By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
The goal was to bring in some of the nation’s top prep basketball prospects and let Northern Kentucky’s best compete against them – and to make it easy for Northern Kentucky fans take it all in.
And maybe give some undiscovered players here a chance to be seen going against the nation’s best.
That’s why Griffin Elite Sports and Wellness Partner Jordan Griffin got into it.
“I’ve always loved basketball,” says Griffin, a former St. Henry player whose scholarship possibilities were limited by senior-season injuries before he joined his brother at Coastal Carolina as a regular student who just loved basketball. Not that it wasn’t in the family. His dad, Bobby Griffin, was the second scholarship player recruited for NKU’s first team in 1970 out of Pendleton County.
“Then one day I was shooting around in the gym and Coach Cliff Ellis (formerly Auburn head coach) saw me and asked me to come out.” A scholarship would follow and his senior season would see Jordan’s mid-major Coastal Carolina team beat both LSU and Clemson.
Now Jordan would like other kids here to be able to get that same opportunity. “I’ve always loved basketball and thought there was a lot of talent in Northern Kentucky that didn’t get the chance. If you weren’t a Top 50 kid” (or played on the right summer AAU team), you were left out.
“And the way the transfer portal is now, it’s killing recruiting,” Jordan says, as coaches wait to see what they can get transferring in from players with a couple of years of college rather than untested high school prospects.
“I’m talking about a player like Cooper’s Yamil Rondon,” Jordan says, “I think he just needs to be seen.”
And now, Yamil and players from four Northern Kentucky teams will get their chance in this weekend’s three-day Griffin Elite Basketball Classic field that could draw fans from all over the Commonwealth as well as Greater Cincinnati.
Start with one of the top guard targets for UK’s John Calipari next year who will be here. Darryn Peterson, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound junior from Huntington (W. Va.) Prep, is ranked as high as No. 2 nationally in the Class of 2025 and will be matched against Newport’s 6-foot-1 four-star sophomore Taylen Kinney in the 9 p.m. Friday nightcap.
Canton, Ohio, native Peterson has quite the story. Just 16, he led the US National Team to a gold medal this summer in the Under-16 FIBA Tournament of the Americas and has moved, with his family, to attend the famed West Virginia prep school to take advantage of the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money that prep players in West Virginia are permitted to take but is not allowed in Ohio.
How’s that working out for Peterson? Well, last week he was the first high school player to sign an Adidas shoe deal worth a reported seven figures and this week, he became the first to sign a reported “multi-million-dollar” deal with trading card company, Fanatics.com.
Although the shoe deal might not work for UK, a Nike school, which might be why Adidas-school Kansas is considered the front-runner for Peterson, although UK was on his final 16 schools’ list released this fall. Also with Huntington Prep is 6-4 senior combo guard Carlsheon Young, an Oklahoma State commit ranked No. 86 in the nation.
IMG has another super program but Detroit five-star Darius Acuff Jr. the top IMG prospect and a UK target, will not be one of the IMG players traveling to the Elite Classic for IMG’s two games. IMG will send its No. 2 team, its Varsity Gold team, with seven Division I players. Also missing will be 7-foot-6 Canadian center Olivier Rioux, considered the “tallest teenager in the world,” who is a University of Florida commit.
IMG will open Friday at 5 against a tough-defending Cincinnati Elder team and come back Saturday on Saturday in the 7:45 feature game against Lloyd Memorial and 6-8, 220-pound junior EJ Walker, with 22 national offers. Walker and Lloyd will get a shot against an IMG team that’s not even the school’s top team but one that will bring in seven Division I players.
Among the top IMG prospects coming in: 6-7 forward Timo George (Duquesne, Temple), 6-6 Wing Jacob Hammond (Eastern Michigan, Colorado State), 6-1 guard Cameron Mercadel (Southern Utah, UC Santa Barbara), 6-4 guard Eric Baldassare (Rollins, Evansville) and 6-11 center Jackson Roberts (Clemson, USC Aiken).
Two Northern Kentucky teams will be in action in the four Sunday games with Cooper facing Legacy Charter (S.C.) at 2:30 and Covington Catholic, after last week’s win over Newport, taking on a La Lumiere School team at 7:30 that has three top perimeter prospects, all juniors, giving the LaPorte, Ind., school the nation’s No. 1 group there.
Coaches from both Kentucky and Kansas have indicated they will be in for the Sunday La Lumiere-CovCath game.
Should be an interesting matchup since CovCath is led by senior shooter Brady Hussey and 6-9 transfer Caden Miller and has been getting excellent play from its young guard group. The La Lumiere trio, all uncommitted, consists of 247’s No. 22 prospect for 2025, 6-5 guard Darius Adams (Kansas, Notre Dame, Indiana, Syracuse), No. 26 prospect, 6-3 guard Jerry Easter (USC, UCLA, Cincinnati), and 6-6 small forward Jalen Haralson (Kansas, Gonzaga, Duke). La Lumiere also has the No. 105 prospect in the 2025 class, 6-4 combo guard Melvin Bell (Stanford, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri).
OTHER TOP PROSPECTS:
• Xavier-bound Jonathan Powell, a 6-6 shooting guard listed as No. 98 in the Class of 2024, will go against Moravian Prep (N.C.) Sunday at 5 p.m. Moravian is led by 6-1 scorer Eli Ellis, headed to South Carolina, who plays for his father, Jeremy Ellis, and next to his younger brother, Isaac.
• Harlan County’s Trent Noah, a 6-6, 200-pound small forward also headed to South Carolina, is ranked by some recruiting services as Kentucky’s No. 2 player behind UK-bound Travis Perry of Lyon County. Harlan County will play Louisville DeSales at 5 on Saturday.
GRIFFIN ELITE CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Friday
7 p.m.: IMG Academy (Fla.) vs. Cincinnati Elder
9 p.m.: Newport vs. Huntington Prep (W. Va.)
Saturday
5 p.m.: Harlan County vs. Louisville DeSales
7:30 p.m.: IMG Academy vs. Lloyd Memorial
Sunday
12 p.m.: Kings (Ohio) vs. Louisville DeSales
2:30 p.m.: Cooper vs. Legacy Charter (S.C.)
5 p.m.: Centerville (Ohio) vs. Moravian Prep (N.C.)
7:30 p.m.: Covington Catholic vs. La Lumiere (Ind.)
All games will be played at the Griffin Elite Sports and Wellness complex in Erlanger which will be set up for an attendance of 750-800 per game. “We’ve got a basketball league until 9 Thursday night and they’re going to set it up at 7 a.m.,” Griffin says. “And we’ve got IMG coming in at 11 in the morning Friday.”
Tickets will be available at the door for $15 for each game, while availability lasts. Visit griffinelite.com for more details. The games will be shown on a live stream http://griffinelite.com/griffin-elite-classic-live-streams/ at $10 per game.
COLLEGE OFFER LIST
La Lumiere
Jalen Haralson 2025 Class– Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Missouri, Notre Dame
Jerry Easter 2025 Class – Baylor, Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA, Alabama, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Oregon
Darius Adams Class of 2025- Kansas, Michigan State, Villanova, Rutgers , Indiana , Michigan , Notre Dame , Ohio State
Huntington Prep
Darryn Peterson Class of 2025 ESPN #2 ranked player in country – Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio State, UCLA, Oregon, Cincinnati, Indiana, Louisville, Arizona State, Syracuse, Auburn, Michigan State, Houston, Memphis, South Carolina, Texas A&M, West Virginia, Illinois, Washington State, Baylor, Kansas State, Michigan, TCU, St. John’s, Xavier, Pitt, Maryland, Texas, LSU, Missouri, Arkansas
Carlsheon Young Class of 2025 ESPN Top 100 Oklahoma state commit
Micah Tucker – Class of 2025 4-star – Cincinnati, Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss
Dillon Tingler Class of 2024-New Mexico State, Ohio, Akron, Marshall, Eastern Michigan, Bucknell, Illinois State, UPenn, Townson, Miami University, Southern Illinois
IMG Academy
Timo George 6-7 F- Duquesne, Temple, Oakland, Chattanooga
Jacob Hammond 6-6 W/F Eastern Michigan, New Hampshire, Colorado State, Brown, Evansville
Cameron Mercadel 6-1 G Southern Utah, UC SLO, Oakland, UC Santa Barbara
Eric Baldassare 6-4 G-Nova Southeastern ,Rollins, Evansville, Townson
Jackson Roberts 6-11 C Clemson, Chowan, Edward Waters, USC Aiken
Centerville
Jonathan Powell- 6-6 Class of 2024 ESPN Top 100- Xavier commit
Eli Greenberg Class of 2025- EKU, RMU, IPFWU
Louisville Desales
Will Gibson Class of 2024 Liberty commit
Damone King Class of 2024- Morehead State, EKU, Sienna
Prince Kahnplaye Class of 2025- Morehead State
Newport High School
Taylen Kinney Class of 2026 – Radford, Morgan State, Stonybrook, IUPUI, University of Texas Rio Grand Valley, Jackson State, College of Charleston, Texas A&M University, Louisville, Illinois, Cincinnati, Xavier ,Ohio State, Dayton, Purdue
James Turner Class of 2026- Stonybrook, Jackson State, Radford, Morgan State, IUPUI, College of Charleston, Kent State
Lloyd Memorial High School
Ej Walker Class of 2025-Ohio State, Minnesota, Texas A&M, Arizona State, California, Toledo, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, NKU, Purdue, Missouri, Dayton, Ohio, Xavier, Youngstown State, West Virginia, Duquesne
Legacy Charter
Terry Copeland Class of 2024 La Salle, Seton Hall, Texas A&M, Clemson, Michigan State
Gabe Grant Class of 2024-St. John’s
Cole Hansen Class of 2024- Clemson, Princeton, Furman, College of Charleston, Furman
Adrian Shackleton Class of 2024- William & Mary, Bethune Cookman, FAU
Harlan County
Trent Noah Class of 2024- South Carolina commit, Coastal Carolina, Stanford, Seton Hall, ETSU, Miami, FGCU, NKU, Belmont, Indiana State, VCU, Marshall, Rice, Richmond, St. Louis, EKU
Maddox Huff Class of 2026- EKU, ETSU
Moravian Prep
Eli Ellis Class of 2024 Radford, High Point ,South Carolina, West Virginia, Utah State, Mississippi State, College of Charleston, ODU, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Coastal Carolina, UMass, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, VCU
Isaac Ellis Class of 2026 West Virginia, High Point, College of Charleston , Queens, ODU, Appalachian State University
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.