Cohill comes out on top in anticipated matchup
Dwayne Cohill had been looking forward to this one.
Squaring off against AAU teammate Robby Carmody on Sunday afternoon at the Mercy Medical Center Classic held at North Canton Hoover High School in Ohio, the two close friends and Class of 2018 prospects more than delivered on the anticipation.
Posting 25 points and 10 rebounds for Holy Name to Carmody's 24 and 9 for Mars, Cohill's Green Wave team barely edged out the Fightin' Planets for a 50-49 win.
"It was great. Me and Robby got to go at it. It was two good teams going at it," said Cohill. "I had a four-point play to tie the game up, we scored two times and we just had 20 seconds left that we had to play good defense. We wound up forcing them to take a tough contested shot and they missed it. We won the game so it was good. Everybody competed."
The game's anticipation wasn't limited to just Cohill and Carmody, though.
Drawing the likes of Penn State head coach Patrick Chambers and assistants Dwayne Anderson and Keith Urgo, plus representatives from Arizona and "a few other schools," Cohill's performance was seen by programs that continue to pursue the point guard in recruiting.
With an offers list that includes Youngstown State, Penn State, Xavier, West Virginia, Toledo, Cleveland State, Ohio State, Northwestern, Duquesne, UNLV, Stony Brook, DePaul, Tulsa, University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt, the Rivals No. 66-ranked player in the Class of 2018 said he also has recently been reached out to by schools including Kansas, Kansas State, Texas and Virginia Tech.
Asked whether or not anything has changed for him in recruiting, or if he has narrowed his list at all to concentrate on a few specific schools, Cohill said he is welcoming and being patient with the process.
"I think everyone's in the same running right now. I love everybody, every school that's recruiting me," he said. "I don't have any specific school that sticks out. Everybody has their own features that stick out to me, but there's no one school that it's the No. 1 school or anything. I like all the schools that are recruiting me."
Acknowledging that he'd like to major in finance at his eventual college choice, Cohill highlighted some of the areas that are most important to him when evaluating his options.
"Just seeing how the players have developed, just watching player development, who is getting who to the league and who is developing their players to be the best people overall in life and going on beyond their college years," said Cohill, also noting relationships and campus life as big drawing points. "Then just making sure that if basketball doesn't work out, what are they going to provide for me? Are they going to be able to help me if I needed something? If I had to call a coach to get a job or something later in life, are they going to be able to help me with that? Just seeing if they're going to be able to provide opportunities for me later on after basketball."
Committed to taking his time with recruiting, Cohill added some detail about a possible timetable for making a decision, offering that following the upcoming AAU season he plans to start narrowing down his choices.
"I've been saying I don't want to make a decision too fast or anything," said Cohill. "I probably won't commit until maybe around Christmastime next year or around that time, but I know for sure I want to try to have it down before midway of high school season next year."
In the meantime, Cohill is focusing all of his efforts on his Holy Name HS basketball season. Coming off a week with three wins, his team is now ranked No. 11 in the latest Cleveland.com Boys Basketball Top 25 with a 12-1 record for the season.
Citing his shooting as the biggest improvement from his freshman to sophomore year, and in this, his junior season, Cohill also identified his maturity and leadership as areas that have taken big strides as the season has progressed. Areas still to improve include his turnovers, which he is working to eliminate completely, and then making better decisions as a facilitator.
Though listed as a shooting guard, Cohill said he has been playing significant minutes at point guard this season and projects to play the one at the next level.
"I think I'll be playing mostly point. Not even because of size but the way I'm able to make plays for my teammates and draw a defense and still be able to consistently score the ball," said Cohill. "A lot of people think I can play combo, but I think I'd have to get a couple inches taller for that."