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DePaul lands local product Tommy Hamilton Jr.

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DePaul has added another piece to their 2013 recruiting class, as 6-foot-9 center Tommy Hamilton Jr. committed to the program, according to multiple reports.

Hamilton is rated as a three-star recruit, according to Rivals, but he’s got a much higher upside than that. The son of city public league legend, Hamilton entered high school as one of the Big Three, along with Alex Foster and Jabari Parker, in Chicago’s Class of 2013, but things never panned out for him at Whitney Young high school. He transferred to IMG Academy for his senior year.

Some of it was due to injury. He missed his junior season with an injury. Some of it was self-inflicted. He didn’t play much on the AAU circuit last summer. And as a result, he scared off a lot of the schools pursuing him. He reportedly picked DePaul over Bradley.

But as Illinois Preps Bullseye explains, Hamilton has quite a bit of potential:

In terms of overall skill-set, Hamilton’s potential and upside are through the roof. It is all a matter of how bad Hamilton wants it and how hard he is willing to work in order to make it happen.

From an offensive standpoint, Hamilton has the ability to put the ball on the floor as well as pull up and consistently drain shots from beyond the 3-point line. He is also an outstanding passer from the top of the key. While Hamilton has often had the tendency to play soft and doesn’t jump well, when he puts his mind to it he is quite capable of being a force on the glass and a physically imposing interior defender who can block shots.


More importantly, however, Tommy Hamilton is a name people in Chicago know. He played for the Mac Irvin Fire. He’s good friends with top 75 recruit Billy Garrett Jr., who is also going to DePaul and the son of a DePaul assistant coach, and knows quite a few of the best players from the city in the Class of 2014 as well. If Oliver Purnell truly wants to make the Blue Demons relevant in the new Big East, he needs to start keeping the talent in Chicago in Chicago.

Hamilton’s not a bad place to start.

(Image via Rivals)

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.