Recruiting Report: Luke Empen (2018)
Northeast, Goose Lake’s 6-foot-6 big-man Luke Empen has been drawing a ton of early interest from all levels of schools — from NAIA to Division I — since his breakout freshman season last winter. After another pretty good sophomore season,…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingNortheast, Goose Lake’s 6-foot-6 big-man Luke Empen has been drawing a ton of early interest from all levels of schools — from NAIA to Division I — since his breakout freshman season last winter.
After another pretty good sophomore season, the talented big is hoping to improve his game exponentially during his upcoming 16U offseason with the Iowa Barnstormers.
“I have a couple letters from Briar Cliff, and couple more NAIA schools looking at me. Also Luther College, Western Illinois, Wayne State, Augustana, and South Dakota have sent mail,” said Empen.
“I am not really worried about it right now, I’m just going to keep playing my game, keep getting better, and hopefully some mail keeps coming and coaches become more interested in me.”
Empen was the fourth leading scorer on a 21-3 Rebels team which lost to state qualifier Anamosa in a district final last month.
“I have been rebounding really well this season, and I improved my game a lot around the low post. Adding more moves to my repertoire. I haven’t been shooting as much as I did last year, but I’ve been looking to get most of my buckets inside at the post,” said Empen, who averaged 8.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks during his sophomore season.
“This year I had a bigger role of course, and we actually had offenses that I was heavily involved in. Coach expected more of me this year. I didn’t shoot as well as I did last year, but that’s alright because I’ll get back into my groove.”
As heads into his spring and summer training, Empen explained to PHI what areas of his game he’d like to improve in.
“I need to work on my dribbling and my outside shot. During college I’m looking more towards power forward and small forward,” he said. “I definitely want to improve my defense on bigger opponents, and improve my scoring abilities — just my overall game I guess.”