Prospect Spotlight: Tyler DeBondt (2018)

Winning is everything to East Marshall’s heady point guard Tyler DeBondt. The 6-foot-1 senior-to-be -- who had one of the state’s best assist-to-turnover ratios last season -- says winning, not being recruited, is his top priority. Both with high school team and grassroots squad. “Honestly, I haven’t really gotten that many (recruiting) look, I would say. But that has never really been that important to me, I mean if that opportunity did come up, I would take it, but the most important thing for me is always to get better,” said DeBondt. “I don’t look for individual highlights or plays, but I just want to win and whatever it takes, I’m just going to do that.” A pass-first floor general, DeBondt says his role is to be a key distributor who makes the right play at every opportunity. “I would say that the most important thing I bring to our team is getting everyone involved and giving our team the best chance to win,” said DeBondt. “Just making the best play to give our team a chance to win, I would say.” ‘As a junior with East Marshall, DeBondt averaged 10.6 points, 8.3 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. He also led the team in 3s made for good measure.   “I feel like overall I had a pretty good season. I shot pretty well for most of the season and my assist-to-turnover ratio was pretty good, about where I wanted it,” said DeBondt. “We just came up a little short of the goal, but we have a new goal this year, and that’s to win a state tournament.” This spring, DeBondt has been playing with one of Iowa’s best grassroots squads, Iowa Intensity 17U. He’ll play with them this summer as well. And, of course, it’s winning that’s his primary focus. “On that team it’s a little different because we have a lot of playmakers and ball-handlers, which is a little different from my school team. But my role is still to make the best play for my team to win,” said DeBondt. “My goals for the summer is I just want to win. A lot of people are looking to get recruited, but I just want to win and get better for the school season, and win the state championship.”