New England big man on the rise
THE RIVALS150: Class of 2014 - Class of 2015
Four-star Josh Sharma is on the rise during his junior year. The seven-footer has taken his game to new levels of late and his recruitment is taking off.
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A center at Northfield (Mass.) Mount Hermon, Sharma currently ranks No. 87 nationally in the class of 2015. However, because of his combination of athleticism and skill and the fact that he's starting to put it all together on the floor, his stock has been soaring.
Sharma took an early January visit to Wisconsin and the interest has taken off from there.
"Interest has picked up, especially after I took my first official visit to Wisconsin," Sharma told Rivals.com. "Illinois offered and then I talked to Florida, Indiana, Gonzaga and Creighton offered.
"I really like Wisconsin, Illinois, Vanderbilt and a few other schools. I'm talking to Creighton a lot, too. Boston College is recruiting me a lot and I like them, too. They are in the mix."
Sharma took advantage of new rule put in place last year that allows basketball prospects to begin taking official visits in January of their junior year when he took his Wisconsin visit.
"I took my first official visit to Wisconsin the second weekend in January," Sharma said. "It went really well. I really enjoyed it. I liked talking to the coaches, hanging out with the players, and watching them play. I saw the game against Iowa and that was a really good game."
Wisconsin made a strong impression on Sharma in his time on campus.
"I really like the way they play," Sharma admitted. "It's not the most uptempo of offenses, but I like the way they use their big men. They don't just make them play in the low post. They allow them to play on the perimeter, shoot some threes, and dribble a little."
Vanderbilt is another school prominently mentioned in Sharma's recruitment. First-year assistant Yanni Hufnagel started recruiting Sharma at Harvard and hasn't let up since arriving at Vanderbilt.
"I haven't seen Vanderbilt play much, but I definitely like them," Sharma said. "I like Coach Yanni a lot. He's been talking to me a lot over the past couple years since he was at Harvard. Academics are another reason why I like them on top of the fact they are usually pretty strong in basketball."
Creighton has been one of the more successful basketball programs in the country in recent years. Doug McDermott has been a big part of that success, and Sharma has taken notice of how the Blue Jays use the senior forward.
"Creighton has been talking to me a lot since the fall. I talk to Coach Sellers a lot and I know Doug McDermott is out there putting in work," said Sharma.
This spring, Sharma will once again run with the Mass Rivals. With one official visit out of the way he's not planning to take any other visits until at least after the high school season and he hasn't really set any kind of timetable for making a college choice.
"I haven't really thought about when I"m going to decide," said Sharm. "I'm definitely going to take one or two more official visits before I do make a decision.
"The style of play definitely is important to me. I'm going to look at how each school uses their big men. I'll also see on my visits how the coaches are, who the players are, and how the campus is."
Dan McDonald is a contributing national basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.
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