Major college teams are showing serious interest in this Lexington basketball recruit
The class of 2023 in Kentucky is shaping up to be one of the most talented groups of boys’ basketball players in years.
Male forward Kaleb Glenn has long been in the national spotlight and is already committed to Louisville.
Louisville Christian guard George Washington III is ranked by ESPN as the No. 24 junior in America, and he committed to Ohio State this month.
North Laurel guard Reed Sheppard — considered a five-star national recruit — will announce his commitment Saturday morning, with UK and U of L among the schools that have offered.
And there are plenty of other potential homegrown stars in this junior class. One of them — Lexington Catholic big man Reece Potter — made quite the name for himself over the summer, and high-major college coaches are starting to get serious about their interest.
Potter — listed at 7-feet tall and 205 pounds — was more of a supporting player last season for the Knights, a team that went 20-3 and featured senior guard Ben Johnson, who scored 27.3 points per game and ultimately earned Mr. Basketball honors.
Potter averaged 7.0 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game, solid numbers for a sophomore center playing in a perimeter-oriented system with older stars, and surely a sign of things to come for the Knights’ latest big recruit.
Though he has the size to dominate around the rim against high school competition, Potter isn’t some clunky big man who’s stapled on the block. And that’s what college coaches noticed this summer after not being able to recruit in person for more than a year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“He’s a face-up ‘5,’ even a stretch ‘4,’” said his grassroots coach, Steve Quattrocchi. “At 7-feet tall, he can put the ball on the floor. He’s got some ball skills. And he’s pretty good laterally. You can switch multiple positions with him, if you need to. He’s got a really high ceiling as a prospect. And he’s getting better. … He’s gotten night-and-day better, just in the year or so that I’ve seen him play.”
Quattrocchi, who oversees the Griffin Elite program, first watched Potter at the beginning of last high school season. He had coached Johnson previously, and the Lexington Catholic star gave a positive endorsement of his younger teammate. Potter committed to playing with Griffin Elite relatively early, and it worked out for all involved.
According to his AAU coach, Potter was the best shooter on the 16U team this past summer, making more than 50 percent of his three-point attempts while shooting an average of three or so per game. The Griffin 16U squad went 13-1 in July, and college coaches took notice.
Youngstown State gave Potter his first Division I scholarship offer in August, and — beginning last month — he landed offers from Saint Louis, Xavier and Western Kentucky over a two-week period.
“It was a really fun summer,” Potter said. “I played with a lot of great guys, a lot of talent. It was my first time playing AAU in awhile, so it was really fun. It was really cool to see the college coaches on the sideline watching us — like hundreds of college coaches. That was definitely crazy. These are schools that you dream of going to, so you look over and you see college coaches repping their gear — it’s like, ‘Wow.’”
Potter missed AAU ball the previous year to play baseball, but — as he’s continued to grow — he’s fully concentrating on basketball moving forward.
What’s next for Reece Potter?
Still two more seasons of high school basketball ahead of him, Potter is already in an enviable spot from a skill perspective. Quattrocchi said college coaches have told him they love his versatility for a player of his size.
“I’ve always been tall, but I didn’t think I was going to be this tall,” Potter said. “So I tried to learn the guard skills, because I thought I was going to be 6-5 like my brother. So learning how to dribble and learning how to shoot were big things when I was younger. Those are things that I’ve always been working on and getting better at.”
Potter was 6-5 by the end of middle school, and he’s just kept growing. He’s also been changing his game accordingly.
Quattrocchi said Potter floated around the perimeter a bit too much in the spring, but when he returned to the grassroots circuit in July — after a summer break that included some time with his high school team — he had shown great improvement in the post.
Potter also worked out this year with former Kentucky big man Daniel Orton, who is still playing professionally in Asia and spent time with the Lexington Catholic junior during his time back home.
“It was definitely something that I really focused on, just trying to get stronger and be able to bang in the post a little bit — to help my game evolve,” Potter said. “Especially learning from a guy like that who has all of the experience in the world. He’s learned from a lot of people. It’s something that’s helped me a lot.”
With Johnson off to Bellarmine to start this college career, Lexington Catholic will have a major hole to fill this season. Even with a promising 7-footer ready to take the next step in his development, the Knights are likely to remain a perimeter-oriented team, but that should only open more doors for a big like Potter.
In addition to posting up smaller defenders, Potter excels in pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop situations. He’s not afraid to take opponents off the dribble and is capable of creating his own opportunities away from the basket. If a team tries to play zone, Potter can move to the high post and either shoot the elbow jumper or see over the defense to set up teammates.
“He has good court vision, and he’s a willing passer,” Quattrocchi said. “There’s not a selfish bone in his body. … His game is not just to sit on the block. The more he can move and make his defenders work, the better.”
Potter is enjoying the recruiting process so far, and he acknowledged that the interest from high-level college programs is coming earlier than he expected. In addition to the four scholarship offers, he’s hearing from Butler, Illinois and Louisville.
U of L is scheduled to be at Lexington Catholic on Tuesday to see Potter practice, and coaches from other schools have already said they plan to see him play once the Knights’ season begins Dec. 1.
“I got the first offer, and I thought I might get a couple of more mid-majors, smaller ones,” he said. “And then out of nowhere … it’s been crazy.”
He has already taken unofficial visits to Butler, Western Kentucky, Xavier and Youngstown State, and he’s hoping to get to Saint Louis sometime soon. As more scholarship offers inevitably come, more campus visits will surely follow.
Potter told Quattrocchi that he wants to be a Top 100 national recruit by this time next year. And Quattrocchi, who has also coached previous Mr. Basketball winners Dontaie Allen and Dayvion McKnight, among others, said Potter took his game to another level every time he faced a highly touted big man over the summer.
“He’s just one of those guys that likes a challenge,” Quattrocchi said. “And as his post-up game comes, he’s going to be even harder to guard. … If he becomes as much of an inside threat as an outside guy, the sky’s the limit.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
