USF Offers 2019 PF Wildens Leveque
South Florida offered Wildens Leveque, the 2019 Gould Academy School (Bethel, ME) power forward announced Tuesday via Twitter.
The long and athletic big man flew under the radar, due to an injury last spring, but a solid performance last weekend with Mass Rivals in the adidas Gauntlet session Washington, D.C. landed him on several program’s recruiting board.
“It was just a great experience, playing first time in the live period in April because last year I broke my left wrist and didn’t have a chance to play in the spring in front of college coaches,” said Leveque. “It was really fun I just started to work hard to do something I could do for my team like run the floor, block shots, grab boards, and just play as hard as I can. It helped me out because once I started doing that I started scoring more.”
Last weekend Leveque helped Mass Rivals to a 3-1 record for the weekend while averaging 7.5 points and 2.5 rebounds. He averaged 17 minutes per game and connected on 61.1 percent of his field goal attempts.
Since Leveque missed last year’s spring evaluation period his recruitment stalled. Couple that with not being on the floor with his teammates and Leveque struggled, at first, to stay positive through that adversity.
“Honestly I was upset about it and overwhelmed, Leveque said. “I overcame that by motivating myself every day. Without using my left hand I was just shooting with my right hand, I’d workout and kept running in the summer so I could stay in shape because I knew I’d be back so that kept me busy.”
Despite the slow start to his recruitment, a few schools are standing out to Leveque.
“UMass, they’ve been hitting me up like every single day,” he said. “Their assistant coaches talk to me every day. I’m getting calls from VCU now. Coach [J.D.] Byers has started to FaceTime me. I just picked up an offer from USF yesterday, so that just started, and I’ve got Coach [Brian] Blaney watching all my games down in Providence. He’s watched every game we’ve played.”
Leveque said that he has developed good relationships with a few coaches.
“I feel like I’ve developed a great relationship with Coach Blaney down at Providence because I usually see him a lot and Coach [Rasheen] Davis from UMass-Amherst.”
RunningTheBulls.com first saw Leveque in July 2017 at the Battle of the Best Orlando event held in Tavares, Florida. We liked how agile he was, that he rebounded with both hands and had impressive free throw form for a big man. Following that event Leveque picked up an offer from Rutgers whose head coach watched him from the baseline the day we were looking on.
The Brockton, Massachusetts native carried his summer play into his junior season at Gould Academy where he averaged 13.2 points, 10 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.
We asked Leveque what aspects of his game have progressed the most since last year. Instead of listing on court skill developments he started off by talking about improved mental toughness.
“I feel like I’m more mature. Just like not quitting. There are times in the game when I’m just mad tired but I didn’t quit because I know that if I keep working hard it’s going to be worth it at the end of the game.” Leveque said before adding, “Explosiveness, playing above the rim, blocking shots, running the floor well, running rim-to-rim and post moves. Especially post moves. I’ve been working on my post moves every day at school and it’s made me a better scorer.”
Was he expecting the USF offer?
“I was surprised by the offer actually, Leveque said. “They talked to my AAU coach and told him they were going to offer me. Coach [Tom] Herrion, he called me and explained to me what they run and how they use their bigs and that I’ll be a good priority at that school like I’ll be quick to play if I came. I know it’s in Tampa, Florida. A great place in Florida and it’s a big school, a really big school.”
We spoke with Mass Rivals head coach Vin Pastore to get his thoughts on Leveque.
IN THE WORDS OF HIS COACH
“Wildens Leveque is a 6-foot-9 long and athletic forward with a high motor and a much improved skill set. Wildens is very new at being good and thus has a huge upside. There is no question his best basketball days are ahead and that his game translates to the highest level of college basketball. Expect his stock to keep rising as we go through the summer.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The next stop in the adidas Gauntlet is this weekend in Atlanta. Leveque will be evaluated by more college coaches and should pick up more offers if he has another productive weekend.
RTB REACTION
We like this offer and its timing. Leveque’s recruitment has been an east coast affair but, we believe it has the potential of growing quickly like weeds in a St. Augustine grass lawn.