Photo Credit: NKU Athletics
VITALS
BIOGRAPHY
Keeyan Itjere is a transfer portal entree that the Norse are pursuing. The Redshirt Sophomore entered the transfer portal shortly after the 2022-23 season concluded, a season in which Itjere saw the court for a mere 31 minutes. With such a small amount of volume, it’s pointless to even attempt to assess a player at their “per 40” numbers, much less their “per 100” stats. Instead, we have to go on potential, and tape.
But before we get to that, let’s keep telling you about how we got to this point. Keeyan Itjere was part of the 2021 recruiting class. In fact, Keeyan was a HUGE part of the 2021 recruiting class. Keeyan had a composite scouting score of 3.3 stars, based on his 3-star rankings from 247 and Rivals and his 4-star ranking from ESPN. Furthermore, 247 had him don as the 202nd best player in the country, while ESPN had him as the 23rd best Power Forward in the country. Normally a player like this out of High School would be an impossible get for the Norse. Teams like NKU hope to land top 300 players if they are lucky, but the idea of sniffing anyone near the top 200 is usually out of the question. Behold the transfer portal ladies and gentlemen. While the Norse have felt the sting of the portal, they certainly have been blessed by it as well.
Keeyan attended Grace Academy in North Carolina where he was a fairly dominant presence on the court. While his numbers don’t reflect dominance in any specific area of the game, the impact of Itjere on the court was broad. Need scoring? He got you a solid 11 points per game. How about rebounding? Count on 8 of those per game. Playing a team that wants to challenge you at the rim? Itjere is going to send 3 of those shots into the stands per game. Players like this – the “do everything” guys, are vital at the college level which explains why Keeyan was so heavily recruited both out of high school and in the portal. Out of high school, Keeyan passed on offers from Rhode Island, Elon, Charleston Southern and Radford to ultimately commit to one of the most prominent athletic programs in the country: the University of Texas. Shaka Smart built a strong relationship with him, so when he left Texas to coach at Marquette, Itjere quickly decommitted from Texas and followed Smart to the Golden Eagles. After redshirting a year and playing very minimally last year, he decided to enter the portal. Though he was heavily recruited, most notably by NKU and Brigham Young (a team that will play in the Big 12 next season), NKU had a really strong chance. Obviously the coaches had to win him on the initial “sell” but once they broke through to him, Itjere reportedly was given a strong endorsement of NKU and Coach Horn by Shaka Smart, who employed Horn (and NKU assistants David Harris and Simon McCormack) when they were all at Texas.
As a result, NKU won its biggest recruiting head-to-head, officially landing Itjere on Tuesday, March 18th. Itjere brings size, athleticism and TALENT to the Norse. He has the potential to give us everything we got from Chris Brandon or Adrian Nelson, and at 3 inches taller. Norse fans need to get excited about this.
HIGHLIGHT VIDEOS/SOCIAL MEDIA:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KItejere – @KItejere
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keeyanitejere/ – @keeyanitjere
Sources:
https://n.rivals.com/content/athletes/keeyan-itejere-272791?view=cv
https://www.on3.com/db/keeyan-itejere-145392/recruiting/120957/interests/
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/243154/keeyan-itejere
https://247sports.com/player/keeyan-itejere-46102625/
https://gomarquette.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/keeyan-itejere/7094
https://horizoneroundtable.com/2023/04/19/transfer-portal-patience-pays-off-for-horn-nku-hoops/