VU men’s basketball lands fifth Canadian signee in point guard Marcus Clarke-Moore
VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer men’s basketball program has had some recent success searching for talent north of the border and will look to continue this trend during the 2021-22 season after signing 6-foot-1 point guard Marcus Clarke-Moore earlier this week. Marcus played last season for Aim High Prep in South Carolina, a team that the Trailblazers scrimmaged just before the 2020-21 season, although Marcus did not play in that game. Marcus would however lead Aim High this past season by averaging 21.7 points, 5.2 assists and three rebounds per game.
VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer men's basketball program has had some recent success searching for talent north of the border and will look to continue this trend during the 2021-22 season after signing 6-foot-1 point guard Marcus Clarke-Moore earlier this week.
Marcus played last season for Aim High Prep in South Carolina, a team that the Trailblazers scrimmaged just before the 2020-21 season, although Marcus did not play in that game.
Marcus would however lead Aim High this past season by averaging 21.7 points, 5.2 assists and three rebounds per game.
"Aim High had a pretty good year last year," VU Hall of Fame head coach Todd Franklin said. "They played some good teams and had success and Marcus was the lynchpin of that success."
"I think he's got a chance," Franklin said. "He came to visit, I really like him, he's a guy that everybody likes in terms of coaches that have coached him and people who have been around him. He's an energy guy that I think will bring some toughness on the ball defensively, fight through screens and do things we like to do."
"He's another 6-1 strong guard like we've had in the past. And we've had success with those guys and we've got a lot of those guys now in Trenton Johnson, Ketaan Wyatt and Brevin Jefferson. So that's the type of mold that we want, guys that work, guys that coaches like and I think we've collected a group of them."
"This is kind of a reset year and we're just trying to get things back to where they've been throughout this run. It's getting the same type of guys and I think that Marcus fits into that mold very well. We'll see if he's willing to come in and grind everyday like a Pun Tisdale or Everett Clemons, Chris Darrington, Keith Clemons or Charles Ashford before that. He's in that mold and that's what we've tried to bring in this year."
Clarke-Moore joins Frank Mitchell, Thow Biel, RJ Jock and Devawn White as the fifth Canadian signee in the Trailblazers 2021 recruiting class.
This group will look to add to the Trailblazers' recent success with Canadian players, which include current Golden State Warrior Mychal Mulder, National Champions Kevin Kangu and Jordan Lyons and 2019 NJCAA National Tournament Most Outstanding Player Kevin Osawe.
"We're always focused on recruiting in Canada, mostly because it's close, then it's just evaluating players like we would anywhere else," Franklin said. "It seems like a lot this year because we had no international players coming back, so we were able to go out and get a few more and we took advantage of the situation."
"It wasn't anything planned, but this time we were fortunate to sign four out of the top 40 and two out of the top 20, then we got a guy a little further down the ranking that we think has some raw ability. But we couldn't find those guys here in the states, like Frank Mitchell. We looked for a Frank Mitchell type here in the states and none were available, but Frank was available in Canada for us and now he's here, working and we're excited about him."
"We're determined to only get good guys, so the recruiting pool gets small, when looking for guys who have the ability to do what we do and has the talent that if they work hard, gives us a chance to get into Elite Eights and Final Fours, which is what we've done and what we want to continue to do. That's where they were this time."
"During this run the past 10-plus years, 90-percent of the guys we get have been within a six-hour radius of Vincennes. We've added Ketaan Wyatt who's from Ohio and we've had a lot of success recruiting in Ohio as well, just because it's close. Guys like Darius Carter, Devin Foster, Chris Darrington, Lony Francis. So, Ohio has been good to us as well because those guys have come in here and wanted to better themselves."
"But most of our guys have been within six hours of Vincennes and Canada, with the occasional Dende Ceder from the Netherlands, or Deatrick Pashell from Florida. But our makeup of our team, right now we've got 11 guys, but when we're done it's going to be the same type of situation again."
"I'm happy with the guys we have right now, we've tried really hard to get good guys. We're a little young and that's always scary, but we'll see what happens with these next two or three guys we sign, because we really don't know what is going to be available in the next couple of months."