Hamilton Heights' Joan Duran drives against Brainerd in a game earlier this season.
photo by Dennis Norwood
(Story has been updated)
Hamilton Heights wing Joan Duran has made a verbal commitment to Middle Tennessee State University.
Duran, a 6-foot-6-inch senior, has been instrumental in the Hawks’ highly successful season.
Duran and Hamilton Heights (22-2) will participate in the Huntington (W.Va.) Prep Classic this weekend, playing North Carolina's Kennedy Charter on Friday and Reach Your Dream Academy on Saturday.
RYD is led by Skal Labissiere, a senior who is ranked No.
3 in the country by Scout.com. Labissiere was caught in a transfer flap -- he left Evangelical Christian and wanted to play at Lausanne, but was denied. Hence, Labissiere, a native of Haiti, wound up at RYD, which is coached by his guardian, Gerald Hamilton.
Labissiere, an elite center, is part of coach John Calipari's 2015 recruiting class. He will match up Saturday with Hamilton Heights' 6-10 center Abdulhakim Ado, one of the top prospects in the 2016 class.
Duran also had a scholarship offer from Eastern Florida College and was recruited by Shorter, Belmont, Lipscomb, Lincoln Memorial and Chattanooga State.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Duran is averaging 10.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists. He has recorded 17 blocked shots and 17 steals.
“Right now Joan’s huge strengths are his versatility and skill-set,” Hawks coach Zach Ferrell said. “He can do a lot of things really well offensively – he handles the ball well, shoots well from outside and can play with his back to the basket. I think he’ll carry those things on to the next level and MTSU.”
A lot is being made of Ado and his 7-5 wing span, but Duran has a 7-1 wing span himself.
“Joan has extremely long arms and really huge hands,” Ferrell said. “That’s a big thing with rebounding.”
Duran has been climbing the recruiting ranking charts in recent weeks and MTSU coaches have been on him hard of late. Duran reached his decision this past weekend and the school made it public Wednesday.
“He’s really excited,” Ferrell said. “We thought MTSU is a great program with established coaching. They’re in a really good conference and they have a tradition of winning.”
The Blue Raiders (12-8, 5-2), competing for the second year in Conference-USA, have won five of their last six games. They are coming off a 24-9 season – 13-3 in league play – in 2013-14 and shared the league’s regular-season championship.
Coach Kermit Davis, who has a 381-231 career record over 19 years and is 244-156 in 13 seasons at MTSU, has claimed three straight regular-season titles, including two when the Blue Raiders were in the Sun Belt Conference, and four in five years.
MTSU is currently in second place behind Marshall in the Eastern Division.
What MTSU needs, and Duran may be able to provide once he arrives on campus, is some offense. The Blue Raiders rank 12th in a 14-team league offensively, scoring 61.8 points per game. Western Kentucky leads the pack at 71.4.
Where the Blue Raiders excel right now is scoring defense. They give up 60.5 points per game and rank second behind only Old Dominion at 57.4.
Former Baylor School standout Reggie Upshaw, a sophomore, leads the Blue Raiders in scoring (9.4 points) and rebounding (6.0 per game).
Duran has recorded five double-doubles, including 20-point and 11-rebound effort against Lighthouse Christian on Jan. 9. He pulled down nine defensive rebounds in that game, a 73-60 Hawks victory. The 20 points were a season-best for Duran.
Duran’s other four double-doubles came against Brainerd (14-12), Cannon County (13-11), Walker Valley (12-11) and Providence Day (17-10).
Duran is shooting 72.4 percent of his two-point attempts, 48.4 from 3-point distance and 74.5 percent from the free-throw line, according to Hamilton Heights statistics.
Providence Day defeated the Hawks, 72-62, on Nov. 28 and then reeled off 19 consecutive victories before losing to Ensworth, 46-41, on Jan. 20.
Next month the Hawks will face their toughest challenge of the season when they travel to Mouth of Wilson, Va., to play Oak Hill Academy, ranked No. 1 nationally by USA TODAY. The Warriors are 32-0 after having their lone loss of the season wiped out when Memphis Hamilton was forced to forfeit all its wins due to playing an ineligible player.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)