Talen Horton-Tucker continues to impress observers on the AAU circuit this summer.
The four-star, 6-foot-5 wing from Chicago (Ill.) Simeon and the Team Rose AAU squad scored 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting at the Victor Oladipo Skills Academy in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. That comes on the heels of his averaging 18.2 points 7 rebounds and 1 assist per game at the Adidas Gauntlet Finale in Spartanburg, S.C., last weekend.
Horton-Tucker, who rose to No. 102 in the latest 2018 rankings, certainly got the attention of Rivals Corey Evans.
“A prospect that has shown that no ceiling exists when it comes to his development, Talen Horton-Tucker has continued to make major strides both with his body and game,” wrote Evans in his report from the Oladipo camp. “The total package at the small forward position, the top-150 recruit began his story as a lightly recruited regional prospect and now sits with offers from some of the top programs nationwide.”
Evans lauded Horton-Tucker’s “Georges Niang-like abilities as a point forward.”
Michigan State, Florida State and UNLV are the latest schools to add their names to Horton-Tucker’s offer list, which also included Iowa State, DePaul, Illinois, Purdue, Xavier, Ohio State and, of course, Northwestern. Those are the programs that Evans figures will survive when Horton-Tucker makes his expected cut-down next month.
Northwestern continues to be in prime position for Horton-Tucker, despite all of the other big-name programs showing up to the party lately.
NU was one of the first to offer the 6-foot-5, 210-pounder, during a visit last October, and Horton-Tucker has mentioned the Wildcats consistently as one of the schools recruiting him the hardest since. Head coach Chris Collins and assistants Armon Gates and Brian James were all in Spartanburg last weekend to watch him play his first games for Team Rose. (Horton-Tucker had previously played for the Mac Irvin Fire.)
The Wildcats have several advantages in Horton-Tucker’s recruitment. If he decides to stay close to home, he can’t get any closer than Northwestern, which is literally 10 minutes away from his home in Rogers Park on the far North side of Chicago. He has visited Evanston “six or seven” times already and has built strong bonds with several Wildcat players, especially Vic Law and others from the Chicago area. He likes the “family atmosphere” around the program, he has said several times.
It doesn’t hurt that NU is coming off of its first NCAA tournament, sinking $110 million into a gut rehab of Welsh-Ryan Arena and has already landed a pair of Rivals150 recruits in four-stars Jordan Lathon and Pete Nance, either.
Another thing to consider is that Northwestern was also one of the first programs to recognize Horton-Tucker’s talent. An unconventional, thickly-built body led some coaches to believe that Horton-Tucker would turn out to be a tweener at the next level, a power player who wouldn’t be able to play on the wing. Many told him that he would need to lose weight or get taller to play at the next level.
But not Collins. He saw Horton-Tucker’s value as a versatile playmaker all along, no matter his size. Collins told Horton-Tucker when he offered him last fall that the then-junior already had a body ready for college basketball.
“That’s something that no one else said,” Horton-Tucker told WildcatReport shortly afterward. “He said I don’t have to change anything, that I have the right body for the college game and everything that comes along with it.”
Collins wasn’t too concerned whether Horton-Tucker is a 2 or a 3, either. “Coach Collins says that I’m not really playing a position. I’m just a basketball player,” he said.
Those words were a comfort to Horton-Tucker at the time. Since then, of course, he led Simeon to a runner-up finish in Illinois and became a fast-riser this summer, so his skills have been validated. But players tend to remember who believed in them first.
Horton-Tucker’s plan is to see what other offers and interest he gains during this July evaluation period and then come up with a list of favorite schools to visit. Collins’ words last fall will likely keep Northwestern’s name on that short list this summer.
