Activity on the Logan Pokorney recruiting front too quiet for Chesterton coach Marc Urban’s taste

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

As coach of the Indiana All-Stars, Chesterton boys basketball coach Marc Urban gained video and in-person exposure to the best high school basketball players in Indiana and neighboring Kentucky.
That exposure has done nothing but intensify Urban’s opinion that Chesterton rising senior Logan Pokorney should draw more attention than he has on the recruiting front.
“I’m hoping his recruitment picks up because there is no reason he shouldn’t be recruited higher than he’s being recruited right now,” Urban said.
The coach is baffled as to why lower NCAA Division 1 schools NCAA Division II schools have not offered Pokorney a scholarship.
“The Division II and Division I schools, they are always trying to get transfers because it’s like speed dating,” Urban said. “You’re just trying to find the best-looking kid that they can get to try to win right away, where they don’t like developing kids.”
Pokorney, an accurate 3-point shooter, as a junior made close to 50% of his field goals, close to 40% from 3-point range and nearly 90% of his free throws. He said he recently was measured at 6-foot-4-1/2 at the doctor’s office when taking his physical. His brother, Eli, a state champion wrestler in the heavyweight division, has grown a couple of inches since graduating from Chesterton. Based on that, it’s reasonable to believe Logan could grow to 6-6.
“When you look at Logan, he checks every box,” Urban said. “When you look at the character box, does he work hard? Yes. Is he a good student? Yes. Does he represent us well? Yes. Are you ever going to have to worry about him? No. Does he lift really hard? Does he eat right? You go down everything that he does well as a human being, and you feel like you’re lying but you’re not because he checks every one of those boxes.”
Many college coaches stop recruiting an athlete who doesn’t check all those boxes.
“Then you go to the basketball side of it. He’s 6-4. He’s strong. He can shoot. He’s extremely fast. Where it’s like, I don’t know what it is,” Urban continued. “I wish there were more guys like (Purdue coach) Matt Painter who just found value in kids and didn’t look into rankings, didn’t look into who else has offered him or whatever else was going on. They just trusted their own eyes and saw the value that a player like Logan brings.”
Unselfish to a fault, Pokorney has the ability to inflate his scoring to a higher level than the 16 points a game he scored as a junior.
“Even coaching against the senior All-Stars from Kentucky, there were a lot of guys going to some of those lower, mid-major Division I schools like Middle Tennessee State, and I’m like Logan’s just as good as them,” Urban said. “It’s frustrating. You feel bad.”
Urban’s frustration mounts when he sees Pokorney play so well against other players being recruited by Division I schools.
College coaches from every level will be watching the Charlie Hughes tournament at Carmel High and Westfield High today and tomorrow.
“I’m hoping that he plays well at Charlie Hughes without forcing it because if you force it, then sometimes you look bad,” Urban said
Pokorney was instrumental in helping the Trojans take a 16-0 lead vs. 21st Century, which is led by Indiana Junior All-Star Terrence Hayes, in a Chesterton Summer League game Tuesday night.
“Logan just needs to do what he did tonight,” Urban said. “I mean, Terrence Hayes has a lot of people calling him and I thought Logan was the best player on the floor. Logan’s been going against some really talented kids and there have been a lot of times he’s been the best player on the floor.”
NAIA schools like to fill up recruiting classes quickly so they don’t find themselves sifting through leftovers. What happened between Pokorney and Bethel of the Crossroads League is typical. Bethel was recruiting three guards for one scholarship. The first one to commit landed the scholarship and Bethel no longer was an option for Pokorney.
Taylor University, located in Upland, and also a member of the Crossroads League, remains an option for him and one of which he speaks highly.
“I’ve been down there a couple of times,” Pokorney said. “The campus is really nice, and I love the coaches, too.”
Pokorney said he would like to commit to a school “in the fall before the season starts, so that I can focus all on the team and not worry about that. Maybe early October.”
Another thing Pokorney does that appeals to coaches: When asked a question about himself, he answers it from a team perspective. For example, when he asked what he personally wanted to get out of the summer, he said, “I think growth as a group. Last summer, we didn’t end the way we wanted to, and we didn’t play hard enough at Charlie Hughes, going 1-3.”