Recruiting File: Braxston Bunce

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In addition to Mike Hall, Penn basketball's recruiting-target list for a 2012 big man includes Braxston Bunce, a 6'10, 250-lb post player who hails from British Columbia, Canada. Bunce began to receive a pile of offers after a strong showing at the Las Vegas Live AAU tournament (Jul. 22-26), and he gained invaluable experience as the youngest member of Canada's U-19 team, going up against 7-foot-5 center Sim Bhullar on a regular basis in practice. I got a chance to speak with Bunce, his mother (Cheryl), and Ross Tomlinson, the Elite Development Manager for Basketball BC (the program Bunce has played for since the 7th grade) about Bunce's big-time summer and recruitment. Here are some good nuggets:

Top 5:

• Bunce named, in no particular order, his top 5 schools as of now: Penn, Cornell, Washington State, Boise State, and the University of Nevada
• He has taken unofficial visits to the latter three (plus Montana St. and Eastern Washington) and will take officials to Penn this week (he flies to Philadelphia today) and Cornell next week. Hall, meanwhile, will be coming to Penn Sept. 16th.

• "[Braxston is] sort of an old school post player. When you see him play, he has a real finesse  game, so he likes to go to the jump hook a lot, and he's got some really good up-and-under moves. You see some aspects of his game that you don’t tend to see a lot anymore, that he's really worked on. And he's very good going left-handed or right-handed ... He [also] has good anticipation skills, and he sets himself up really well underneath the basket and takes up good space, so he likes contact and he really establishes contact to get position ... I think as he gets older, his timing is going to get stronger as well. He gets off the floor fairly well, but that's one of the areas where I think as his body matures, he's going to get stronger and stronger in that particular area." - Tomlinson

• "I'd say right now my strengths would definitely be my low-post play, running the floor ... Rebounding both ends of the floor and just being a defensive presence, taking up space in the key, altering shots, blocking shots, stuff like that. As far as weaknesses, I'd say, right now, I'm really working to get my jump shot consistent. [And] for me, I can always ... continue to add muscle and continue to work on my  conditioning." — Braxston Bunce

• In addition to the aforementioned West Coast schools, Bunce is drawing serious interest from the Ancient Eight. Of the Ivies, Bunce said that Penn and Cornell have been recruiting him the hardest (and just about as equally). He also mentioned Harvard and Princeton as expressing interest earlier in the recruiting process. Columbia got in on the action this summer, too.
• In their conversations with Bunce, both Penn and Cornell have been saying many of the same things, namely, that Braxston would be able to come in and immediately compete for minutes. Bunce said that contact between himself and Penn coaches Jerome Allen and asst. Mike Martin began to pick up around the beginning of August. Also, Allen will be making a visit to Canada next week to meet with the Bunce family.
• According to both Braxston and his mother, education will be a big factor in the young man's final decision, and an Ivy degree is definitely a draw. As Braxston's mother said, "We know that if he graduates from an Ivy League school that he will be recognized worldwide with having a degree that’s very marketable and [that will] help him get a really good job, so I know that’s important to him."
• Meanwhile, when asked about his willingness to give up an athletic scholarship to go Ivy, Braxston said, "It's tough to pass up an athletic scholarship, but I think financially [an Ivy degree] is just as good. Obviously, you're not going to get a better education than the Ivy League, so it's very important for me. So definitely it will be heavily weighed on my mind when I'm making my decision."