Recruiting Report: Damezi Anderson (2018)
The state of Indiana knows who Damezi Anderson is, at least the scouts and media. However, look for those outside the state lines to begin to learn his name because the strides he has made since the summer make him…
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Continue ReadingThe state of Indiana knows who Damezi Anderson is, at least the scouts and media. However, look for those outside the state lines to begin to learn his name because the strides he has made since the summer make him look like he is ready for the big stage.
Known as more of a shooter in his early days, Anderson has really started to round out his game and become a complete player. Scouts see it, coaches see it, and now Damezi sees it. His potential is starting to come to fruition.
“(Damezi) Anderson is good, he carried us,” South Bend Riley head coach Mark Johnson said of his star Junior. “Then his legs left him and he all of a sudden let it fly a little bit too much. We try to tell him more is less and less is more.”
“The challenge is to get him shots he can make,” Johnson continued. “We tell him to not take shots that he can take. That is the difference and sometimes, when you are gifted, all great shooters they are going to shoot because they believe the next shot is a make. Damezi is no different than that, he is a great player but much more than a great shooter.”
One word to describe all of it is maturity. Damezi has grown up, seemingly overnight, and he was a man against Southport. Coach Johnson says that Damezi has “matured immensely.”
“He’s coachable. He allows us to coach him, he allows us to get in him and he doesn’t pout. He’s not a primadonna.”
That maturity has come in the form of his shot selection, his tenacity in his rebounding, and just playing within himself. He was a tough guy to gameplan against because when Damezi’s shot was on, there is no gameplan that can slow him down but he only had a game like that maybe one out of every four. Now, this looks like a nightmare, on par with some of the best players in the state and something that he can bring to the floor every night.
“Last year, he just played,” Johnson said. “The man is fun. This year, he’s a little more in tune to how we have to play. We get the ball inside to him a little more. We want him to slash a little bit more. We want him to get to the free throw line a little bit more. Last year, he shot. This year he is doing it all. I love coaching him.”
Recruiting is still in the early process for him and part of that is a mystery, why a guy capable of putting up 30+ point every game is still without a ton of offers. However, if this is the new and improved Damezi Anderson, it will be really hard to hold off on offering him any longer. At 6’6 and with his athletic ability and scoring ability, he’s a sure fire offer candidate for most DI programs.
To date, Purdue, Indiana, and Xavier are the big schools keeping tabs on him. New Mexico is the only school to have offered Anderson at this point. Anderson has been on campus to Indiana and Purdue this Fall, getting a look at two of the larger local programs that could increase their interest soon.
“They were both great,” Anderson said of his trips. “I see how the players work in college, they just work hard. It motivated me to just go harder.”
Damezi sees the improvement in his game, the maturity. He’s producing at a high rate and already eclipsed the 1,000 point mark for his career. So far this season, he is averaging in the 27 point per game range, one of the best in the state.
“I became a leader this year, I became more mature,” Anderson said of his game. “I know the game now, I know basketball. Everybody knows I was a shooter last year, I just had to improve my game, mix my game up so people can’t guard me.”