Recruiting Report: Cordell Gillingham (2016)

<em>(Photo Credit: Greeley Tribune)</em> Summer can be exhausting for basketball players. Playing game after game day after day, it can be easy to let your energy level lag off at times. Not for Cordell Gillingham, though. Watching the 6-foot-3 Colorado Chaos/Greeley West 2016 guard during a tournament in the middle of July is the same as watching him in a rivalry league game in January. Namely, you see energy. “I like to start the games off like that, because then it makes the game easier,” Gillingham said. “It makes the game easier for other players on your team and for myself. I’ve always kind of been like that since middle school. I always try to put everything I have into every single game I play.” Colleges have taken notice. Gillingham will leave Sunday night on a road trip that will have him visiting three quality NAIA schools: Morningside College (Sioux City, Iowa), Concordia (Seward, Neb.) and Kansas Wesleyan. “I’m super excited because it will definitely give me some options to think about and to see if I can end up there in the future,” Gillingham said. Morningside has been recruiting Gillingham since his junior year at Greeley West, while Concordia and Kansas Wesleyan began recruiting the guard after his strong performances with the Colorado Chaos 17s Elite squad at the Mullens High Profile Tournament in St. Louis and the Great American Shootout in Dallas. “They really said they liked how I can do all things on the court,” Gillingham said of the feedback he’s received from the trio of schools. “They like that I’m not just one player that can just score. But I can defend and they love the way I communicate on the floor.” Gillingham can fill it up in a hurry. He averaged 16.7 points per game as a junior for Greeley West last season to go along with 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists. “Offensively, Cordell is a really well-rounded player,” Greeley West coach Brett Cloepfil said. “His strength is probably attacking and finishing around the basket, and I think he surprised some people last year with how well he shot from the perimeter. He shot over 42 percent from 3-point range and 53 percent from the field. For a guy who’s usually in attack mode, he’s been pretty efficient. When he makes a few shots, he can really score in bunches, and I would expect him to be among our league’s top scorers again.” This summer, Gillingham focused intensely on becoming an even more well-rounded player, one who could cause fits on the defensive end for opponents. “I made strides in understanding that I need to rely on all those other things, not just scoring the basketball,” Gillingham said. “I’m also relying on my defense and my talking to get me into a game and getting me going.” Cloepfil has seen big improvements on the defensive end of the floor. “This summer he got to play with a lot of very talented players and did a nice job learning to contribute in more of a complimentary role. He did a great job defending, rebounding, talking and doing little things that coaches appreciate. That is the feedback we got from coaches at the next level.” Gillingham’s work in those areas has put him in a position to play basketball in college, a dream of his since he was in middle school. “I remember back in eighth grade when all of our friends would be sitting around and saying, ‘How cool would it be to play college basketball?’ What I’m learning is, even though it’s not at the Division I level, there’s still some really good players at every single level of college, so it’s just a blessing really to be able to play in college.”