R.J. Hunter spurns high-profile schools to play for his father

Georgia State rarely outduels the likes of Iowa, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest for a recruit, but new coach Ron Hunter had a slight advantage in the case of one promising class of 2012 guard.

R.J. Hunter is his son.

The younger Hunter spurned the higher-profile schools that were recruiting him earlier this week and told his father he'll play at Georgia State, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

What prompted Hunter to commit now after months of saying he wasn't certain he wanted to play for his dad? It was a conversation the 6-foot-5 senior-to-be had with newly hired Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew, who played for his father Homer in college and famously hit a buzzer beater to lead the Crusaders to a memorable first-round NCAA tournament victory in 1998.

"He said he loved playing for his dad at Valpo, and that right there was a turning point," Hunter told the Journal-Constitution. "He was being recruited by bigger schools; he said it was all about where you can go and play. He said he loved playing for his father and it was the best experience of his life."

Hunter's decision to pass up the chance to play in a major conference in order to be coached by his father is not unusual in college basketball. In 2010, top 75 recruits Trey Zeigler and Ray McCallum passed up offers from the likes of UCLA and Michigan among others to play for their fathers at Central Michigan and Detroit respectively.

It's too soon to project whether those decisions were the right ones, but both Zeigler and McCallum made an immediate impact at the mid-major level. Both guards led their teams in scoring as freshmen, though Detroit finished in the middle of the pack in the Horizon League and Central Michigan labored through a disappointing 10-21 season.

Hunter is not considered quite the impact recruit that Zeigler and McCallum were, but he possessed enough tools that schools from the ACC, Big Ten and Big East were interested. In particular, his tremendous range and deft ball handling skills are considered to be strengths.

When Ron Hunter left IUPUI this spring to take on the challenge of building Georgia State into a contender in the Colonial Athletic Association, he told the National Hoops Report that a primary reason was to find a school that would entice his son to play for him.

"I really want an opportunity to coach him, not that he wouldn't have gone to IUPUI," the elder Hunter said. "I wanted to make sure I gave him another opportunity if he did want to play for his dad to play in a conference where he could really thrive in and play well. With VCU, George Mason, Old Dominion and the other teams in our conference that have done well, (the Georgia State job) became attractive."

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