Farmington High School guard Collin Chandler commits to BYU
FARMINGTON, Utah — One of the most highly rated basketball recruits the state of Utah has ever produced has announced his college decision, and he’s headed to BYU.
On Wednesday, Farmington High School guard Collin Chandler, flanked by his family and Phoenix head coach Kasey Walkenhurst, announced his decision to attend BYU.
After a countdown from three from the crowd, Chandler and his family released blue smoke and the BYU logo appeared on the screen behind them, with Chandler revealing a BYU t-shirt.
“I’m playing at BYU,” he said emphatically.
Those four words will be music to the ears of Cougar fans. Chandler is the highest rated player to ever commit to BYU, according to recruiting site 247Sports, replacing Class of 2013 forward Eric Mika, who averaged over 20 points per game as a senior for BYU in 2016-17.
ESPN ranked Chandler as the No. 28 recruit in the country for 2022, while 247Sports has him ranked 35th.
“Chandler is a competitive guard who always plays in attack mode,” 247Sports recruiting analyst Brandon Jenkins wrote in March. “He is still a baby physically but has great length, burst and solid skill. He beats defenders off the rip or bounce with an excellent first step. A plus athlete who is bouncy and is an exciting athletic finisher at and above the rim, Chandler thrives in transition and enjoys attacking the rim when driving lanes are available. He is a great shooter off the catch or dribble and knocks down the three-point shot with consistency.”
The 6-foot-4, the 170-pound Chandler will have time to develop physically. He’s planning to take a two-year mission out of high school and join the Cougars for the 2024 season. Once he arrives in Provo, he’ll get to know Erick Schork, the strength and conditioning coach for the BYU men’s basketball team.
“I’m looking forward to working with him,” Chandler said at his announcement on Wednesday. “I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time with him.”
Walkenhurst described Chandler as a hard worker when asked to describe the player in one word.
“Definitely a hard worker. That’s two words,” he said. “He’s always in the gym.”
Chandler averaged 22.6 points per game as a junior with five rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals per contest to boot.
He excelled early in the season as a junior, with three 30-point games in a week from Dec. 15 to Dec. 21. His season high in scoring was 36 points in an 82-65 win over Bountiful on Jan. 15.
By Wednesday, his college decision was narrowed down to five: BYU, Stanford, Utah, Arizona and Oregon.
By the time he arrives on campus, BYU will have joined the Big 12 Conference, where he can showcase his talents on the big stage.
“They’ve had a couple amazing seasons in the past and they’ve proved that they could win, so my goal is just to get there and help win at a higher level than they already have,” Chandler said of the Cougars. “The Big 12, they’ve had an amazing past and they have a bunch of powerhouse teams. One of my biggest things, I want to go play against the best and prove I can play and win at the highest level.”
He told those in attendance at his announcement on Wednesday that the culture and fit at BYU was important in his decision.
“The more I took visits, when I went to BYU, I felt like that was the spot for me and the culture that I got to experience while I was there, I wanted to be a part of it. I felt like the university was going to be the best thing for me after the ball stops bouncing,” he said. “All the coaches from all the programs did an amazing job in hiring a coaching staff around them. It was amazing to get to know all of them, but what was different with Coach (Mark) Pope was I felt like all the conversations we had, I felt like we were kind of on the same page for my future and where we saw that I was going to go. I just felt like that coaching staff in general was the most that I had to learn. They had the most things that they could teach me, so that was why BYU stood out.”
Chandler is the first commit of coach Pope’s 2022 class.
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