All parties agree that Chesterton shooting star Logan Pokorney and the Taylor University basketball program make for a great fit

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The transfer portal, a turnstile of sorts, keeps NCAA Division I basketball players coming and going, campus hopping throughout their careers.
For prospects paying attention, the obsession they might once have had with getting a D-I scholarship out of high school requires a closer look.
Careful what you wish for can apply to young basketball players who land a D-I school right off the bat, ride the pine, and lose their scholarships after a year, cast adrift, replaced by an older player, left to fight the perception that they were overrated in high school.
Chesterton senior Logan Pokorney, a fast, 6-foot-4 3-point marksman didn’t sit around waiting for a Division I school to offer a scholarship. He entered the recruiting process with an open mind, liked what he heard from Taylor University coaches early and ultimately committed to the NAIA school that plays in the competitive Crossroads League.
Chesterton 10th-year basketball coach Marc Urban was impressed with the level head Pokorney showed throughout the recruiting process.
“You could sit here and say if this was before the transfer portal or before COVID, he’s probably a little bit higher, but the higher piece of it is it just feels good when you send the Tweet out, right?” Urban said. “But then after you send the Tweet out nobody really cares where you’re going anyway.”
Your friends, your coaches, your parents might be able to brag more about you choosing a D-I school, but it’s not about bragging rights. It’s about finding the school you most will enjoy.
“So, go somewhere that’s a good fit for you,” Urban said. “Go somewhere that you’re going to play, and I think he’ll play right away there, and they wanted him. If somebody really wants you and you know you’re going to play and you’re going to get a good education, why are you waiting for somebody that doesn’t really want you to want you?”
Pokorney’s such a good shooter, with such deep range, that it’s easy to see where a D-I school might have pulled the trigger on him after watching one of his two games when he went off for 20 first-half points. He made six 3-pointers, all in the first half, in a slaughter of Andrean and had seven 3s in a rout of Valparaiso.
But what if a D-I school had recruited him late after failing to land its top priority?
“You can go somewhere, play six minutes and they’re like, ‘Well, I’ve got my transfer, go somewhere else.’ You have nothing to show for it,” Urban said. “He played it right. I was glad he made the decision, and I think he’s comfortable with it. I think it’s taken a lot of pressure off of him. I think he’s extremely excited to go play for them and they’re playing really well.”
Pokorney enters tonight’s regular season finale at Culver Academies as the team’s leading scorer (14.6 points per game) and most efficient shooter among regulars. Effective field goal percentage is calculated by adding total field goals made to 0.5 times the 3-point field goals made, then dividing by total field goals attempted.
Pokorney (.667), junior Tobias Ray (.661) and sophomore Bradly Basila (.565) have unusually high eFG percentages. So do reserves Tommy Kostbade (.821) and Ethan Virgil (1.055), although their shot volumes are too low to compare fairly to much bigger sample sizes.
Pokorney said he asked coaches from various schools recruiting him about their styles of play and he liked what he heard from Taylor head coach Austin Peters and his assistants.
“I think their offense really fits me,” Pokorney said. “Push the pace and shoot 3s.”
Taylor went 11-7 in Crossroads League play in Peters’ second season for the school’s first winning conference record since 2017-18.
The Taylor Trojans led the Crossroads in 3-pointers made and attempted this season.
“They got the right guy, didn’t they?” Urban said of Pokorney, who has generated 56% of his points on 3-pointers.
In an interview conducted over email, Peters offered insights as to why he wanted Pokorney.
“The key to our turnaround has been having guys on our team that are like Logan; guys that are tough, smart, unselfish, and work relentlessly at their game,” Peters said. “I am excited for Logan to be here and continue to help us improve and pursue being a tough, smart, and unselfish basketball team.”
Peters called Pokorney “a very high IQ player who also has the ability to score at all three levels,” and said he envisions him making a quick transition to the college game.
“What I love about Logan is every time I watch him play he adds something new to his game,” Peters said. “Because of his hunger and desire to improve, I don't think it will take very long for Logan to make an impact for us.”
Former Chesterton stars Jake Wadding (Grace) and Travis Grayson (Spring Arbor) started as freshmen in the Crossroads League and stayed at their original schools throughout their careers, so it can happen. Grayson, by the way, averaged 24.3 points per game in his past four games, and scored
Pokorney is convinced Taylor, located in Upland, about an hour north of Indianapolis and an hour south of Fort Wayne, is the right fit for him and the feeling is mutual.
“Logan is an outstanding young man with very high character and comes from a great family,” Peters said. “Those are non-negotiables for us in recruiting and I could tell right away by Logan's work ethic, grit, and competitive mindset that he would be a great fit for our program.”
Pokorney has been a great fit for the Chesterton varsity basketball program for four years now and he wants it to last as long as possible.