Recruiting Report: AJ Green (2018)
Watching 6-foot-2 combo guard AJ Green shoot is a thing of beauty. Feet set or off the dribble, contested or not Green is one of the best in 2018. Prep Hoops caught up with Green today.
AJ Green is from Cedar Falls, Iowa where he plays with Cedar Falls High School and the Iowa Barnstormers. AJ continues to work every day to be the player he hopes to become.
“Right now I’m mainly working on continuing to get stronger and working on my body,” Green said. “Also, I’m working on finishing around the rim and getting to the rim so I can score efficiently on all three levels.
“We lift in the morning at school at six and right after that I will head up to the gym to work out by myself for about an hour. Then usually later in the day I will come up and get some shots up.”
Green led Cedar Falls to a 16-8 season last year averaging 21.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.2 assists a game. Green took an average of 16 shots a game and made 47.4 percent of his field goals, 43.4 percent of his 7-8 threes taken a game, and made 90 percent of his foul shots.
“I think we be really good this year,” explained. “We have a lot of young guys coming back with experience. I think we should be a pretty skilled team so I think we have a shot at making it to the state tournament and winning state which is the ultimate goal.”
The Barnstormers are getting 16.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in 27 minutes a game from Green this 17u season shooting 48 percent from the field, 89 percent from the foul line, and 50 percent on 38 threes in eight games on the Adidas Uprising circuit.
“Things have gone good this spring,” Green said of Barnstormers play. “On the Adidas circuit I feel like we’ve proved ourselves as a good team and that we belong there. We need continue to do that in July.
“We will be in South Carolina, Kansas City, and then Las Vegas in July. South Carolina and Vegas are the Adidas tournaments so we want to win those. We should have everybody healthy and we want to be playing our basketball.”
Coach KC Schmidt from the Barnstromers spoke highly of Green.
“AJ Green’s character and abilities on the floor are absolutely amazing. He’s just a level headed, humble kid. He never raises his voice, treats everyone with respect and just has a let’s go to work type mentality in school and on the floor.
“He’s just an exceptional student athlete. Skill wise he’s an out of this world shot maker. Contested or not you give him a look and that’s all he needs. His handling skills are very good.
“AJ plays with good pace and rhythm. I absolutely love the young man he’s becoming. He’s everything you look for in a recruitable student athlete!”
Green has offers from Minnesota, Iowa State, Clemson, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, and others plus us hearing from several programs in the Big Ten.
“Recruiting is going good,” AJ said. “I’m continuing to look at schools and take in about as much information about schools as I can so I can make the right decision. Clemson is a new school that is involved, I’ve been hearing a lot from them lately.
“I was actually at Iowa State yesterday but other than that I don’t have any upcoming visit plans right now. I want to make a decision for sure before the high school season starts in November, I want to decide by them. I’m not sure yet when I will take official visits.”
Minnesota offered Green last fall when he visited Minnesota unofficially. The Gophers continue to recruit AJ with consistency.
“I think Coach Richard Pitino is leading Minnesota in the right direction,” Green said. “This year they had a really good team and they should continue to be a good team. I’m just continuing to develop a good relationship with the coaches so, things are going really good with Minnesota.”