Joseph’s Recruitment Rising
Six weeks ago, Cushing Academy's Kaleb Joseph had only one scholarship offer to his name. Now he has four Division I offers with a fifth potentially on the way.
Joseph has picked up offers from Boston College, Tennessee, Maryland, TCU, Fordham, St. Bonaventure, and New Hampshire in recent weeks after Delaware became the first school to offer him this summer.
Now the sophomore guard says Purdue is the latest high-major school to express serious interest.
While Joseph’s recruiting didn’t necessarily blow up over night, it was pretty close.
He first came onto the scene two years ago and while his potential was clear as a long and skilled guard, he had a long way to go physically. Even as recently as this past spring and summer, Joseph had started to fill out his frame but seemed to struggle putting all the pieces together on a consistent basis.
That has all changed this fall as Joseph’s game has risen in correlation to his confidence.
“As soon as the summer was over I was working out three times per day,” Joseph said. “The more I worked out, the better I got with the ball and the more confident I got. Pressure didn’t really faze me anymore.”
His work ethic has also been supplemented by a new approach to the game.
“I used to over-think too much when I was playing,” Joseph said. “Now I just go out and play to have fun. The more I have fun, the better I play.”
With his recruitment taking such a dramatic leap in just his sophomore season, Joseph’s biggest challenge now is to keep everything in perspective.
“When I get offers it just makes me think that if I want to play at that level, and be successful, that I’ve got to stay hungry and keep working,” he said. “I can’t think of anything more embarrassing than to get these offers and then not live up to them.”
And in that statement lies perhaps his biggest victory of the fall, for realizing, as much as any 15-year-old could, that while early offers are great they are anything but concrete. Instead, they’re best utilized as reinforcement for hard work already done and motivation to increase that work, both on the court and in the classroom, in the months and years to come.
This story first appeared on ESPN.com ten days ago. For more information on top prospects from New England, the northeast, and across the country please visit http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/index
Kaleb Joseph