Elias Harden is off the board to Xavier.
A 6-foot-4 shooting guard, Harden averaged 15.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game at the Adidas Circuit finale.
“I want to start off by thanking God for everything with out him none of this would be possible,” he said Wednesday on Twitter “I wanna thank my family, coaches, and close friends for motivating me and pushing me to the fullest. The recruiting process was not EASY AT ALL! I wanna thank all the coaches that took time to recruit me….With that being said I will continue my academic and athletic career at Xavier University.”
Ranked No. 91 in the class of 2017 by 247 Sports, Harden also held offers from Ole Miss, Florida, Memphis, Georgia, Auburn, West Virginia and Cincinnati. He recently visited Georgia, Xavier and Cincinnati.
“They’re all telling me that they’ll use me as a shooter,” Harden said recently. “I can run the floor and I’m a big guard who can defend, so they’re saying they’ll use me in a lot of different ways.”
Harden will be transferring from Sandy Creek (Ga.) to Pebblebrook this year to join Collin Sexton, Jared Jones and Drue Drinnon. He says the big key for this upcoming year is letting their play do the talking.
“We just need to play good basketball,” Harden said. “With Collin coming off of USA [gold medal with the U17 team], he’s playing really well right now. Drue is a great player, with his ability to get to the rim and score, he’s a great addition as well. Jared down low, he’s a big body for us. He can shoot it a bit too.”
Harden is coach Chris Mack’s second 2017 commit, following 6-6 small forward Jared Ridder.
