By JACK LeGWIN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
If you haven’t heard of Brandone Francis, get used to the name.
The 6-foot-5, 205-pound junior combo guard from Jacksonville (Fla.) Arlington Country Day has catapulted himself from a 3-star recruit to a borderline 5-star recruit in the past couple months.
Francis’ coach, Rex Morgan, feels that Francis’ health has been a key to his recent emergence.
“He broke his wrist last year, hurt his knee this year and got sidelined with the flu for a little bit,” Morgan told SNY.tv. “Now he’s gotten healthier, started to knock down shots with more confidence, and now he’s in the best shape of his life.”
A native of the Dominican Republic, Francis admits that the transition to America wasn’t the easiest for him.
“You don’t even know how hard it was on me.” Francis said. “To be honest, I thought I was an alright basketball player. But I came here and saw all of these great players, I saw how the game went with all of the speed, and how they played. It was very tough at first. But after a while, I got used to it and now I get it.”
Most recently, Francis competed down in Miami at Adidas Nations, with some of the best players in the country in the classes of 2014-2016, a cast of which included Trey Lyles, Jahlil Okafor, Cliff Alexander and Emmanuel Mudiay.
“It was fun, a lot of fun,” Francis said. “It’s unbelievable to go at it against the best players in high school and I think I learned a lot. When you go to those camps, everyone wants to stand out, and I just did my best to do my job.”
Francis currently holds offers from Indiana, Florida, Washington, UConn, Miami, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Florida State, Louisville, Minnesota, Illinois, St. John’s USC, Oklahoma State and South Carolina.
He lists UConn, Florida, Illinois, Louisville and West Virginia as the schools that are going after him the hardest, but he insists that he doesn’t have any favorites.
Francis doesn’t let any of the mounting pressure get to him.
“People always have something to say, but I just try to have fun, and prove myself when I’m on the court.”
