Rice’s Johnny Blackwell gets Big Ten offer

Johnny Blackwell could be Big Ten bound. Just like his pops was almost four decades ago.

The scrappy and cerebral 6’4” Birmingham Brother Rice junior point guard picked up his first high-major offer from Wisconsin last week. His biggest offers before the Badgers came into the picture came from the Atlantic-10 Conference and the programs at Rhode Island and VCU.

“Johnathan’s recruiting is going to continue to skyrocket, I have no doubt about that,” Brother Rice head coach Rick Palmer said. “He’s got the kind of game and the kind of high-moral character as a young man that every coach

wants to land.”

Blackwell has fielded eight total offers since the end of the 2021 campaign, where Brother Rice won a Division 1 district title and reached the Catholic League Championship Game for the first time more than 20 years. He averaged 15 points and 5 assists per game last season in his first winter of CHSL Central competition, after transferring into Brother Rice from tiny Novi Christian.

Glynn Blackwell, Johnny’s dad, graduated from Highland Park High School in 1984, leading the Polar Bears to the Class A final four as a senior and finishing fifth in the voting for Mr. Basketball.

He played in college at Illinois, starting in the backcourt for the Fighting Illini in 1988, and then going on to have a pro career in Europe.

Like his father, the younger Blackwell has a game that combines fluidity, cleverness and grit.

“All the boxes get checked with him at his position,” Palmer said. “He grew an inch taller this offseason and is finishing above the rim now. You notice the difference on the court immediately.”

Gone like the wind

Oakland County’s defending scoring champ Robert Davis has left Farmington and enrolled at Hamtramck. The 6-foot-6 Davis ripped the nets for 25 points per game last season. Scouts consider him one of the best outside shooters in the state.

Back in the spring, Terrance Porter stepped down as Farmington’s head coach. Last month, Derrick McDowell was hired. McDowell has an accomplished resume having taken teams to three final fours and winning a Class A state crown on the bench at Detroit Western in 2015.

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