Recruiting Report: Grant Golden (2016)

July 24, 2015Since we last talked with St. James center Grant Golden in March he’s picked up seven additional offers, and has been busy making as many campus visits as he can squeeze in. He had four offers by late March, and now has 11 --  the list goes; American, Furman, Holy Cross, James Madison, Lehigh, Loyola, San Diego, Boston, Radford, Lafayette and Northeastern. San Diego was the most recent school to offer the 6-foot-10 center late last week, and the list may expand soon. “Some other schools that are showing interest are Boston College, Richmond, George Mason, and I think those are the main three right now that are showing interest,” said Golden. He visited James Madison and American earlier in the year, and has recently been to High Point, Furman, Wofford, Davidson, and Radford. Golden, PHM’s 5th-ranked 2016, says he’ll play out the rest of July before narrowing his lengthy list of suitors. “I’m going to play out the rest of July and I’m hoping to narrow it down a little bit sometime in August maybe, and then I’ll probably make a decision around the time when school starts next year,” he said. With an already developed inside game, Golden says he’s spent his offseason with Virginia Elite homing his perimeter presence. “Some individual things I’ve tried to pinpoint in my game is just to show off my versatility, show that I can go inside and out, that I can play both and just excel at both” he said. “I’m 6-foot-10, so I’m going to have to go down low, but some things I’ve really been working on is just working on my jumper, working on facing up to the basket at the extended post, elbow area.” The talented center will be playing in his last ever grassroots tournament this weekend in Las Vegas, he says having fun is most important to him. “My goal every tournament is to just compete and have fun,” said Golden. “Honestly I’d like to win this last tournament, but as long as we go out there and play as a team and everyone enjoys themselves and has a good time, that’s good with me.” March 25, 2015Two games into his junior season a broken ankle sidelined St. James center and PHM’s 5th-ranked 2016 Grant Golden. The talented prospect had surgery on December 12th to repair the ankle and missed the rest of his high school season -- but the time has come for his to get back on the floor. “We started AAU and everything, my ankle is now at 85-90 percent right now and our first AAU tournament is April 10th and I should be back for that,” said Golden who will once again play with Virginia Elite. “We should have a pretty good AAU team and I’m pretty excited to get back to playing.” Although his conditioning is not top-notch right now, Golden says his shooting and upper body strength have never been better. “When I went down with the injury one of the first things my coach told me was that I'd be working on my upper body strength,” said Golden. “I’m the strongest I’ve ever been and we worked on a lot of form shooting, just sitting in a chair, so my shot is just as good as it was.” Currently Golden holds Division I offers from American, Furman, Holy Cross and James Madison. The 6-foot-10 center has taken unofficial visits to American and James Madison, and says other schools are showing interest. “Davidson has been talking to me a lot and Wofford down in South Carolina and George Mason had been talking to me but since their coach got fired that kind of stopped,” said Golden.