'21 IN PF - Caleb Furst (Purdue Verbal)

Rivals.com
24/7Sports

POWER FORWARD
6'9''|215LBs|PF
CLASS OF 2021

Ohio State has offered.

 

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* Caleb Furst, power forward, Fort Wayne (Ind.) Blackhawk Christian School – The 6-8 Furst (ranked 31st) visited Ohio State on Sept. 21. He lists offers from Butler, Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State and Purdue.

 

Caleb Furst had to leave Columbus early on Sept. 22. He couldn’t stick around the entire day since he had to get back to Fort Wayne, Indiana, that night for his brother’s high school soccer senior night game, but he returned home with something no out-of-state prospect in his class had: a scholarship offer from Ohio State.

While on his first visit to the university, Furst became the second prospect in the class of 2021 to earn a scholarship from Chris Holtmann’s staff, following Garfield Heights guard Meechie Johnson who picked up an offer in 2017. It ensured the Buckeyes will make him a priority as his recruitment progresses.

“They've showed up to multiple games of mine, open gyms this past fall,” Furst told Eleven Warriors on Tuesday. “Just reaching out, having me call them every so often, stuff like that.”

Furst, a four-star prospect, is the No. 31 overall player and the eighth-ranked power forward in the class of 2021. The 6-foot-10 recruit holds offers from Purdue, Indiana, Iowa, Butler and Northwestern, and other Big Ten powers, including Michigan and Michigan State, have shown interest. He attends Blackhawk Christian School, which he led to its first-ever state title this spring.

Ohio State has hosted Furst on campus twice in the past seven months. The Buckeyes had him in town in March, and he watched in person as they nearly pulled off a comeback against Wisconsin on senior night.

“They're a great program,” Furst said. “You can tell that the coaches are really tightly knit, as well as the players. It's a real community over there. They really emphasize playing hard and playing smart.”

Assistant coach Terry Johnson, who Furst called “super high energy” and a “great teacher of the game,” has spent a healthy amount of time recruiting him for Ohio State.

Johnson has a decade and a half of experience coaching in the state of Indiana, but Furst said that hasn’t arisen much in their discussions. Instead, they’ve talked about how he might fit into their current program’s future plans.

“They said they (like) what I kind of like about my game,” Furst said. “They like that I can go inside and out. My motor. Just my ability to kind of stretch the floor a little bit. They said they like my defense as well, which is something I've really been trying to work on, guarding one through five.”

Already 6-foot-10, 215 pounds, Furst might eventually have the height and weight combination to play center, but as of now, he and college coaches he has talked to view him as a power forward who can score from both inside and outside, otherwise known as a stretch four.

Some big men as tall as him can tend to plod as they run, but Furst has always been large for his age group, crossing the 6-foot mark in fifth grade and dunking in seventh grade, so he has made a long-term concerted effort to become mobile with his long, lanky frame. Getting out in transition has become his favorite aspect of his game.

“When I was younger, my coach told me that the difference between a big dude getting a scholarship or not is his ability to run the floor,” Furst said. “So I just really took that to heart. That's been one of my main focuses ever since I started playing.”

His most recent focus, though, has been to add muscle, a point of emphasis dating back to last summer.

Furst weighs 215 pounds at 6-foot-10 now, but not too long ago he stood 6-foot-9 and weighed 195 pounds. Increased time in the weight room, beginning with an average of five sessions a week last summer, led to him packing on about 20 extra pounds.

“I could just feel myself getting pushed around in the post,” Furst said. “I wanted to be the hammer instead of the nail.”

He said he feels that aspect of his development has progressed well, but he wants to continue to get stronger and eventually find an optimal balance of weight and explosiveness.

Furst will continue to make those adjustments while playing up an age group for the Indy Heat at the 17U level in the Nike EYBL.

“I'm doing it so I feel like I'll really be challenged and it'll help prepare me for being ready to play against the next level of competition in college and stuff like that,” Furst said.

 

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Four-star power forward Caleb Furst heard from Ohio State, per Stockrisers. He's the No. 34 overall prospect and 10th-ranked power forward in 2021, and he attends Blackhawk Christian School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Texas, California, Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue, Indiana, Butler and Cincinnati are among the other schools that have reportedly reached out. Furst holds an offer from the Buckeyes.

 

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The unofficial visits have now been set, a source told @Stockrisers: Will visit Ohio State on October 26th and Notre Dame on November 2nd.

Indiana date TBD. https://t.co/UdDWQjUDeN

— Jake (@jakeweingarten) September 8, 2019

 

Virginia’s Tony Bennett and Ohio State’s Chris Holtmann will be in today for Top-35 junior Caleb Furst, a source told @Stockrisers. Visits UVA this weekend.

— Jake (@jakeweingarten) September 17, 2019