Braden Appelhans poses for photos during his recent recruiting visit to the University of New Mexico. The Kansas City, Missouri senior guard announced Monday that he plans to play for the Lobos next season and become the first verbally pledged player for Richard Pitino’s class of 2022. (Photo via Appelhan’s Twitter account)
Classes started last week at the University of New Mexico.
The 2022 recruitment course for Richard Pitino’s Lobo men’s basketball team started this week.
Braden Appelhans, a 6-foot-6 security guard from Kansas City, Missouri, announced on social media Monday that he had made an oral commitment to play for the Lobos, which is the first commitment for the class by 2022.
The 3-star rated 3-point specialist Appelhans was on an official recruiting visit to Albuquerque last weekend.
“It felt like home and I have great relationships with coaches and players,” Appelhans told Journal on Monday in a text message.
The high school graduate will be playing his final year of prep basketball at the Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio this season after gaining recruiting momentum for the KC RUN GMC club team last summer.
While his recruiting profile has risen lately, he said the Lobos recruited him early – led by assistant Isaac Chew – and was the program that offered him his first scholarship.
“This oral commitment by the UNM is rock solid!” He wrote.
According to KCHighSchoolHoops.com, Appelhans averaged 16.2 points per game last season, including 51.4% of its high-volume number of 3-point attempts (72 out of 140). The site notes that he hit eight 3-pointers twice in one game.
Eric Bossi, national basketball director of 247Sports.com, described Appelhans on Monday as “one of the best jump shooters in the class of 2022”.
When asked why he thinks UNM is a good fit for him and his game, Appelhans told the Journal that he was thrilled with how Pitino likes to increase the pace and fire lots of 3-pointers.
But while there’s no denying what’s the best tool in his pocket, Appelhans is more than just outside shooting, says longtime skill trainer and mentor Victor Williams, a former Oklahoma Star Guard.
“He definitely has the potential to be a really good knock-down shooter and really hit the ground, but he really has more to his game,” Williams told the Journal.
“He can really score on all three levels and is athletic enough to get to the edge and immerse himself in traffic. He has a pull-up game that can injure you in the mid-range. He can really hurt you in many different ways. “
MAKUACH MALUACH: Former Lobo Makuach Maluach signed his first professional contract for the next season with Kouvot, a professional basketball team in Kouvola, Finland, last weekend. The team competes in the highest Finnish league, Korisliiga.
In an online translation, the team’s trainer, Jyri Lehtonen, said on the team’s website about Maluach’s commitment: “Young, athletic and versatile. He will defend the best (players) of his opponent and wrestle with rebounds at both ends of the (field). “
APROPOS: When Maluach begins his professional basketball life after UNM in Finland, the last of the new lobos of this season arrived in Albuquerque from nearby Sweden a little over a week ago to begin classes for the fall semester.
Sebastian Forsling, a 6-foot-11 freshman from Floda, Sweden, is the 13th (of 13) fellow to arrive in Albuquerque for the upcoming season and join a roster that includes two returning walk-ons in Jordan Arroyo will be owned by Atrisco Heritage Academy and Clay Patterson of Rio Rancho High School.
SCHEDULE UPDATE: The Lobos have not yet officially released their non-conference schedule. The Journal did so earlier this month, with all opponents confirmed and only the two dates and times left to complete for the annual rivalry streak with New Mexico State University. The Aggies had a late change in other games that conflicted with the originally agreed time and date for the Albuquerque game with the Lobos.
Nonetheless, other schools on the Lobos non-conference schedule continue to publish their timetables, so we now know that the UNM’s opponents will face the University of Alabama-Birmingham in their first game on November 25th in the Las Vegas (Nevada) Classic.
The four-team event will take place on November 25th and 26th at the Orleans Hotel & Casino and will also include the University of San Francisco and Towson.
CHANDELIER: Mountain West enemy San Diego State hired JayDee Luster as an assistant coach last week.
Luster played point guard at New Mexico State University during the 2007-08 season before joining the Mountain West Wyoming Cowboys, where he was team captain for three years and was named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year 2012.
The San Diego native trained at the University of the Pacific for the past five years, served one season on the staff of the NBA Dallas Maverick, and served at Bradley University and the University of Arizona.
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