Nick Kern has committed to VCU
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WI.Ram10
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Hoos A Ram
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This is a great get for us and I'm happy to have Nick on board. But every time I see the news I can't help but think of this disastrous SNL skit from a year ago.
- Nov 4, 2011
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Deloach also just added this tweet:
I outlined it in another post but I have felt for a couple weeks now this would be be a class of 2014 scenario. That year we had 3 schollys and had 4 commits and still we only had 12 players on scholly that year
- Nov 4, 2011
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Interesting. I didn't catch the post, but I'm assuming you're insinuating there will be a few underclassman defectors from this years team? I don't think it's appropriate to speculate who, but based on freshman year usage and potential I don't think it's as clear cut who will and won't play as it was in '14. That year it was pretty clear Antrevious, Jairus, Shannon leaving mid season, who was out. Guess it's a good problem to have, just hope that players aren't run out of the program against their will, after making a commitment to VCU.
- Jan 17, 2010
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Have to remember that the extra year of eligibility also helps the players who may transfer or are thinking about it. A year to see where they fit and where they may end up and can leave if it is best for them at the end of the year without losing that year of eligibility.
I won’t speculate on who because I agree it is not appropriate. I will pose a rhetorical question regarding the last part about running a player off. Would you rather have PJ or Bones?
Now, I am not some heartless person who doesn’t care about the kids, but the balance of power cant be one side. Kids leave schools(just like coaches) when they don’t fit so schools have to have the same right. Pretty sure the staff was not planning on MSS leaving and pretty sure Coppin st wasn’t looking for BMB to leave butt both were within their right as is a school to construct a roster that best gives them a chance to win
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My done-deal meter for Rose is up to 7.83%
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MobileMunchies
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MobileMunchies
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Benjamin Hochman
Everything happens for a reason. Or in this case, stopped happening.
“They were recruiting me hard, but then they stopped after a while,” Vashon basketball standout Nick Kern said of St. Louis University. “And VCU was recruiting me the hardest out of everybody.”
And so, the 6-foot-6 senior Kern signed Wednesday with Virginia Commonwealth. Kern is happy. VCU is happy. And SLU’s decision to pull back perhaps speaks to their need to get older faster. After this season, three key Billikens could jump into pro basketball, so for 2021-22, SLU could benefit from, say, a couple graduate transfers with previous college hoops experience.
That same season, Kern will be a freshman for an Atlantic-10 Conference rival.
“When VCU offered me, I had a Zoom,” said Kern, who also considered Texas Christian and DePaul. “I was just watching, and they were showing me games and film, and I was like, ‘This fits my game.’ And VCU was recruiting me the hardest out of everybody. I’m on the phone with the head coach, I’m on the phone with everybody on the coaching staff, some of the players and all that.”
VCU assistant coach JD Byers grew a tight bond with Kern during recent recruiting. And Kern befriended former Vashon standout Levi Stockard III, who is now a VCU Ram. A pretty cool development for Vashon coach Tony Irons, who is now, perhaps again, St. Louis’ Rams fan.
As a junior, Kern averaged 12.1 points per game and 5.6 rebounds. But his greatest game came with flabbergasting flair, considering the circumstances.
One player on the floor was headed to Kentucky, another to North Carolina.
And Vashon was down 10 points at halftime, 36-26.
“In the first quarter, I was lackadaisical, I was nonchalant,” Kern of the Feb. 18 home game against Christian Brothers College. “Missing passes and missing layups. In the second quarter, I started to get my rhythm. But coming back into the second half, I was talking with my pops.”
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That’s the original Nick Kern from Vashon.
“He was giving me a couple words,” Junior said, “telling me that, ‘It’s time, the time to show up. It’s a big game. This game right here can change you.’ And after that, I just went crazy.”
In front of sardined fans, there to catch a glimpse of Vashon’s Cam’Ron Fletcher (UK) and CBC’s Caleb Love (UNC), it was this Nick Kern kid that changed the game — the game his father said could change him. Indeed, Kern finished with 33 points and 12 rebounds in the Vashon victory, 77-68. (So, yeah, Vashon scored 51 points in the second half!)
It was quite a night. And the kernel that was Kern sure popped — he entered this year as the No. 7 recruit in all of Missouri per 247Sports.
Kern is a delight to watch and, it seems, to coach.
“I think that he’s a better kid than he is a player,” Irons said. “He’s always in a good mood, he’s always smiling, he’s always laughing. He’s a really good teammate. So he’s somebody that a lot of kids love to play with, because he’s unselfish, he’s always encouraging, he’s always trying to lift his teammates up, and he’s talking. Those are a lot of qualities that are sometimes overlooked, because we’re in this whole social media time where kids don’t really communicate — they text and stuff like that — but they don’t talk. And he’s one of those kids that you can get on him, and he doesn’t take it personally. He wants to be coached. So, that piece, right there is, I think, an invaluable part about him being a player.
“He’s always had a great feel for the game. … That feel, the savviness on the court is what kind of makes him unique.”
The first time Irons saw it? It was in a losing effort.
Kern was a freshman on the Vashon junior varsity.
“In our league, we can only play freshmen and sophomores on JV,” Irons said. “And East St. Louis, they’re able to play juniors on their JV. So it was one of those situations where this is one of his first actual, like, high school games. And you’re playing against some 17-year-olds, on top of that. Just to see him not back down in situations and make a couple plays, that was really what kind of made me of say, ‘Hey, he’s got a chance to be good.’”
And he became rather good. Irons said VCU talked to Kern about “an opportunity to possibly come in and contribute right away,” which could make the VCU-SLU games quite intriguing in future years.
But first, Kern has one more season with Vashon. And he’ll play with another Division I-bound teammate. The 6-foot-3 guard Keshon Gilbert has family in St. Louis, so Gilbert transferred from his Las Vegas high school to Vashon for this season. On Wednesday, Gilbert signed to play college ball — with the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.