It is the 11th hour of basketball recruiting and there are a lot of schools looking to punctuate their shopping lists with an exclamation point, including one near you.
Which is part of why Lök Wur (pronounced: luke were) suddenly found himself with a tsunami of scholarship offers and schools, including the University of Hawaii, beseeching him to visit campuses across the country.
In the weeks since he earned a qualifying score on the American College Test (ACT), Wur estimated in an KXSP Omaha, Neb., radio interview he has fielded “maybe 100-something” calls from the breadth of the college basketball universe.
So many offers — more than 30 — and so little time.
“I was kinda surprised, I didn’t expect there to be this many,” Wur said on The Bottom Line radio show.
But he shouldn’t have been.
A 6-feet, 9-inches, 180-pound wing player with an outside shooting touch and plenty of room for maturity, Wur presents an intriguing combination for any coach who still has a scholarship burning a hole in his pocket.
Wur averaged 20.8 points, 10 rebounds, 2.5 blocked shots per game and had been hitting treys at a 61% clip for Papillon-La Vista South High School — curiously known as “Paipo” — in suburban Omaha this season.
Most didn’t expect Wur, who had originally committed to Eastern Florida (Junior) College because of the eligibility uncertainties, to be cleared for NCAA Division I play in the 2019-20 season.
When Wur, who said he admires Kevin Durant, Paul George and Giannis Antetokounmpo, qualified this month, it touched off a feeding frenzy of high-, mid- and low-major teams. Or, as a school receptionist put it Wednesday with a sigh, “Another call about Lök…”
The five finalists for his services are an interesting group. From Creighton, 17 miles down the road from his high school near the Nebraska-Iowa border, to Manoa, 3,809 miles distant, with Oregon, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M mixed in.
It is the most competitive crowd the Rainbow Warriors have elbowed their way into in pursuit of a prospect in quite a while, which is encouraging and potentially game-changing. Now, we wait to see if they can close the deal.
So far, Wur has taken an unofficial visit to Creighton and is reportedly scheduled to visit Oregon this weekend, the first stops in the two- to three-week period he has laid out in which to make a decision.
Wur told KXSP radio he favors, “just somewhere where I can play freely, (a) a free motion offense and fast-paced (style).”
Asked by KXSP what location he most wanted to visit, Wur said, “I definitely want to visit Hawaii. Just seeing what they’ve got to offer and learn more about their program.”
The long-term potential UH sees in Wur is obvious. His depth of interest in the Rainbow Warriors is yet to be plumbed.
For several reasons the presumptive early leader is Oregon, where coach Dana Altman already has a foot in the door. Altman is a native of Nebraska, who coached at Creighton. “My family is really close with Dana, too. My host Mom’s dad coached Dana in high school and they are really close,” Wur said on KXSP radio.
Creighton also has familiarity with Wur saying, “I’ve always been a Creighton fan, going to their games when I was younger.”
With his current frame, Wur resembles a human exclamation point and he would surely be one for this recruiting crop, if he finds his way to Manoa.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
