Damian Lillard received college awards, but where did he go to school?
While Damian Lillard has become one of the NBA's elite players, he was somewhat overlooked as a college basketball prospect.There weren't many offers from high-profile programs, despite the fact that Lillard's story of recruitment is not quite to the point where only one school looked at him.
It wasn't a huge shock when he committed to Weber State University because the other offers were from good schools.It is apparent that the immediate playing time and ability to run the show helped his career, as he wasted little time making an impact in his collegiate career.
According to Rivals.com, Lillard was a two-star recruit back in 2008 and didn't receive a national or state rank for his position.After choosing Weber State over 11 other schools, the 6-foot-1 point guard out of Oakland, California set out to make a name for himself.The likes of San Diego State, Santa Clara, SMU, and Wichita State were on the list.
Rivals states that he had interest from Utah and Washington State, despite the fact that Saint Mary's and San Diego State were the biggest programs to offer.There was no offer from those schools according to the site.
According to Mike Schmitz of Valley of Nations, Lillard's coach at Weber State called him different in recruiting.
Damian didn't care about levels in the recruiting.He needs to be around people he trusts.He is a very loyal kid.He made the right choice because as a freshman he was expected to be a good player and he kept getting better.He might not have progressed like he did playing for us if he had gone to a Pac-12 school.
Even though he didn't get recruited by some of the top programs in college basketball, he impressed early in his career.During his freshman season, he had marks of 11.5 points, 3.9 rebound and 2.9 assists.His 2010-11 season was shortened due to a foot injury, but he continued to improve moving forward.