Recruiting Report: Keondre Weinand (2016)
One of the state’s more productive inside players is shifting to the perimeter. Keondre Weinand, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound senior at Thornton, averaged 10.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game last season. This year, new coach Bailey Clark wants to run,…
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Continue ReadingOne of the state’s more productive inside players is shifting to the perimeter.
Keondre Weinand, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound senior at Thornton, averaged 10.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game last season.
This year, new coach Bailey Clark wants to run, and that necessitated moving his best player to a position more central to an up-and-down offense.
“As of right now, I’ll be a two-guard,” said Weinand, who was selected as a member of Prep Hoops Colorado’s Preseason All-East Metro Athletic League First Team. “The style of play, he wants to have a lot of running. So he felt like the best spot for me to be was the two.”
The move could be a win-win situation for Weinand, a high-academic student-athlete who is being recruited, he said, by a number of Division-III schools. While his strength and aggressiveness helped him excel on the block in high school, his height has him better suited to be a perimeter player at the next level.
“Every coach that I’ve talked to, when I bring (the position switch) up they say it’s a good thing,” Weinand said. “I’m improving my other skills others than staying in the post all the time. Handling the ball has been a big focus. And shooting from further than 15 feet away. Those two things, mainly.”
Weinand, who played with the Colorado Celtics club team, said he put up at least 300 shots from 3-point range in the offseason as he prepared for the switch. It will be a big change after attempting only two 3-point field goals as a junior last season. But overall, Weinand shot 54 percent from the field and demonstrated good feel on his mid-range jump shot.
Weinand said he is excited about Thornton’s move to a more up-tempo style, one that falls in line with much of the rest of the EMAC. The Trojans are trying to bounce back after finishing 6-17 overall last season and 3-6 in the league.
“It’s going to be a nice change,” he said. “It’s a fun way to play.”
Weinand said his conditioning level — and those of the rest of his teammates — has certainly improved.
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a chuckle, “(Coach Clark) definitely runs us.”
Weinand said he has a 3.58 weighted grade-point average. He said the Division-III level will be the perfect fit because of his high academic goals. Weinand said that, as of right now, he’s planning to major in computer science.
“Education is my main focus, so a D-III school would be really nice because they’re more often the top education schools. So a place where after college I can get a good job in the field I want to get into, would be best.”