Indiana continues to emphasize the state of Indiana first under head coach Archie Miller.
IU’s first class of 2023 offer goes to one of the best sophomore point guards in the country in Lafayette’s Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn.
He announced the offer from IU today on his Twitter page.
blessed to receive another d1 offer from indiana university!⚪️🔴 pic.twitter.com/lDzlYUEV5D
— Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn (@DravynGibbs) September 7, 2020
Gibbs-Lawhorn is a product of the same high school (McCutcheon) that sent Rob Phinisee to IU. He also plays for the same AAU program (Indiana Elite – Adidas) that has delivered several players to Bloomington in recent years.
“I like the IU basketball team, Gibbs-Lawhorn said a few weeks ago on The Daily Hoosier sponsored Hoosier Experience Podcast.
“I’m cool with most of those guys, especially Rob (Phinisee) because we went to the same high school. They had a decent team this year too.”
Gibbs-Lawhorn’s connection with Phinisee goes back a long way.
“I’ve known Rob and his family ever since I was a little kid first getting into basketball,” Gibbs-Lawhorn said. “Me and him are kind of like family.”
Playing alongside Phinisee’s brother Joe, Gibbs-Lawhorn poured in 21 points per game as a freshman while adding 3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and .9 steals per contest. Joe Phinisee, now a senior, added 11.5 points per game as the backcourt duo both earned all-conference honors.
Despite being so young, Gibbs-Lawhorn was reasonably efficient, making 49 percent of his attempts from the field. Perhaps most impressive within that figure was Gibbs-Lawhorn’s accuracy from behind that arc where he knocked down 46 percent of 136 attempts. He also made 75 percent of his hoists from the free throw line.
Obviously McCutcheon put the ball in his hands and asked Gibbs-Lawhorn to score the ball — and he did that very well. Scoring is probably Gibbs-Lawhorn’s greatest strength as a young player right now. As a point guard his development will include better finding teammates to improve on a 1-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratio.
That development is sure to come for a young player that already has elite quickness and enough athleticism and speed to create the space and separation he needs.
While there are no rankings yet for the class of 2023, Gibbs-Lawhorn appears on track to be a clear top-100 national prospect that could end up as a five-star recruit with a projection similar to IU freshman Khristian Lander.
See more on Gibbs-Lawhorn:
Summer video interview | Summer highlights | Podcast interview
To see all of Indiana’s 2023 prospects, GO HERE.
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