Miami Reels in Top 20 Recruit, Lonnie Walker

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Coach Jim Larrañaga has added ESPN top-20 player Lonnie Walker to the recruiting class of 2017, the University of Miami basketball program announced Wednesday.

“We are thrilled to welcome Lonnie Walker and his family to our family at Miami,” said Coach Jim Larrañaga. “We have been recruiting Lonnie and getting to know him and his family for two years now. He is such a versatile player. He is a lights out 3-point shooter and has amazing speed in the open floor. He can dunk in the lane in traffic and is an elite defender. We can’t wait for him to arrive in Coral Gables.” 

Walker is a 6-foot-5-inch shooting guard ranked No. 19 in the ESPN Top 100, Miami’s highest-ranked recruit in the three-player class of top-100 signees and its highest in the last 15 years. He joins Chris Lykes, ranked 52nd in the country, and Deng Gak, ranked 93rd, in Miami’s class of 2017.

Walker attends Reading High School in Pennsylvania, where he led the Red Knights to a 29-4 record and a trip to the PIAA Class 4A state semifinals last season. Walker, who averaged 16.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, was the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior under the guidance of coach Rick Perez.

While playing on the EYBL AAU circuit in 2016, Walker averaged 16.6 points per game, knocking down 45.5 percent of his shots. He also tallied 4.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals per outing for coaches Rob Brown and Aaron Burt of Team Final from the Philadelphia area, the same AAU program current Canes Ja’Quan Newton and Davon Reed played for.

Walker, who has great vision and ball handling skills, can shoot from the outside or penetrate and finish at the rim. He is a long defender with a 6-foot-10-inch wingspan who causes havoc for opposing guards. He chose Miami over offers from Kentucky, Arizona, Villanova and Syracuse.