[ballah09]

i have no idea if liberty is recruiting him but i'm just throwing his name out there since he's still available.

[youtube]

[/youtube]

Blinn College guard Kahlil McDonald was named NJCAA Pre-Season First Team All-American. The 6’4” sophomore from Brooklyn, NY, averaged 22 points per game last season.

[TDDance234]

Let's not get in the habit of throwing every unsigned name out. That could make for a long off-season.

[Sly Fox]

Blinn! I just drove through Brenham over the weekend. I can't speak for their hoops program but that carry has a long reputation for contented cows.

[ballah09]

ha trust me, last time im throwing a name out. only reason i threw his name out is because i was reading a juco report about the top remaining players, and seeing he's from texas and he attended christian schools throughout his life i thought eh why not....

dude put up some nasty stats.. 21.4 ppg. 90-170 (52%) from three. sly could probably agree that texas produces alot of good juco players

edit: he was once a rumored marquette commit (last year) so maybe Layer is familiar.

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=15286.0

[Sly Fox]

I believe our last Texas JUCO was Rashad so I'm not one to stick my neck out. But if he's a top tier kid in this league (which has sent scores of guys to the NBA) then he must have some skills.

Brenham is the home of Blue Bell ice cream FWIW.

[GoEagles]

Nice And1 mixtape audition there Kahlid. Go do a little scouting on this kid then ask yourself; why hasn't he landed anywhere? Oh.....I see.

[ballah09]

seeing how he was a former Oklahoma State commit and rumored Marquette commit and reading some of the juco report on him, he's got serious game. he had academic problems, that's why he's still at Blinn

btw..

Last year, Kahlil had committed to Oklahoma State after his first year at Blinn, but that plan fell through due to extenuating circumstances. Now, Mcdonald is drawing recruiting attention from all over the country. Right now, Mcdonald claims interest and some offers from Western Kentucky, West Virginia, Charlotte, Rutgers, and " a lot more, too many to name even." Mcdonald plans to make his decision sometime in April, after taking visits to the schools. Kahlil says he is looking "to just be able to play my game. I want to be able to play as the all around player I am developing into."

grades

Oklahoma State began recruiting the Brooklyn, N.Y., native late in the season, and McDonald said he plans to sign with the Cowboys before the signing period ends May 20. But he must first win an appeal with the NCAA regarding his eligibility.

McDonald says he played one year at a prep school in Pennsylvania before sitting out a year ago to attend a New Jersey junior college where he did not play basketball but worked to improve his grades. He then transferred to Blinn College where he was an immediate standout.

He must appeal to the NCAA because its rules state that a junior college player is not eligible unless he has completed three semesters of full-time classes (12 hours or more). McDonald, however, was only enrolled in 11 hours during his one semester at the New Jersey junior college.

McDonald was being recruited by numerous schools until they realized he may not be immediately eligible. Oklahoma State, Iowa State, South Florida and Marquette decided to continue in the pursuit of the All-American sharpshooter. Although he has yet to visit Oklahoma State, he says he will sign with the Cowboys if the NCAA rules that he is eligible, and does not have to return to junior college for another semester. He says that ruling may take a couple of weeks.

“I’m waiting to see what’s going to happen with the appeal. I’m just saying my prayers,” said McDonald, who says he has a 2.7 grade-point average at Blinn. “If they rule for me, then I’m going to sign with Oklahoma State and be there this summer. Right now, I'm verbally committed to Oklahoma State.

"If they say I’ll have to take another semester of junior college, I guess I’ll have to come back (to Blinn) and then come to Oklahoma State in January. I’m not thinking about the negatives. I don’t know what I’d do.”

from 2007

Upon moving from Wings Academy in the Bronx to American Christian School in Aston, Pennsylvania, Tony Bergeron inherited a number of players, one of whom was a New Yorker named Kahlil McDonald. McDonald, who had played at Bishop Loughlin in Brooklyn previously, was a player Bergeron was familiar with on some level, but he wasn't quite sure what to expect.
"I knew him coming in from Five Star Camp because Loughlin was one of our programs," said Bergeron. "I was told that he would be perfect for us. I was told that I'd have to adjust the attitude a bit, but when I got down there, I never saw the attitude. I found a kid who was dying to reinvent himself."

To some degree, that is exactly what McDonald has done. Which is not to say that the 6-foot-1, 187 pound shooting guard and native of Brooklyn completely overhauled his game. Instead, with the encouragement of Bergeron, he has fully embraced the one skill that sets him apart: his shooting ability.

"My game has changed, but what coach wants me to do is shoot the ball," said McDonald. "Here my role is to shoot, and I can do that pretty well."

"I said to him, if you go ahead and keep shooting those threes, it's going to lead to a Division I scholarship," said Bergeron.

McDonald has always been an exceptional shooter, going back to his days in the CHSAA. Originally a member of the class of 2005 coming out of Bishop Loughlin, he was one of the city's top marksmen, and a player who was nearly automatic off of the catch.

After leaving Loughlin, McDonald enrolled at Rise Academy in Philadelphia in the fall of 2006. He spent half the year at Rise before transferring to American Christian. But basketball was shelved for the remainder of the year as he focused on schoolwork.

For Bergeron, he has been a revelation, so much so that the coach characterized his 5-for-12 shooting performance from behind the arc in a 110-91 win over South Kent at the Nike Super Six last weekend as "a bad shooting day." Accordingly, schools are beginning to catch on.

"He's blowing up," said Bergeron. "When I came here, he had nothing. Iowa State was really intrigued. Iowa State, St. Peter's, Fordham, are interested.

"Everybody's basically waiting on the SAT score. He'll pass, I'm confident of that. He's a smart kid. He just hasn't taken the test since his junior year."

It is pretty heady stuff for a kid who was marginally a scholarship player coming out of high school. Physically, the 19-year old has matured. He was a wispy wing shooter at Loughlin, and a shade under six feet. He has grown a couple of inches since then and has improved his upper body strength appreciably, out of necessity.

"It's better competition here than in regular high school because guys are bigger and stronger," said McDonald. "Going into the paint, guys are physically so much bigger in prep school than in the CHSAA."

He has also embraced what he does well. A few years back, McDonald appeared interested in transforming himself into a point guard. Now, he knows where he fits.

"If he wants to go to the high major level, he has to be a specialist," said Bergeron. "He's certainly a secondary ball handler at a lower level."