Dayton, Ohio — Alter’s very own senior guard Jacob Conner announced on Monday afternoon that he has committed to Marshall University. “I chose Marshall because of how I felt on campus, it was the education I wanted, I got along with the players and staff, and because of how wanted the coaching staff made me feel to the team.”
The Herd are a division one program located in Huntington, West Virginia and they play in the Conference USA. They initially offered Jacob back on July 27th, 2020. That was Conner’s 4th offer of his now 18 current division one offers.
Last summer for Conner was the couple of months that any high school basketball player dreams of. All of his hard work and dedication started finally paying off. Once the June 15th no direct contact period from college coaches to high school juniors was lifted, Conner began to blowup.
Bryant initially offered Conner back in April during the shutdown. “My first offer was in April of last year…last summer was pretty crazy because even with Covid I was getting offers which was weird. But last summer there were a lot of phone calls to handle.”
Jacob Conner playing for Alter during a tournament game this past winter
After that first offer from Bryant in April, Conner received other offers from Youngstown State, Robert Morris, Marshall, Miami (OH), Stetson, Ohio, Northern Kentucky, Wright State, Winthrop, Western Carolina, Mount St. Mary’s, and Toledo all in that same summer. Six of those came in one week towards the end of July. Other offers from Santa Clara, Belmont, Boston, Indiana State, and Oakland recently surfaced during his junior season.
When talking about the influences that got him to this point, Conner mentioned both his AAU program and high school coaches, “Wildcat Select helped with my recruiting by helping me get out there on a more regional/national stage and also helping me play against better competition. Alter and Coach Coulter have also helped me a lot in getting to this point too.”
Wildcats Select is one of the top AAU programs in the Midwest. They are a 3SSB program out of Pittsburgh. Conner has played for them for the past couple of seasons, and they’ve also produced Dayton alumni such as A.J. Braun and Shawn Phillips. Braun is currently playing at Wright State, while Phillips is a four-star senior prospect who just did a year at Ypsi Prep alongside Emoni Bates.
Conner playing for Wildcats Select during a tournament in May in Pittsburgh, PA
Conner has played alongside and against some of the top players in the country while playing for Wildcats Select. His teammate Bowen Hardman is an Ohio State commit and Sonny Johnson Jr. is committed to Penn State. Every player on that Wildcats Select team is a high level and future division one basketball player and Conner is no different.
After going on visits throughout the summer once the NCAA dead period was lifted, Conner talked about how Marshall felt like family when he first stepped on campus, “The family feel on campus is what made them stand out to me and how natural everything seemed. They were super transparent about everything and the connection I made with the players and staff was different than everywhere else because of that.”
Jacob Conner on his official visit to Marshall in late June
Jacob Conner will be the first 2022 prospect from the Dayton area to commit so far. The Miami Valley saw three area players go to the division one level last season and Conner should be one of many more to play at the division one level from this loaded 2022 class from the Dayton area.
The 6’9″ senior guard will look to put up big numbers for a mostly returning Alter team this season. They will be one of the favorites in division two to make it to UD Arena as they return so much depth from last year. Guards like Ryan Chew, Anthony Ruffolo, and Gavin Geisel will all look to make a big impact as the Knights will have a chance to avenge what their district champion team in 2020 didn’t get the opportunity to accomplish.