Chesterton sharpshooter Logan Pokorney looks forward to senior season free of recruiting stress after committing to Taylor University on a basketball scholarship

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Based on some of his recent interviews, Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari felt a little lonesome this summer. He missed seeing fellow coaches at summer events because, he said, some of them don’t bother watching high school recruits anymore. Instead, they build their rosters strictly by poaching transfers from other schools.
That’s what makes it tougher now than ever for high school basketball prospects to land Division I scholarship offers.
Back in the day, Chesterton’s Logan Pokorney might have been a Division I recruit. Yet, he doesn’t appear to waste time thinking about that and is happy to have put the recruiting experience behind him well before starting his senior season.
Pokorney’s basketball scholarship to Taylor University of the competitive Crossroads League of the NAIA means a free education for Chesterton’s versatile wing who stands, “6-4-1/2,” not that he’s measuring or anything.
There is reason to believe Pokorney could grow to 6-6, considering that his brother, Eli, a state champion heavyweight wrestler when he was at Chesterton, grew two inches after high school.
“It’d be great if he gets to 6-6 by November,” Chesterton coach Marc Urban cracked.
Obviously, Urban’s happy to have Pokorney at 6-4-1/2.
“They see what I see in Logan,” Urban said of the Taylor coaches. “He’s a really good player. He can shoot it. He’ s a good kid and he’s going to represent the program really well in a lot of ways.”
Ever since his visit last October to the campus in Upland, located 145 miles southeast of Chesterton in Grant County, Pokorney has spoken highly of the school.
“It’s super nice down there,” he said.
He added that the way the Taylor coaches go about program-building reminded him “on and off the court,” of Urban and his staff.
“They were the most consistent with me and the coaches were the best toward me,” Pokorney said. “The coaches remind me of our coaches, their overall approach to the game and the people they are. They feel like family, and it feels right going there. I think it’s a great fit for me and for them.”
Austin Peters is in his second season as Taylor’s head coach after several seasons as an assistant at multiple NAIA powerhouses and at Valparaiso University under Bryce Drew.
Once a Trojan, always a Trojan applies to Pokorney. Taylor’s school colors are purple and gold and their nickname is Trojans.
“I think he’s going to have a chance to play right away and that’s what you want to do,” Urban said. “You want to have a chance to play and compete. Obviously, it’s a great conference. The coach is new, he’s had a lot of success in the past, and he’s trying to get things headed back in the right direction.”
As a junior, Pokorney led the Trojans in scoring (15.5 points per game) and shot .396 from 3-point range for a Trojans team that went 15-10 overall, finished third in the DAC with a 4-3 record, and lost to Portage, 69-55, in the Valparaiso sectional.
Urban is happy for Pokorney that his decision is behind him.
“When you commit, it takes a lot of pressure off you,” Urban said. “You’re not playing for that piece of it. So, he’s just going to compete and enjoy his senior year. And he gets to play against some schools that didn’t recruit him, which is always nice.”
Bethel University of the Crossroads League recruited Pokorney and two others at the same position with the understanding that if one of the three committed, the offer would be withdrawn from the other two, which is what happened. Pokorney always seemed to prefer Taylor anyway.
The Trojans bring all five starters back: junior Tobias Ray, seniors Jaylon Watts, Pokorney and Caden Schneider and sophomore Bradly Basila. Juniors Malachi Ransom, Gunner Ello and Ethan Virgil and sophomores Cooper Huwig and Tommy Kostbade give the Trojans strong depth. Last season, Ransom didn’t join the program until the beginning of the school year and Basila moved from the Democratic Republic of Congo when the season was in progress.
Rob Czarniecki, who has committed to play baseball at Kentucky and is a Major League Baseball draft prospect, Peyton Tarnowski and Mike Rone have decided not to play basketball as seniors.
“I think we can be as good as we want to be,” Pokorney said of the Trojans’ prospects. “We had a really good summer. Obviously, we had Malachi and Bradly here this summer. I think having everyone who is going to be on the team here this summer really helped us develop as a team.”