Recruiting Report: Drew Wilken (2018)
After a fantastic junior season with Ankeny Christian Academy, 6-foot-2 guard Drew Wilken landed firmly on the map, both for us and college coaches.
He’s had a busy fall a result.
“I’ve been talking to and visiting some Division III and NAIA schools, and some JuCos, so that’s been really good,” said Wilken, who visited Doane, Waldorf and Northwestern-St. Paul just last week.
“But really, my goal for recruiting is just to focus on my senior year in high school, because that’s the present. I just want to focus on our team, we have a really good chance to go to state, and recruitment will go well if all of that goes well — so I’m just going to focus on that.”
With a high skill-level, some decent size and a desire to improve, Wilken is a player that could see his stock rise more over the coming months.
“I feel that my strengths are my court awareness and IQ, and also shooting. This summer, I especially worked a lot on my mid-range shot, and I feel like that’s helped my game a lot,” said Wilken.
“I’ve been working on getting a lot bigger, because the physicality in college is a lot more in college, that’s where I need to improve the most.”
He spent his spring and summer playing with a very talented Kingdom Hoops X squad. A team that included twin Van Meter towers Ryan Schmitt and Grant Johnson
“Playing with that team was a lot different than playing with my school team,” said Wilken. “We had two 6’9 kids on the team, so my job was to get them the ball as much as possible. Whereas with my team, I’m the main scorer, so it was a completely different role.”
Maybe what’s most impressive about Wilken, though, is his perfectly selfless approach to the game.
He made that clear when asked what his expectations for himself were this season.
“We have Caleb Grizzle, who is 6’6 and a really good scorer, so I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if my points dropped a little bit this season so I can get him the ball more,” said Wilken. “He’s really efficient, and getting him involved more in the game would help our team a lot.”