New USF power forward offer "That's a good school"
The recruitment of 2022 power forward Jérôme Beya is beginning to take shape and USF was among the first schools to extend a scholarship offer.
In addition to the Bulls, Beya currently holds offers from Bryant, Illinois, Robert Morris, Stetson and Xavier. He is also hearing from Kansas State. Beya has also taken unofficial visits to West Virginia, Duquesne and Maryland.
Beya came to the United States from his native Democratic Republic of the Congo about two years ago. Although he has not been playing basketball for very long, college recruiters are taking notice of his length – Beya listed his wingspan at 7-foot-4 – athleticism and potential.
“I started playing basketball, like, four years ago,” Beya said. “All kids play soccer in my country. When you’re a kid growing up all fathers want their kids playing soccer.”
When he arrived in the U.S. Beya enrolled as a freshman at Heritage Christian IJN. Following his sophomore year Beya transferred to Teays Valley Christian School. He plays travel team basketball with Wildcats Select, an adidas sponsored program co-founded by Tom Droney.
“It went pretty good,” Beya said of his sophomore season. “I learned a lot from my coaches. I liked playing with my teammates. We had the same energy. The chemistry was there.”
With college coaches watching more game video of high school basketball players now more than ever before, we asked the 6-foot-9, 210-pounder what he wants the coaches to notice most about his game.
“That I can go hard,” Beya said. “I can go hard and I’m ready to do everything. I’m ready to do what I’m supposed to do on the court for my team to win.”
June 15 was the first day college coaches could call members of the 2022 class. Beya says it was sort of a hectic day.
“Tom and others were warning me about it,” said Beya. “I wasn’t expecting so many phone calls. I wasn’t sure at all. I played hard the whole year and I was just waiting for maybe two phone calls or one coach, maybe, calling me. Then, like, 16 calls came the first day. I was so overjoyed and overloaded. I didn’t know what to do so I had to ask for some advice from Tom and my host dad Jason Roush and they helped me. Now I can manage a conversation by myself when I’m talking to college coaches.”
USF assistant coach Tom Herrion called to offer Beya on June 17. It is a call the 17 year-old will remember for some time.
“I wasn’t ready for it,” Beya said. “I was surprised. I just woke up and went to do my morning workout as usual. He talked to me, he was nice and at the end he just told me that I had a scholarship from South Florida. I was excited. To be honest I didn’t know anything about it (USF). So, I looked it up. I saw that it was a big school and I was so excited. I went to tell my host dad Jason Roush. I was literally dancing when I realized I had a scholarship. That’s a good school. Like, I was literally dancing. He jumped from his bed and almost danced with me.
RUSS’ REACTION
Beya is the seventh known power forward prospect that the Bulls have offered in the 2022 class. His athleticism, explosiveness and length is impressive. Beya has nice touch around the rim, has good hands and footwork and is an effective shot blocker/rim protector. Obviously a long way to go in the recruitment of any 2022 prospect but USF has Beya’s attention and they got it early.