Monday Recruiting Tidbits – Commitments and Transfers

<p>A quick look at some of the recruiting news with current and former Oregon prep basketball players around the state:</p> <p>A couple of seniors in <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="965076" first="Aiden" last="Grady"] (2021 Westview)</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="855975" first="Jarrett" last="Bryant"] (2021 South Eugene)</strong> recently made decisions on their college futures for next season. Grady will be heading out of state to play at Maine-Fort Kent while Bryant will be staying in Oregon - and very close to home - by signing with Bushnell. We recently posted a story on Grady’s commitment and will be posting one on Bryant’s soon.</p> <p>In transfer news, <strong>Joseph Smoyer (2016 Franklin)</strong> will finish out his collegiate career at Chaminade as a grad transfer. The 6-foot-11 post spent the past two years at Columbia and sat out this past season after the Ivy League canceled competition. Smoyer got plenty of interest after entering the transfer portal but felt that the Hawaii school was the right place for his last year of play.</p> <p>"I’m excited about the opportunity and felt like it was the best fit," Smoyer said. "I really enjoyed my conversations with Coach Bovaird and liked his vision for the team and my role. Also Chaminade has connections to Portland with two guys from Portland on the team and Coach (Kyle) Milligan, who played at Jesuit. Beno (Memory, Smoyer’s trainer) knows the program well because of those connections so that made me very comfortable with the decision."</p> <p>A number of other former Oregon preps recently entered the transfer portal to potentially find new schools to move onto. Most notable on the list so far is <strong>Marcus Tsohonis (2019 Jefferson)</strong> as he’s coming off a year averaging over 10 points per game at Washington. As productive as his season was, his minutes were sometimes unpredictable and it appears he’s looking for more stability. Jefferson head coach Pat Strickland notes that he’s already received calls from high-major schools regarding the availability of the 2018 6A Player of the Year.</p> <p>Also in the portal looking for a potential new destination are <strong>Ja’Vary Christmas (2016 De La Salle North)</strong> and <strong>Nolan Bertain (2017 West Linn)</strong>. Both have a year left as redshirt seniors since the 2019-20 season wasn’t counted against their eligibility. Christmas averaged 5.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.8 assists the past two seasons at Idaho while Bertain averaged 7.4 points and 2.3 rebounds while shooting over 38 percent from three the past two years at Texas A&amp;M-Corpus Christi.</p> <p>Other former Oregon preps currently in the transfer portal include (averages for the 2020-21 season; listed with years eligibility remaining):</p> <p><strong>Kyle Greeley (2018 West Salem)</strong> - 4.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg at Portland State (3 yrs)<br /> <strong>Darius Guinn (2018 Grant)</strong> - DNP at Bryant (2 yrs)<br /> <strong>Myles Fitzgerald-Warren (2017 Madison)</strong> - 2.1 ppg at Washington State (2 yrs)<br /> <strong>Zeke Quinlan (2017 Life Christian)</strong> - 2.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg at Jackson State (2 yrs)<br /> <strong>Jalen Thompson (2018 West Linn)</strong> - 2.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg (2 yrs)</p> <p>Also of note is <strong>Rayven Turner</strong> who played at Jefferson during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons before moving on to Mountain Brook in Alabama.  He helped lead the team to the 6A state title, scoring 14 points in the championship game, and was recently named First Team All-State.  Turner has committed to the Air Force Academy.</p>