Ioannis Papapetrou to Texas

U

Uninformed

5,000+ Posts
The Link

Recruit Ioannis Papapetrou commits to Texas

By Gary Bedore

Ioannis Papapetrou, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound senior basketball shooting guard from Florida Air Academy in Melbourne, Fla., on Saturday orally committed to play basketball at Texas, his coach Aubin Goporo told the Journal-World.

Papapetrou announced at a ceremony celebrating the 50-year anniversary of his school.

Advertisement

"He said Kansas did a great job recruiting him, but he fell in love with Texas," Goporo said. "That's where he wanted to go."

Papapetrou, who averaged 22 points and seven rebounds a game last season, visited KU for the Sept. 24 Legends of the Phog exhibition game and Texas last weekend. The unranked Papapetrou, who is originally from Greece, canceled visits to Alabama, Florida and George Mason.

Papapetrou is the son of former European pro basketball player Argiris Papapetrou.

Florida Air Academy is the alma mater of former KU center Sasha Kaun.

Here’s ESPN.com’s scouting report on Papapetrou, written on Sept. 20:

Strengths: Native of Greece who is the owner of a physically strong body. Scouts got to see him in the spring of 2011 as a member of Nike Team Florida. Can play from the high post to the wing. Will drive his man deep and seems to have a strong basketball IQ. Very much a scrappy type of player with some range to 3-point land.

Weaknesses: He struggled with the pace and style of AAU basketball; we don't have a high school evaluation to go by. Athletically appears to be average at best. Can he guard athletic small forward would be a legitimate question.

Bottom Line: Plays high school basketball for a good teacher (Aubin Goporo) especially of foreign players — and he's got somewhat of an international reputation. Likely a rock solid mid-major prospect who would be viewed as a rotation player in time for a bigger league team.
 
The Link

Want to know how quickly one person can change the fortunes of a college sports program?

Put it this way, the next few weeks will be a very intense period for an awful lot of coaches as the early signing period for college basketball approaches in November.

Ioannis Papapetrou is not a name hoops coaches at Kansas, Texas, George Mason, Alabama or Florida have any problems learning how to spell. And Florida Air Academy is a location most already know well.

But this fall, they've been making that trek as much as the NCAA rules allow because the Greek guard, college hoops powerhouses have quickly learned, is the real deal. One of the coaches coveting the 6-foot-8 Papapetrou has already vowed this is the player he needs to reach the Final Four.

Gators coach Billy Donovan compared him with last year's SEC Player of the Year, Chandler Parsons. Kansas coach Bill Self says the native of Greece is the player who he wants to have the ball in his hands at the end of games as soon as he can get him on campus.

Papapetrou is a name a lot of coaches didn't even know for some time. He didn't play big time AAU ball. He came to Melbourne from Greece last September. But his
father, Argiris Papapetrou, was a 15-year pro in Europe. And here's the scary part. As good as Papapetrou is now? He's growing.

Papapetrou actually frowned for the first and only time during a long interview last week when he talked about his height. Doctors have already told him he's going to get bigger.

"I want to be a guard, so if I'm 7-foot it's kind of difficult," Papapetrou said. "They expect me to grow a little bit more. I'm worried about that. If I grow more, life gets difficult. It's kind of difficult for really tall people."

Some athletes should have it so bad. He's already been offered scholarships by some of the top programs in the nation -- including the five mentioned above -- going into his senior season. He's been to Kansas with trips to the others scheduled in the next few weeks. He hopes to sign during the November early signing period.
 
The ESPN two star rating certainly belies the offers he received from big time programs. He sounds like a similar type player to Connor Lammert - a big body who's a good shooter with not much of a post game.
 
Welcome to UT, Ioannis!
hookem.gif
 
This is one helluva recruiting class that Barnes is putting together. I doubt it will surpass the '06 class (Durant, James, D.J. Augustin, Dexter Pittman, Mason, Matt Hill & Harrison Smith), but it's pretty salty. Horns should be set for awhile.
hookem.gif
 
I guess Ridley could be a one and done, but most of these guys look to be here for more than a year. Some continuity would be nice.
 
Third Coast--Papapetrou has some decent ball handling skills for his size. While Lammert looks to be a screen and step back and shoot stretch 4 like Atchley, Papapetrou is more of a guy to move with the ball to create his shot. If anything, his outside shooting numbers were the worst thing he showed in summer 2010 playing in the European 16U championships.
 
Yeah, he doesn't appear to have real good percentage from 3 point range, but scouting reports say he has a good mid range shot and he's a 75-80% FT shooter which is nice to see in light of our problems in that area. He also is listed as a SG/SF type with a deficient post game, but may have problems playing those positions on the defensive end at the next level.

Sounds like a good situation player that can contribute off the bench.
 
Αυτο νεα ειναι πολυ ωραια!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top