the frequent pickup games.

1998 Recruiting Targets
Player
 Position
 Ht.
 Wt.
 Home Town - School
 Ranking
Luke Axtell
Verballed 4/12
Updated 6/18		 SF
 6-9
Austin, TX
Westlake HS
Transfer UT		 Big 12 All-Freshman team.
Verballed Kansas: Over UT, T-Tech
4/6-Luke was on campus this past weekend. He played a short pickup game which was cut short due to his asthma and not having an inhaler. Luke had cut his hair and resembled the "clean-cut all-american" boy now rather than the Peter Fonda rebel many associate him with due to the recent events surrounding Pender's dismissal.
4/13-Luke has been reported in the LJW, KCStar and Dallas MN as transferring to KU. KU coaches are prohibited from talking about him until he actually enrolls for the fall. Freshman stats were posted as 13.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.4 apg, and 1.8 turnovers/game. #18 in conference scoring. #6 in 3pt pct at .412, #24 in blocked shots (0.6) and #4 in threes per game (2.6) The Axtell attorney was quoted in a ESPN Sportzone article as saying that UT AD DeLoss Dodds has already asked the Big XII to grant the waiver on the one year in-conference transfer elgibility penalty.
5/26-Luke's appeal for restoring the one year elgibility for transfering within conference was denied on a vote of 10-2 (KU and UT voted for). Luke reaffirmed his intent of enrolling this fall. He will be a junior in elgibility in the fall of 1999.
6/18-Axtell's appeal to university presidents has been reported to be denied.
Jeff Boschee
Signed 11/97
Update 6/18		 PG/SG
 6-1
 180
 Valley City, ND
 Top 50
Top 5 PG
Kansas Over: Arizona, Minnesota, Indiana
Team won Nike camp tourney. Unknown before camp. From unknown to top 5 PG. Played on Minnesota Streets AAU team. All around athlete.
Sr-All-State. Jr Yr Stats - 25 pts, 4 asts, 2 stls, 100 of 200 3-ptrs, 58% FGP, 84% FTP, ND Plyr-Yr, 3.5 GPA.
3/6-Scored 35pts in substate game on 3/5 to lead his team to a win. Having a great year scoring (25.6), assists (6.0) and steals (3.1) as of 3/11. Team took 3rd in Class A state tourney. Jeff had tremendous quarter-final game. Wonder if he will have any influence on another top N.D. player goes after next year? Nick is a 6-6 junior SG on the all-state team.
MCDonald's AA - West Squad. March 25th. Placed 2nd to Ted Dupay in 3pt shooting contest.
Capital Classic US Team - Apr.8th
3/25-Named Mr. Basketball in N.D. for second straight year.
3/26-Jeff looked about what I expected for him in an Allstar game. He tried to play a little team ball, gave it up a lot, never got it back, played to involve others. Going against the best in the country, he held his own defensively and got off a couple of good shots. He can flat out shot the trey. He made some terrific passes right off but his team mates couldn't finish the play robbing him of the assist. He made the most treys in the entire 3-pt Shooting Contest placing second in the final. He was unconscience in the semi making 21 shots.
4/9-Capital Classic report. Pretty non-descript showing by Jeff.
4/28-PrepStar Dream Teamer, No. 2 PG.
5/13-CNN/USAToday North Dakota Player of the Year.
5/19-LJW-Honors for Boschee
6/18-Jeff is on campus and playing pickup ball. Launching long treys in games. Definitely a different level than he experienced in N.D. Going up against Kevin Pritchard some and getting schooled. A good one to learn from.
John Crider
Signed 4/8
Updated 6/18		 SG
 6-4
 180
 Horton, KS
 1st Team All-St (Wichita Eagle)
Verballed Kansas Over: Oklahoma, Iowa State, SMSU, MU, Utah, Ill. St, Tulsa, KSU
3/3- St.Joe Article
3/19-John made a verbal commitment.
3/27-John was named to 1st Team All-State.
3/31-St.Joe Press Kansas 1998 POY.
4/6-1998 Kansas Mr. Basketball by the KBCA (Kansas Basketball Coaches Association).
4/9-John signed in a very emotional ceremony.
4/10-TCJ feel good article on Crider.
5/13-John was named the CNN/USAToday Kansas Player of the Year.
6/18-John on campus and playing pickup ball. Appears to be improved from last year. Seen running a killer 3-pt. shooting drill.
8/6/98-John played in the KBCA All-Star game. Game Report 
YR - PPG    RPG   APG   SPG     BPG    FT%   FG%    3PT%
SR - 31.3  11.1   3.0   3.7     2.3    79.6  53.0   32.2
JR - 26.5  11.7   5.6   3.7     1.2    85.2  53.1   37.4
SO - 21.0   9.5   4.7   2.1     0.5    80.1  47.5   32.9
FR - 15.9   8.1   2.7   0.7     0.7    69.0  55.4   32.6
Ashante Johnson
Signed 5/5
Updated 5/6		 SF
 6-8
 215
 San Diego, CA
Canada College
Kansas Over: Xavier, Pepperdine, Florida State
4/2Aveages - 23 ppg, 14 rpg, shot 58-% FG, 39-% of treys, 72-% FT. Plays both the perimeter and inside. His team made state JC semi-finals. Recruiting USA puts him nearer 6-7 or 6-8. Transfer from Utah after playing behind Keith Van Horn for two years (one redshirt). All-State in HS.
4/3-He is an uptempo player and very athletic for his size.
5/5-TCJ article, averaged 23 ppg, 14 prg, shot 58-% FG, 39-% of treys, and 72-% FT.
Wichita Eagle article on Ashante.
5/6-LJW article about Ashante's development as a player.
Marlon London
Signed 4/17
Updated 6/25		 SG
 6-3
 185
 Chicago, IL
St. Joseph's
Kansas, Indiana, Minnesota, Penn State, New Mexico State, Illinois State
4/8- Quotes from the Chicago Tribune.
4/9-Article describes Marlon as St. Joseph's best player which includes Indiana signee Mark Treadwell from the Chicago Tribune.
4/15-Gary Bedore article in the Lawrence Journal World. Coach comments: every bit as good as any player he had, including Isiah Thomas, with the flexibility to play PG, SG, SF.
4/19-London signed Friday morning. He average 17.4 ppg and 6 rpg on 54% FG shooting and 48% on treys. He played the point primarily but handled SG and SF as well. Marlon talked about KU recruiting him and contributing.
5/5-The ACT retest is on June 13th, the SAT on June 6th. Those dates may vary across the country but the bottom line is Marlon gets one more shot at the test if needed. If he has grades and nearly passes, KU could accept him as a partial qualifier, which is determine by a confusing sliding scale. The football team may have one partial already. I believe men's programs can have two a year leaving two for women's programs.
5/18-Confusion persists on whether or not Marlon has passed his ACT. He does have one more attempt to qualify for the fall in June if not.

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