Recruiting Report: Chase Allen (2016)
NIXA — Nixa’s Chase Allen has a difficult decision lying ahead — college basketball, or college football. A rugged 6-foot-7 senior post player, Allen is among the most efficient high school players the Springfield area has ever produced. Allen teamed…
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Continue ReadingNIXA — Nixa’s Chase Allen has a difficult decision lying ahead — college basketball, or college football.
A rugged 6-foot-7 senior post player, Allen is among the most efficient high school players the Springfield area has ever produced.
Allen teamed with 6-7 2015 Jacob Ruder to form a deadly inside-outside big-man combination last season and the pair helped lead Nixa to a 28-2 record and within moments of an upset win over eventual state champion Blue Springs South in the quarterfinals. He averaged 16.1 points per game, 8.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots and threw down 20 slam dunks in 29 games last season. But perhaps even more impressive was his 71.4 percent clip from the field.
For his efforts, Allen earned a slew of post season awards, including first-team all-state, second-team All-Ozarks and first-team All-COC.
Allen, whose father Terry Allen was the longtime football head coach at Missouri State University in Springfield, has taken the physical approach from the football field to the basketball court and relishes his reputation as an old-school post player.
“I play very physical and am great at getting position and making moves,” Allen said. “I am a strong finisher … I’d say having a father that coaches Division I football has always taught me to be more physical than the other guy in order to win, but I have watched a lot of film on Wilt Chamberlain to try and learn from his moves as well.”
Allen has drawn interest from several college basketball programs, including the University of Denver (plans to visit there), Princeton, and Western Illinois, and in football he holds a slew of scholarship offers, including Michigan, Iowa State, Minnesota, Wake Forest and others. He has even drawn some interest from college track programs for his abilities in the javelin where he set the state record last year.
“I truly love both sports and each season I have a hard time imagining not playing it again,” he said. “Basketball has always been my first love and I enjoy playing it more, but I have a much higher ceiling in football that could take me a lot of places. Whichever sport takes me to the school that is the best fit for me is what I will choose.”
Allen spent the offseason working on ball handling, post defense, and developing a mid-range shot in order to be more versatile and dangerous, and played in the prestigious Nike EYBL with MoKan Elite, widely considered one of the regions premier grassroots programs.
“Playing in the EYBL has been an amazing opportunity for me. I got to play with and against the best players in the country and became a true student of the game along the way,” Allen said. “Coach (Rodney) Perry does an incredible job of developing players and preparing them for the college level.
“Playing against the competition I have has made me a much better player. I was often matched up with someone I was not as big or athletic as, such as Harry Giles or Jayson Tatum, so I had to learn how to be a disciplined defender and just play as hard as I can.”