Men's Basketball Recruiting Profiles: Valparaiso

A class with a couple hoosiers and a couple international players...no surprise for Valpo.

Southeastern Europe and Australia are the two must be the two big vacation spots for the Drew family. It's amazing to look at the Valpo rosters over the past few years and see the diversity in hometowns. This group is comprised of three hoosiers, an aussie, and a kid from Montenegro. The real foreigner is Chris Halvorsen who's from Minneapolis, MN.

Halvorsen's size jumps out at you when you see he's a small forward at 6'8". He was a top-15 player in the state of Minnesota last year and made a name for himself with this dunk on YouTube.



He's obviously very athletic and can play above the rim in the half court as well as the open court. Halvorsen uses his length well defensively which leads to a lot of deflections. His jump shot is still a work in progress but it's easy to see his upside.

Tommy Kurth is at the other end of the spectrum in this class. He's a lower-ceiling player that uses his basketball IQ to get by. Kurth displays good leadership and is a classic mid-major pass-first point guard. Becoming a knock down shooter will determine how early he plays.

Brandon Wood transferred from Southern Illinois so defense is already ingrained in his game. Wood's good frame, 6'3", allows him to defend either guard position while not hurting you on offense. He's a good shooter that can get his shot off because of his size. He was teammates at Highlands Community College with Detroit's Lamar Lee so he should mesh well with similar-type player and fellow Brandon, Brandon McPherson. Expect to see a good amount of Brandon Wood on the floor for the Crusaders this season.

Matt Kenney is a combo guard from Mooresville, IN. He played football in high school and it shows with his 205-pound frame on his 6'3" body. His stock rose during the Kentucky-Indiana summer series where he showed off a good all-around game. Coach Drew has been quoted as saying he's going to play point which could steepen Kenney's learning curve and keep him from playing early. He makes other players around him better which is why coach Drew sees him at the point down the road.

Ryan Broekhoff brings the Australian flavor to this group. 6'6" with excellent range, Broekhoff has some of the same strengths and weaknesses of many young international players. Strengths include excellent experience playing in the FIBA U-19 World Championships this summer for Australia. He has a good knowledge of the game and excellent size. Weaknesses are his frame, which is slight, and inside game. He's the type of player that could be really fun to watch when he gets his shot going. He's so tall and profiles as a possible two-guard that he will get a lot of clean looks in the Horizon League.

The most intriguing player in this class is unquestionably Milos Milosevic. He arrived at Valpo from Yuba College but is originally from Montenegro. He has sophomore eligibility this season and could be a three-year starter before all is said and done. Milo is not your typical European player. He's got more Charles Oakley in him than Darko Milicic. Milosevic is an aggressive inside force that is going to bruise some frontcourt players in the HL. His coach at Yuba describes him as a beast and for good reason. He'll collect his share of double-doubles this season giving Valpo a dimension they sorely lacked last year. He's gotten some preseason love as newcomer of the year so the cat is out of the bag. I'm already trademarking his dunks this season as ‘Milos Smash'. Crusader fans will hopefully see a lot of them.

Another diverse group for coach Drew and his staff. Recruiting in the Horizon League is different than the Summit League and coach Drew is going to have to continue to make adjustments. I like the balance of incoming players that will contribute early (Wood/Milosevic) and a couple kids that could grow into big-time players (Kenney/Broekhoff). Valpo is a team that I think is very hard to predict for the upcoming season and this recruiting class was a big part of that.

This is the 10th of 10 recruiting profiles being released on the Horizon League Network. I'll post a recruiting overview on Monday with some thoughts about the all the new players coming into the league.