Jaddan Simmons (2020) picks up 2 more offers

September 27, 2018

Written by:
Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette Published 4:19 p.m. CT Sept. 27, 2018 | Updated 4:43 p.m. CT Sept. 27, 2018


At this point, it might be quicker to list the schools that haven’t offered a scholarship to Jaddan Simmons.

The Green Bay Southwest junior point guard received two more this week from the University of Illinois and University of Tulsa.

"Blessed and excited to receive an offer from the University of Illinois," Simmons tweeted this week, after earlier tweeting the same about Tulsa. 

A lot has happened in her recruiting life since she got her first two offers from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee last summer.

Since, she has been offered by Wisconsin, Marquette, Toledo, South Dakota, University of Houston, Utah, Arizona State, Nebraska, Brown and Bradley.

Fourteen schools and counting. The 5-foot-9 Simmons, who just turned 16 and is a year younger than most in her 2020 class, is a lock to pick up even more offers in the coming months.

“She has got a bunch of stuff lined up, all these schools are finishing up their 2019 classes and are now getting focused on their 2020s,” said Cordero Barkley, who is Simmons’ AAU coach with the Purple Aces. “She is one of the best point guards in the country. She is at the top of a lot of these schools’ lists.”

Simmons was the player of the year in the Fox River Classic Conference as a sophomore last season, and she also was the league’s defensive player of the year. She averaged 21.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.8 steals while shooting 48.4 percent overall, 44 percent from 3 and 72.1 percent from the line.

It came after a freshman season in which Simmons ranked in the top three in the league with 15.4 points, 3.5 assists and 3.7 steals.

If she’s able to stay healthy during her final two prep seasons, her 866 career points gives her a chance to break former Southwest star and Marquette guard Natisha Hiedeman’s Green Bay metro record of 1,773.

Having to deal with all the recruiting hoopla doesn’t seem to have fazed Simmons, at least not in the eyes of those who know her best.

It helps that Southwest coach Erin Barkley has experienced the recruiting process as a former player at UWGB. Barkley's husband, Cordero, also was recruited and played at UWGB.Simmons’ father, Jason, played football at Arizona State and had a 10-year career in the NFL. Her older brother, Jason Jr., accepted a scholarship offer this summer to play at the University of Memphis.

“For Jaddan, I think it’s been a fairly easy situation,” Cordero Barkley said. “She has a lot of good people around her. She has a good family situation.

“She is a good kid, I don’t want to take the credit from her. She’s a really good kid. She is honest when she says, ‘Hey, I need time to be a kid,’ and she has been really good about taking care of her end of it and keeping her schedule on point. Making calls when she is supposed to make her calls or calling people back when they requested to be called back.

“I think it’s been a nice balancing act because of her approach and her maturity, and then the people she has to help guide her through this process.”

As for when Simmons will decide on her future? It will come when the time is right for her.

“I think it’s going to be more about feel,” Barkley said. “So, when it feels right at this point, I think when you get to watch some more games and make some more visits. My biggest thing is her hammering down the things she is interested in academically. The last thing you want to do is make a commitment to a school and then realize they don’t have what you want to do for the next 50 years of your life.

“I don’t think there is any certain timeline. … When she gets academics, athletic fit, feel for the coaching staff and players, culture and then city, she will pull the trigger.”

 

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