Four-Star Guard Puts Clemson Basketball in His Final Four
The Clemson Tigers have just one prep commitment for the Class of 2025. On Monday, that could double.
On3.com reported that four-star guard Jamarion Batemon has narrowed his prospective schools down to four and would announce his decision on July 1.
Clemson will be waiting, along with Big East power Marquette and a pair of Big 12 schools — Iowa State and West Virginia — on th 6-foot-3 Batemon’s decision.
If he selects Clemson he would join 6-foot-10 power forward Trent Steinour from Lake Norman High School in Mooresville, N.C., in Clemson’s Class of 2025. Steinour is a three-star player and ranked among the Top 200 players in the country.
On3.com ranks Batemon as the No. 51 player in the class. The Milwuakee (Wis.) Academy of Science rising senior hasn’t visited Clemson yet but said that Clemson “wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger later in my recruitment and understand my goals of making the NBA.”
Clemson made him an offer earlier this month.
Batemon may prove to be a tough get for the Tigers. Marquette is the hometown basketball power in Milwaukee and Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger and his staff recruit the state of Wisconsin well. Another recruiting site, 247sports.com, is projecting Batemon to Iowa State.
Marquette and Iowa State should be among the top teams in the nation this coming season.
He was also considering Bradley, Cal Poly, DePaul, Grambling State, Illinois, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Milwaukee, per 247sports.
Meanwhile, Clemson is working to put together its non-conference schedule for 2024-25, per d1docket.com. With the Tigers on the lookout for two or three more non-conference games, they already have home games set up with Charleston Southern, Eastern Kentucky, Florida A&M, Kentucky, Memphis and Radford.
Clemson’s two true road games look like Boise State and in-state rival South Carolina, while they’re scheduled to participate in a Thanksgiving MTE in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Clemson is coming off its biggest season on the hardwood since 1980. Like that season, the Tigers reached the Elite Eight. This year, Clemson was a No. 6 seed and defeated No. 11 New Mexico, No. 3 Baylor and No. 2 Arizona before falling to No. 4 Alabama one step away from the Final Four.
While Clemson is losing star forward P.J. Hall to the NBA Draft, head coach Brad Brownell and his staff have retained talent and brought in a host of transfers they hope will allow them to take that next step in 2024-25 and challenge for the program’s first berth in the Final Four.
MATT POSTINS