Recruiting Report: Jake Kluender (2016)

<h2>November 18, 2015</h2><p>After one of the better summer’s of any player in the state, Spencer’s 6-foot-6 wing <strong>Jake Kluender</strong> is finally starting to generate some well-deserved attention from college programs.</p> <p>The bouncy and athletic forward picked up four NAIA offers since we last talked with him in May, and is hearing from Division II programs and one Division I school.</p> <p>“Morningside, Briar Cliff, Northwestern, they’ve all offered. And I’m still seeing D2 interest from University of Sioux Falls, and Wayne State. And then for D3 it’s Buena Vista, that’s it,” said Kluender, who picked up another offer from William Penn late Monday night.</p> <p>Kluender added: "The Sioux Falls coach just recently texted me, and the Wayne State coach and I talked after a shootout we went down to recently. He just said they were interested in me and they&#39;d be watching me my senior year.”</p> <p>The talented senior - <em>PHI’s</em> 48th-ranked 2016 - says D2 is the goal, and always has been, but he’s not ruling out NAIA or Buena Vista.</p> <p>“I would prefer NAIA, but I do like Buena Vista and their style of play, so I’m not ruling them out just yet,” said Kluender, who also mentioned he has talked with Division I North Dakota a couple times about walking-on.</p> <p>The goal for him though is a scholarship offer, from a D2 program.</p> <p>“I know a lot of D2 schools have offered a lot of their scholarships already," said Kluender. "But I’m hoping that there’s a couple schools that haven’t seen me yet that still have a couple scholarships available, and hopefully offer a scholarship.”</p> <h2>May 13, 2015</h2><p>After a successful junior season with Spencer where he led his team in scoring, rebounding and steals, 6-foot-6 forward <strong>Jake Kluender</strong> has been scorching on the 17U grassroots circuit this spring.</p> <p>The athletic and versatile forward has heard from some area NAIA and Division III programs already, but looks to be a solid Division II option.</p> <p>“I’ve had a few teams interested. I’ve had the Dordt coach come and Morningside has talked to me a little bit, but I hope to get some more interest at these bigger tournaments that are coming up,” said Kluender.</p> <p>He also mentioned D3 University of Chicago and NAIA Northwestern (IA) have shown him some interest, but ultimately he feels Division II would be a better fit.</p> <p>“I think that I could play D2 level basketball, I would hope so, so I hope that I start to see some interest,” said Kluender, who says he hopes to improve defensively this summer.</p> <p>“I thought that I rebounded well and I was aggressive offensively this season,” he said. “But next year I’m hoping to be more efficient, and I want to help out more defensively, I gambled a lot on defense and a lot of times that leads to easy buckets for the other team and it hurts our team, so I need to get better defensively.”</p> <p>Kluender also mentioned he wants to improve from beyond the arc, he connected on 14 of his 39 attempts as a junior, good for 36 percent. Also ball-handling will be a top priority.</p> <p>“I like to do a little bit of everything, and I’m hoping to become a better shooter. I didn’t shoot very well this year from 3, and next year I want to be more of a shooter and work on my mid-range game,” said Kluender, who wants to become an adept distributor as well for the Tigers.</p> <p>“I want to become a better passer next year because we’re going to have a lot of really good shooters, and I want to work on my ball-handling so I’m able to see the floor better and get through smaller spaces.”</p>