Dawson ranked 16th in nation
Rivals names Wallace junior one of 25 five-star recruits in Class of 2011.
August 25, 2009
By David Robb, Post-Tribune staff writer
Branden Dawson (center) of Lew Wallace has a earned five-star ranking from the recruiting website Rivals.com.
(Jeffrey D. Nicholls/Post-Tribune)
Lew Wallace's Branden Dawson doesn't pay attention to all the accolades. He's not the type to peruse recruiting Web sites to see how he ranks among the nation's elite basketball recruits.
But yes, he is aware of the latest Rivals Top 150 for the Class of 2011, which lists Dawson as the 16th-best junior in the nation. His AAU coach, James Dye of SYF, told him all about it.
"I was pretty surprised when he told me I was a five-star player," Dawson said.
Dawson was one of 25 guys in his class designed as a five-star recruit -- the highest ranking Rivals offers.
"Five-star recruit," Lew Wallace coach Renaldo Thomas said. "I think that's the first one we've had out of Gary."
Dawson, in fact, is the first boys basketball player from Northwest Indiana to be given a five-star rating by Rivals. Of course, Rivals, which was founded in 2001, did not exist to evaluate countless other Gary greats.
But regardless, Dawson has become one of the most highly regarded basketball recruits this area has ever produced. And he has the offers to prove it.
Rated the No. 4 small forward in Rivals' Class of 2011, the 6-foot-6, 200-pound Dawson has been offered scholarships by Purdue, Indiana, UCLA, Arizona, Georgetown, Minnesota and, most recently, Ohio State.
"I've been handling it pretty good," Dawson said. "It's a lot, though. Every two days, they call asking if me and my mom want to come visit. (My mom) has never been through anything like this before."
Dawson pursuit heats up, with Purdue, Indiana hot on the trail
By Kyle Neddenriep
Posted: September 24, 2009
Along with IU and Purdue, Gary Wallace guard Branden Dawson has scholarship offers from Georgetown, Marquette, Ohio State and UCLA, and he's visiting UCLA this weekend. - Photo courtesy of Rivals.com
Branden Dawson is in no rush to make a college decision. The 6-5 junior guard from Gary Wallace will have his choice of schools when it comes that time. But for now, he?s just enjoying the process -- most of it, anyway.
?I have garbage bags full of letters,? said Dawson, ranked No. 16 nationally in the 2011 class. ?My cell phone has been blowing up, but it?s fun. I?m enjoying it.?
Hot on his trail are Purdue coach Matt Painter and Indiana coach Tom Crean. Both have made the trip to Gary to see Dawson during open gyms this month. Painter and Crean are battling more than just each other, though. Dawson said he also has offers from Georgetown, Marquette, Ohio State and UCLA. He?s taking an unofficial visit to UCLA this weekend.
Lew Wallace's Branden Dawson is a nationally ranked recruit
BY STEVE HANLON - [email protected], (219) 933-4198 | Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
HEATHER EIDSON | THE TIMES Born with amazing athleticism and entrusted to wear the same number that his coach and an NBA All-Star from his hometown wore while chasing championships, Lew Wallace junior Branden Dawson knows the game of basketball is his path to success.
GARY | Branden Dawson spent most of his freshman season watching everyone else play basketball.
Academically ineligible, his name was off the roster, an omission that didn't sit well with the soft-spoken swing player.
That wake-up call caused Dawson to intensify his academic pursuits. When he earned his way back onto the team at Lew Wallace, his coach, Renaldo Thomas, gave him the only jersey not being used -- No. 13.
That was the number Thomas wore at Roosevelt in the early 1980s.
Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson also wore that number while leading Roosevelt to the 1991 state championship, earning the Indiana Mr. Basketball award and springboarding a career that took him to Purdue and an 11-year stay in the NBA.
"I didn't want to give (Dawson) that number," Thomas said. "I didn't want anyone to wear it. That's too much pressure on a kid. But Branden has lived up to that number. I think, when it's all said and done, he's going to surpass what the Big Dog did."
In the last 15 years, recruiting has become infinitely more publicized, scrutinized and digitized, and in that time no local player has been ranked as highly as Dawson is right now.
Rivals.com rates Dawson as the No. 16 recruit in the country for the Class of 2011. Scout.com has him at No. 21, ESPN at 29th.
Despite a rich tradition of championships and Division I players, before this summer, the Region never had a representative in the top 25 of any reputed national list in the age of dot-com rankings.
Dawson has more than 2,000 recruiting letters at his home, and he's received scholarship offers from Arizona, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Marquette, Michigan State, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Tennessee, UCLA and Xavier.
Dawson sweepstakes is heating up
Junior remains grounded as recruiters put on full court press
February 5, 2010BY MIKE HUTTON, (219) 648-3139 OR [email protected], BLOGS.POST-TRIB.COM/HUTTON
Lew Wallace's Branden Dawson dribbles upcourt in a game earlier this season.
(Doug McSchooler/For the Post-Tribune)
Branden Dawson can't sit still. He is tapping his legs, answering questions about the dozens of schools recruiting him while a steady stream of students and Lew Wallace employees stop to say something like, "Happy birthday," or "What's going on?" or to give him grief about getting his picture in the paper one more time. One man hands him a bag with a birthday gift.
Dawson turned 17 the night before. That meant a dinner of crab legs, shrimp, fish -- every kind of seafood imaginable at Red Lobster. Dawson is known for his legendary appetite, so it was a feast fit for a growing teenager.
"Man, it was a lot of stuff," he says with a grin.
Dawson is a normal high schooler, not at all predisposed to having an inflated view of himself in the face of what is turning out to be unprecedented amount of attention by colleges seeking his services as a basketball player. He is ranked as the 16th best player in the country by Rivals.com .
Not since Glenn Robinson graduated from Roosevelt in 1991 has a player from Northwest Indiana been as celebrated. It's possible that Dawson could have his choice of schools, depending on the results of his test scores. A "B" student, he takes the ACT in March.
My job? To try to give some definition to just where Dawson might end up going to school. I know that Dawson hasn't made up his mind yet about who the winner is going to be in the sweepstakes for his services.
But I figure that he must have an idea of who is in play and who isn't.
I'm right -- only to a degree. I'm pretty sure he won't go to Ferris State. And there are some reasonable assumptions you can make about other schools not really being players, such as Tennessee.
The Volunteers have sent him dozens of letters, but it must be because he's just on their direct mail list because no one from the school ever has contacted him.
Dawson rattles off Purdue, Illinois, Indiana, Georgetown, UCLA, Michigan State, Minnesota, Kentucky and Marquette as his leaders.
