Joe Laravie Commits
Exceptional academic hub Archbishop Alter High School just produced another college basketball player. Tuesday evening Class of 2016 point guard Joe Laravie made his college commitment.
Joe Laravie will play for Head Coach Mike Neinaber and Division II Christian Brothers University (Memphis, TN).
“I thought, at first I wanted to wait it out,” said Laravie to PrepHoops.com “But, after my visit to the school it really felt like home to me. The guys on the team were nice and it’s a really young roster, so I think our chemistry will be really great when I am a junior and senior.”
Kettering Ohio’s Archbishop Alter High School produced John Paxson (NBA vet-Bulls), Jim Paxson (NBA vet-Blazers), and Jaaron Simmons (Ohio University). Paxson and his brother Jim are actually Laravie’s uncles.
Front man for the CBU Buccaneers since 1999, Coach Neinaber has strong connections to the Cincinnati-area.
It was not an accident that Coach Neinaber and his staff were scouting in the SW Ohio region. His son lives in the Cincinnati-area and the Christian Brothers University squad is filled with Cincinnati-area talent. In fact, once he moves in Laravie will become the seventh southwest Ohio/northern Kentucky hooper on the Buccaneers.
“Coach Neinaber brings in a lot of guys from the Cincinnati area,” said Laravie. “I’m just north from Dayton, but I knew about some of the guys on his roster. Three of them even played for Coach (Mike) Price…with Shining Stars (AAU).”
Evaluation Process of Joe Laravie
Dating back to June 2015, Laravie was a target of the CBU basketball program. Coach Neinaber has arduously recruited the Shining Stars AAU basketball program. Laravie played for the Shining Stars during the AAU season.
“So, all of last summer, basically, he watched us play,” said Laravie. “After the summer was over he gave me a call to let me know he was interested because of my size, ability to shoot the ball, and play the point guard position.”
The Shining Stars AAU program provided Laravie with a great outlet. He competed with them for two years and truly grew as a young man in that time.
“He was really aggressive on the court and learned how to be the man,” said AAU Coach Mike Price. “When he was 16 he was unassuming and he didn’t really use all of his talents. He is a long kid with good wingspan. He shoots a true jump shoot, even on his three’s. His senior year he worked on attacking the rim. He wasn’t tentative at anything.”
The Shining Stars drilled skill work and fundamentals during their practices. Joe drove the furthest, always arrived on time, and embraced the process.
“He got a lot tougher mentally in the last year,” said Coach Price. “He got to trust what we were asking him to do. He rebounded really well too.”
Laravie adapted to his AAU program and blossomed in his final year of AAU, during which he attracted his initial college interest from CBU.
In the mean time Laravie was attracting interest from several other DII programs.
“I was considering Wheeling Jesuit, but they had a commit come in early and I lost interest,” said Laravie. “I also was considering Pitt-Johnstown where my brother goes to school.”
Laravie could have re-united with his older brother Jake, albeit for a single year, if he committed to Pitt-Johnstown. PJU has also advanced to four DII NCAA Tournaments under their current head coach.
“(Jake) was a senior in high school when I was in eighth grade, but because he redshirted, I would’ve had the opportunity to play with him for the first time, which would have been cool. But I felt it wasn’t the right fit for me.”
When Coach Neinaber came to watch Laravie in his District Championship game the recruitment kicked into high gear.
“They really started pushing hard at the end of my high school season, but have been interested since last summer,” said Laravie.
CBU has advanced to the DII NCAA Tournament four times under Coach Neinaber. With the nucleus forming, Laravie and company can add to that number quickly.