Ja’Kobe Walter ‘not a flashy guy’ on the court, but elite colleges have taken notice
When the clock hit midnight and the calendar turned to June 15 — a date of annual importance in the college basketball recruiting world — Ja’Kobe Walter’s phone started buzzing.
That’s the first day that college coaches can directly contact players from the rising junior class, and — with prospects as good as Walter — those coaches rarely waste much time.
“As soon as it hit 12, I was getting calls,” Walter told the Herald-Leader. “It’s just great that they can finally contact me, so I really know who’s interested and who’s really trying to recruit me.”
As the night wore on, the calls continued.
Walter said he was dozing off when one college assistant reached out at 2 a.m.
How did that conversation go?
“I told him I had to go to sleep,” he said with a grin.
Calls that late are a little much, but it’s clear why so many coaches are lining up to show their interest in Walter’s recruitment. The No. 16 overall player in the 2023 class — according to the 247Sports rankings — Walter is the type of player that any program would want to bring in.
He describes himself as a combo guard who can get others involved. “And I like to play defense,” he noted — certainly music to any coach’s ears.
“He’s very interesting,” said Ani Umana, director of 5-State Hoop Report and a Texas-based talent evaluator. “Ja’Kobe is not a flashy guy, but he gets a lot done as far as a scorer. Off the bounce, off the catch. He does have a little bit of a set shot, but it goes in.
“He just knows how to use his body. He knows how to create space. He’s not a kid that just blows by guys, but he knows how to attack angles and get his shot off versus length. Just as a scorer — on all three levels — he’s efficient with it.”
With his team on the national Adidas circuit, he’s certainly fun to watch.
Last week, during the first July evaluation period, the 6-foot-5 Walter played up with Team Trae Young, competing with and against players that, for the most part, were a year older. He didn’t look out of place. Walter’s squad was packed with other high-major prospects, and they clearly liked to get out and run in transition as much as possible. Often, it was Walter leading the breaks.
Umana said he first watched Walter as an eighth-grader. He showed up at that game to evaluate another kid, but it was Walter who really caught his eye. Since then, the young recruit has continued to blossom.
This past season, Walter averaged 19.2 points per game and was named a second-team sophomore All-American by MaxPreps.com. As of now, Umana describes him as more of a “2” who has the ability to play some “3” at the next level, especially for a team using a three-guard lineup. He doesn’t project as a primary ball-handler, but he’s skilled enough with the ball in his hands to make things happen for his teammates, and he shoots it well enough to keep the defense honest. Even when he’s struggling, he stays active and locked in.
“He has high-level instincts,” Umana said.
Walter said playing against bigger, older guys this summer has been beneficial. With that type of competition, he’s trying to improve his ability to finish through contact at the rim, a major emphasis this offseason. He said he also works out with his dad, Eddie — a former college player, defensive standout and NAIA champion at Birmingham Southern — to bump him at the rim and help him hone those finishing skills.
“I think it’s making me more mature both mentally and physically,” Walter said. “I’m playing with top guys, so in practice we’re going at it.”
Ja’Kobe Walter’s recruiting list
Since that June 15 date, a number of major college programs have stayed in touch.
Walter said he receives a text message from Gonzaga every day. He mentioned Alabama, Oklahoma State and in-state programs Baylor, SMU and Texas as others in regular contact. Arkansas, Kansas and Memphis are among the programs that have reportedly extended scholarship offers. He’s supposed to visit Oklahoma State soon and said Alabama and UCLA are also on his to-do list of college trips. All three of those schools have offered, too.
Kentucky has also been in touch.
UK assistant coach Jai Lucas, a fellow Texas native, is one of the coaches that reached out on June 15 — he wasn’t the one who called at 2 a.m. — and has been in contact since then. Lucas and Orlando Antigua both watched Walter’s first game of the evaluation period in Hoover, Ala., last week, and John Calipari also had an eye on that contest. Kentucky’s coaches could see him again this weekend.
Walter said he grew up watching “all of the blue bloods” — specifically mentioning UK, Duke and North Carolina in that category. His recruitment could ultimately reach that level of interest.
“It’s Kentucky — that’s a blue blood,” he said of his own interest in the Cats. “One of the greatest colleges. I know a lot about them. They always have the (best) players. They always put them in the NBA. So I’m always looking at Kentucky.
“That would be great to get an offer from them.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
