Pinnacle’s Basham surges as top recruit
Boredom has been a big part of many people’s quarantined lives over the past eight weeks.
But quarantine life hasn’t been so pedestrian for Kennedy Basham.
The 6-7 Phoenix Pinnacle High School sophomore center seldom has leisure time, occupied by at least four, 30-minute long phone calls from Division I women’s college basketball recruiters per day.
“I like it for the most part,” Basham said. “Sometimes it gets overwhelming with multiple, multiple calls a day, going to training, then come home, have a lot of calls and then go to another training. There’s a break right now, so I bet it will speed back up after.”
The state’s best pivot player (17.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, 4.6 blocks per game, 14 double-doubles last season) has a spreadsheet log for scheduled check-in calls from Ivy League, Pac-12 and several other Power 5 conference programs’ scouts.
In April, Basham received six offers, from Oregon, Colorado, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Loyola Marymount.
Arizona State, Southern California, Oregon State, Washington, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kansas State, Louisville, Baylor and Princeton round out the list of teams that also have her on their radar.
She’s also received offers from Utah and Vanderbilt in 2019.
All of the college scouts’ calls are scheduled through Basham’s Arizona Select club coach or personal trainer because of NCAA rules to not call minors directly.
“On Friday, while our friends were running around doing stuff, she was literally on calls for four-and-a-half straight hours,” her mother Jamie Basham said. “From FaceTime calls, regular calls, so it’s a lot for her but she can’t complain about it either.”
The first full week in May is the NCAA’s mandatory dead period in which the Division I and II sports recruiters aren’t allowed to contact prospects.
Therefore, it’s the first respite from their phone calls for the 2019-20
All-Arizona high school girls basketball team’s youngest selected player since the season ended in early March.
“Some of them I’ve talked to before. It’s just checking up, seeing how I’m doing, what I’ve been doing to stay active,” Kennedy said. “If they’re new coaches, they’ll be like, ‘What are you looking for in a college?’ And then they’ll tell me something about their school and their playing style.”
Since her Arizona Select club team’s season is indefinitely on hold, Basham, 16, spends most days eating and lifting weights with her personal trainer to bulk up her frame. She trains in her backyard or at a makeshift outdoor gym since the fitness facilities and basketball gyms she normally uses are closed.
She usually trains with her older brother Carson, a Phoenix Sunnyslope boys basketball 7-foot junior center and Pepperdine commit.
“Carson and Kennedy do everything together. They are very close for being brother and sister. They do free time together, work out together, they go to gyms together, eat together,” Jamie said.
The Bashams are used to traveling around the Valley to train and compete across the country in AAU tournaments during the spring and summer.
“Even without shelter-in-place, I always say that I don’t know how parents have a full-time job and manage their kids like I do. But it is probably rare to have two kids going through it at the same time, so mine is kind of double duty.”
Kennedy said her college decision won’t be driven by proximity to her brother when he moves to Malibu in the summer 2021 to begin college.
“I would go close to him, but I don’t have to,” she said. “I’ll go far from home but I don’t know how far. I’m not saying no to any schools that far away.”
Her mother Jamie wonders how her view might change on location over time.
“Right now, she says she’s open to anything but I think once he’s gone it’s going to hit her and hopefully that will keep her in the West Coast.”