Kentucky has extended a scholarship offer to a basketball player who has literally never started a varsity game.
Rising junior Jaxson Hayes of Cincinnati (OH) Moeller High school says he has picked up an offer from the Wildcats:
Blessed to have received a scholarship from The University of Kentucky 🔵⚪️🔵 #BBN pic.twitter.com/S5giZKIWDU
— Jaxson Hayes♠️ (@hayes_jaxson) September 20, 2017
Hayes coach says he’s never started a game at this point, but his stock has risen with his height during the last year:
As a junior Hayes made the varsity squad at Moeller, a program that ended up playing in the OHSAA State Title Game in March, but he was a reserve. According to Kremer, Hayes averaged around three to four points a game, and played less than 10 minutes per contest.
Yet today Hayes has offers from schools such as Texas, Xavier, Ohio State, Purdue, Clemson, Illinois, Butler and Dayton.
It has been a wild ride for Hayes, who now stands 6-foot-10 with unique athletic ability for that height.
“He was a total late bloomer,” explained Kremer. “As a freshman I am going to guess he was 6-foot-1 tops and maybe 120 pounds. He was literally the 20th guy we kept out of 20 on our freshman team, but you knew he had great upside. He played in our freshman B games and he did fine, but he wasn’t physically mature.”
Kremer continued about his blossoming star’s steep growth curve.
“His sophomore year he grew to be about 6-foot-4 and started to get some JV minutes, but he wasn’t a starter.”
“His junior year he grew to 6-foot-7, maybe 6-foot-8, and really helped us a lot,” noted Kremer. “He played behind Riley Voss, who is now at Cornell, and Riley was a three year starter for us who was very crafty, so he played behind him, but did some great things, particularly defensively. Jaxson’s athletic around the rim, and started to show well in the state tournament. We knew he was going to be a big time recruit.
“Now he is a legit 6-foot-9 or 6-foot-10, and this summer everything went to another level. He is a kid who deserves it. He has waited his time and it is kind of neat to see.”
Jaxson Hayes has gone from JV backup to high-major priority in the span of 18 months. Here is more on his rapid rise https://t.co/FJLu1MeycA pic.twitter.com/rFiS27FZvX
— Brian Snow (@BSnowScout) August 9, 2017
