Broduer Headed Ivy
Northfield Mount Hermon rising senior forward A.J. Brodeur made a verbal commitment to the University of Pennsylvania and first year head coach Steve Donahue on Monday afternoon.
The 6-foot-8 forward had landed two offers from ACC schools but seemed to be focusing on a trio of Ivy League schools in recent weeks with visits to Harvard, Yale and Penn.
His commitment came just 48 hours before the beginning of the July evaluation period, when he was likely to generate even more recruitment, but ultimately he was committed to finding an academic situation.
"I think that's the timing, the open period wasn't going to change his desire to go Ivy," NMH head coach John Carroll told the City of Basketball Love.
While Brodeur had previously scored offers from Notre Dame and Boston College, the first ACC head coach to recruit him was actually Donahue, when he was at the helm of the Boston College program.
Brodeur's decision to join Donahue at Penn also reunites him with two former NMH teammates, Collin McManus and Jackson Donahue, two players that initially committed to former Penn head coach Jerome Allen, but reaffirmed their commitments when Donahue took over last spring.
When Broduer, McManus and Donahue all suit up together next season it will be the fourth time in the last five years that NMH has had three different alums together on an Ivy League roster. NMH has produced more than three times as many Ivy League players in the last five years than any other high school or prep school program in the country.
To be clear though, Broduer is not your typicaly Ivy League player, and that's no knock on the Ivy League. He'll be a big contributor for the Quakers from day one and has a chance to be a four year starter.
The New England Playaz forward is arguably the best mid-range jump shooting forward in New England and also an outstanding rim runner. He's a good athlete who has chiseled his physique in the last year and is also developing his low post scoring arsenal.
He is the first player to commit to Penn in the class of 2016 and also the first member of NMH's 2016 class to come off the board.
A.J. Brodeur
Collin McManus
Jackson Donahue