When Trent Johnson departed campus at LSU, he didn’t exactly leave with a large selection of potential recruits in the pipeline. Only in-state shooting guard Malik Morgan was signed to join the team next year when new coach Johnny Jones took the reins.
Luckily, Jones was able to snag two recruits who had pre-existing ties to the program early on in his employment, and both will likely be pressed into service for next year. Another Hammink is set to join the roster, and it is the son of former All-SEC center Geert Hammink, Shane Hammink.
While not blessed with his father’s height, Shane Hammink is 6-6 and reportedly a skilled wing. He comes from the strong Canarias Basketball Academy prep school in the Canary Islands which has sent numerous players into the D-1 ranks and he’ll play at his father’s alma mater. He has ties to the area, as he was born in Baton Rouge. The Canarias Basketball Academy also had another recent commitment from their roster, 7-3 Boris Bojanovsky who pledged to Florida State.
LSU also received a letter of intent from Shavon Coleman, who grew up near Baton Rouge in Thibodaux. He’s also a 6-6 forward and should bring some physical maturity to the table after playing two years at Howard College, a strong junior college program in Texas.
Between Coleman and Hammink, LSU should address some of their needs in short order.
For the long-term, Jones proved himself to be a very good recruiter at North Texas, and will certainly exploit connections from Louisiana and Texas in order to rebuild the LSU program to SEC relevance. He attracted strong talent to the Sun Belt at North Texas and is likely to place more of an emphasis on in-state and nearby recruiting than has been done as of late at LSU.
Kellon Hassenstab runs Hoopniks.com. Follow him on Twitter @hoopniks.