Recruiting Report: Janier Puente (2017)
For a guy that didn’t start playing basketball until his freshman season, Perry’s 6-foot-5 center Janier Puente is pretty darn good. He averaged 11 points on 62 percent shooting last season while pulling down a conference best 8.4 boards…
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Continue ReadingFor a guy that didn’t start playing basketball until his freshman season, Perry’s 6-foot-5 center Janier Puente is pretty darn good.
He averaged 11 points on 62 percent shooting last season while pulling down a conference best 8.4 boards per game.
And though baseball is his first love, he says basketball may still be an option at the next level.
“I heard from Briar Cliff, and I think I’m going to a camp there with my teammate Kyle Nevitt, and my coach said Central is also looking at me for basketball,” said Puente.
“I hope I can develop more this summer, but baseball is my main sport; I want to go to college for that and I’m being recruited by South Dakota State. But if that doesn’t work out I want to have basketball to fall back on.”
Puente got exponentially better last season as a junior in just a six month time frame. And for a guy that is so good after only hooping for a few years, maybe basketball could be a more realistic option six months from now.
“After the beginning of the season last year I improved a lot, and I worked my way up to get a starting spot,” said Puente. “And I ended up leading the league in rebounding and scoring 11 points per game for my team and then going to state, that was really fun.”
A big-bodied post with great strength who plays aggressively, Puente defined his style of play to PHI.
“I think I’m a great rebounder, that’s what I focus on. I attack the rim sometimes and go up strong. And I’m good at helping my team with offensive rebounding and putbacks,” said Puente, who mentioned what he’ll be working on this summer with Cornsharks Select 17U.
“I want to be able to shoot jump-shots better and get a little better handle with my post moves and stuff like that before the season.”