It has been a very busy month of recruiting already for Arizona's top-rated 2013 prospects, as many of the top prospects in the class have made their college decisions this month.
Well, add another to the list of committed prospects in the state as Brophy Prep's skilled 6-foot-9 senior post Tim Kempton has made his college decision. After taking several official recruiting visits for himself, Kempton has decided on a strong academic basketball program from the Patriot League.
After a recent visit to the program, Kempton gave a verbal commitment on Sunday evening to Lehigh University and head coach Dr. Brett Reed and his basketball staff.
Lehigh is one of the top up-and-coming basketball programs in the country - winning the 2012 Patriot League Championship last season and finishing with a 27-8 overall record. They also turned in a strong performance in the NCAA Tournament last season - defeating #2 seed Duke University in the tournament's second round, before falling to #10 seed Xavier.
Kempton chose Lehigh after recently narrowing his list of schools down to Pacific, Weber State and Santa Clara. Kempton visited Pacific this past weekend, before making his final decision.
Kempton turned in a very good summer performance for himself - a summer in which he raised his recruiting stock a great deal with several strong performances in July. As a result of Kempton's play this summer, numerous college programs began showing interest in Kempton - extending scholarship offers to the skilled post prospect. Kempton received scholarship offers from numerous college programs after his play on the summer club circuit, where he led his Arizona Magic Pump N' Run-2013 team to a runner-up championship finish in the Adidas Super 64 tournament in Vegas.
The son of former NBA veteran player and Phoenix Suns analyst Tim Kempton Sr., the younger Kempton made his impact felt last high school season - leading his team to a 23-8 record on the season and a Division-I state playoff quarterfinal finish. Kempton had the best season of his high school career for Brophy head coach Tony Fuller last season.
Kempton is also an excellent student and carries better than a 4.0 CUM GPA at one of the top academic programs in the country. He is already a full academic qualifier.
Congratulations to Tim and the Kemtpon family on this amazing accomplishment, as he developed a great deal over the past two years - working very hard to put himself in this position.
Arizona Hoop Review Scouting Report: Kempton is a true post player, as he likes to play inside and score around the basket on a variety of low post moves, pump fakes and jump hooks. He also likes to step outside to the perimeter, making him a stretch-four man. Kempton has a pure shooting stroke and is consistent in his ability to make shots out to 18 feet, which makes it difficult for opposing post players to defend him. While he is not very vertical off the floor, he has a very high basketball IQ and knows how to utilize his body, while also moving very well without the basketball to be effective on the offensive end. Kempton is also a very good offensive rebounder as a result of his size and willingness to use his body to gain good inside post position. He also does not mind physical contact and gets to the free throw line as a result. Kempton also runs the floor well for his size and pushes the basketball ahead to the guard and then fills the lane for transition opportunities - a nice asset for a low post player. Kempton has the potential to be a consistent double-double low post player at the next level, which makes him very attractive as a low post prospect for the future.
