Forks in road lead Jake LaRavia to NBA draft: 'I'm grateful it happened the way it did.'
Greg Lansing was recruiting in Hutchinson, Kansas, at the National Junior College Athletic Association in March of 2019 when he saw the tweet. Jake LaRavia, after a coaching change at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, received a release from his letter of intent and reopened his recruitment.
Within 15 minutes, Lansing had the Lawrence Central senior star on the phone. “It only took that long because I had to walk out of the stands,” said Lansing, then the coach at Indiana State. “I couldn’t get a flight home quick enough.”
Lansing sent his entire staff to see LaRavia and his family a few days later, offered him a scholarship and brought him to campus for an official visit. On April 13, 2019, three weeks after his opening his recruitment and receiving some flirtations from Power Five programs, LaRavia committed to the Sycamores.
“We went all in with him back-to-back weekends,” Lansing said. “We always felt he had potential and was young for his grade. His work ethic and his competitiveness stood out and you knew he had the skills that would lead him to become a better player. That whole year he was committed to SIUE, I kept my eyes on him. There were Power Fives floating around after he opened it up, but Jake is very into relationships and people he can trust, so we worked quickly and made sure he knew wanted him.”
It is an interesting fork-in-the-road in LaRavia’s journey. Where would he be now if Southern Illinois-Edwardsville had kept coach Jon Harris, who was at the end of posting a 31-88 record in four seasons in March of 2019? Or if Purdue, which was interested but pursuing a grad transfer (Purdue signed High Point transfer Jahaad Proctor, who averaged 9.0 points in 2019-20), had offered a scholarship? Or if Lansing, who coached LaRavia for two seasons at Indiana State, had his contract extended after 11 seasons at Indiana State in March of 2021?
Maybe it all would have led here anyway. LaRavia, 20, vaulted onto NBA draft boards after a breakout season at Wake Forest. The 6-8 junior stacked impressive performances, putting up 31 points on North Carolina in a January home win and 19 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the 3-point line in a two-point loss at Duke a month later. “He was playing,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said after the Duke game, nodding to LaRavia. “He’s a really good player.”
Now, the question is where he is selected Thursday night. LaRavia worked out for almost all of the teams drafting in the second half of the first round, finishing a whirlwind month with a workout Tuesday with the Milwaukee Bucks before returning to Indianapolis to watch the draft with friends and family. The consensus among draft experts is that he will go somewhere between No. 20 and No. 30 in the first round or the first five picks of the second round.
“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised,” said LaRavia, who worked out for 16 teams, including the Pacers. “I always had a lot of faith in myself to get here. The way things worked out so perfect to be able to play at Wake Forest with such a great team have such a great year just helped me to get where I am now. I’m a late bloomer. But honestly I’m super grateful. It happened this way for a reason and it put a chip on my shoulder and gave me a different mindset to get here.”
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It would not be accurate to say LaRavia “came from nowhere” as a basketball player. His father, Jeff LaRavia, remembers taking him to Lawrence North basketball coach Jack Keefer’s summer camps. In fifth grade, Jake won the 3-point shootout and free-throw contest with high school players competing.
But LaRavia was not one of those kids who shot up in height by middle school at Belzer. That turned out to be a positive for LaRavia, who handled the ball often at Belzer and was well-known for his outside shooting prowess.
“It ended up being a huge blessing for him,” Jeff LaRavia said. “Unless you are a unicorn, those guys who are 6-7 to 6-10 don’t have those handles. But it was kind of the reverse for Jake. He ended up playing the point quite often.”
That is the player Lawrence Central coach Al Gooden first watched. His early scouting report on middle school LaRavia? “A great spot-up shooter and a good basketball mind,” Gooden said. “He knew how to help on defense and play angles. On defense, he just had to grow and mature. Jake was young for grade so that was part of it, too.”
Rick Thomas was searching for players – somebody, anybody – for his Gametime travel program when LaRavia was going into his freshman season at Lawrence Central. LaRavia’s shooting and ballhanding stood out to him right away.
“He shot the ball super well,” Thomas said. “Better than any eighth grader I’d been watching – and I was trying to find kids to play. But he was clumsy and not super fast. He could dribble, but he’d end up kicking the ball with those size 15 shoes. You could tell he had it, but he was like a baby giraffe out there. But when he wasn’t falling over his own feet, he wasn’t terrible. He was probably our second or third-best player.”
Though it might not seem like a glowing review, it comes from a place of love. Thomas coached LaRavia for the entirety of his high school career, at least when high school turned to travel season. Thomas worked him out in weight vests and conducted drills to help him play through contact. He turned the ball over to LaRavia in games, allowing him to utilize his ballhandling and shooting ability.
In the meantime, LaRavia kept growing. He would not see any varsity time as a freshman or sophomore (his freshman year Lawrence Central’s Kyle Guy was named IndyStar Mr. Basketball), but by his junior season, he was starting to blossom – a bit.
“I didn’t play varsity until my junior year,” LaRavia said. “You aren’t really going to get looked at until you are at the varsity level and I wasn’t playing on the most-known AAU team. I know it would happen at some point because I had faith in the work I was putting in.”
That year, as a junior, he did not exactly light the world on fire. But he did turn some heads as a complementary player alongside then-sophomores Nijel Pack and Dre Davis and a group of seniors that included Donyell Meredith and Jaden Terry. That team went 16-7 as LaRavia averaged 5.2 points and 3.5 rebounds and shot 38.8 from the 3-point line (19-for-49).
The following July, playing with Thomas, he received his first scholarship offer from Division II Hillsdale (Mich.). The University of Indianapolis and Southern Indiana quickly followed, then IUPUI was the first Division I school to offer. By the fall, LaRavia also had offers from American, Army, Bellarmine, Evansville, Incarnate Word, Jacksonville and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.
“My junior year going into senior year, I knew I could play in college,” he said.
But by the end of his senior season at Lawrence Central, it was clear Southern Illinois-Edwardsville was getting a steal as he went from a main rotation player to the Bears’ leading scorer (17.3 points per game), who also averaged 6.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He shot 42.6% from the 3-point line (46-for-108) and teamed with Pack, Davis and senior Wesley Jordan to lead the Bears to a 22-4 record and sectional title.
LaRavia earned a spot on the Indiana All-Star team after his senior season, though Pack (now at Miami of Florida after Kansas State) and Davis (now at Seton Hall via Louisville) both generated far more college interest and were nationally-ranked players. Before Harris was fired, there were those who were curious what opportunities he might have had if he had not signed already. LaRavia was among them.
“If I had waited longer, there would have been other schools,” he said at the time. “But (when I signed) there was never any major interest from a high-major school.”
Said Gooden: “I think people were leery. He made a big jump from junior to senior year. It was like, ‘Where had this kid been?’ But after he decommitted, he had a lot of people looking at him and Indiana State was willing to take a shot at him.”
More than willing. Lansing admitted he was “dumbfounded” there was not even more interest in LaRavia, but was hopeful schools like Purdue would stay away.
“Matt (Painter) is such a smart guy and a great coach,” Lansing said. “But they were in position to take a fifth-year grad transfer and not another high school kid, thankfully.”
Indiana State moved quickly and smartly, making a connection with LaRavia that remains an important part of his story even after his transfer to Wake Forest. The now 6-foot-8, 228-pound LaRavia was a full-time starter in his two seasons at the Missouri Valley Conference program, averaging 10.7 points and 6.1 rebounds in 55 games.
“He’s always been a facilitator first,” Lansing said. “There were things we tried to help him with, including his strength, and there were times he we needed him to be more aggressive. But he has so young when we got him that you could see how much progress he was making. I always felt like he was capable of having a long career in the NBA.”
Lansing might have been one of the few who believed that until LaRavia arrived at Wake Forest. He landed at the Atlantic Coast Conference school, in part, due to Lansing’s connection to Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes, a fellow Iowan. They have known one another for 30 years.
“I know those guys,” Lansing said of Forbes and Wake Forest assistant Matt Woodley. “I took some calls for Jake and I know he trusted those guys. They were the most aggressive like me and my staff. They made him a priority and Jake felt that.”
LaRavia admitted there was some trepidation because most of the recruiting was over Zoom due to the pandemic. But his trust in Lansing translated to his trust in the Wake Forest coaches.
“I had a good feeling when I talked to the coaches,” LaRavia said. “Honestly a lot of it was the Iowa connection with Lansing and Forbes. Once I got there, I had no doubt.”
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Gooden laughs when asked if this is the path that was best for LaRavia.
“It sure looks that way doesn’t it?” Gooden said. “But I think the biggest for Jake is that he grew into his body. The quickness and athleticism came along. He could always shoot it. He’s always been a smart ballplayer.”
LaRavia certainly maximized his one season at Wake Forest. He was twice named the ACC Player of the Week and earned second team all-ACC honors as he averaged 14.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game for a team that experienced a 19-win improvement to finish 25-10 and earn an NIT bid.
“I really didn’t start thinking about the NBA until I started playing at Wake Forest,” LaRavia said. “It was in the back of my mind.”
His father jokes that some of the questions about Jake at the NBA level are the same questions he heard from other fathers and coaches when Jake was growing up – on his athleticism, defense or strength.
“There were always a good number of critics who doubted what Jake could become,” Jeff LaRavia said.
But, if anything, LaRavia’s stock has only gone up since the end of the college season. He said it was a difficult to decision to forgo his senior season at Wake Forest, but it also became a no-brainer choice as he moved into first-round territory.
“I think it’s my shooting,” LaRavia said of his NBA appeal. “That’s going to be the one thing that every NBA team is going to want that will translate. But I didn’t have much self-doubt. Once I got to the (NBA) workouts, my confidence just continued to boost.”
Thursday night, LaRavia will be surrounded by many of the people who helped him get here. People like Thomas, Gooden, Lansing and his parents – Jeff and Becky. They all believed he would play in the NBA. Maybe it took a few of those forks in the road to get him there.
“I’m grateful it happened the way it did,” LaRavia said. “There was a lot of growth and a lot of learning and lot of experiences I had with being overlooked and feeling overlooked. But it made me work harder at the end of the day. My point wasn’t to prove people wrong, it was to prove to myself that I could do it.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NBA draft 2022: Jake LaRavia could be a surprise first-round pick
