One of Kentucky’s top senior basketball players, Paul Dunbar guard Taveion Hollingsworth signed with WKU on Wednesday.
Taveion Hollingsworth, who will enter the upcoming season as the favorite to win Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball award, signed Wednesday with Western Kentucky University.
The 6-foot-2 senior guard at Paul Dunbar High School was the only non-senior to earn first-team All-State honors from The Courier-Journal last season after averaging 21 points and 5.4 rebounds and leading the Bulldogs to a 33-6 record and their first state championship.
Hollingsworth, who was named the Sweet 16’s MVP, shot 53.1 percent from the field and 78.3 percent from the free-throw line.
He also reportedly had offers from Alabama-Birmingham, LaSalle and Winthrop.
“We’re excited to have Taveion join our basketball family,” WKU coach Rick Stansbury said in a news release. “It’s very obvious he’s a terrific player from a really good high school program where he’s been really well-coached. At the same time, he’s a terrific young man and a great student.”
Hollingsworth will join a WKU program that hired Stansbury as its new head coach in March. Hollingsworth is the third member of the Class of 2017 to commit to WKU but the first to sign. Five-star recruit Mitchell Robinson (7-foot center) of Chalmette (Louisiana) and four-star recruit Josh Anderson (6-4 guard) of Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Madison Prep Academy also have committed to the Hilltoppers.
Hollingsworth was one of three high-profile boys basketball players in Kentucky to sign Wednesday.
Graves County 7-footer Chris Vogt signed with Northern Kentucky after also considering Samford, Ball State and Kent State. Vogt was an honorable-mention All-State pick last season after averaging 17 points, 9.6 rebounds and 5.8 blocks and shooting 62.4 percent from the field.
Covington Catholic’s Cole VonHandorf, a 6-1 guard and second-team All-State pick last season, signed with Fairmont State, an NCAA Division II school in Fairmont, West Virginia. He averaged 16.9 points and 3.7 rebounds last season.
Here’s a look at some of Wednesday’s other signings:
* Manual had four seniors sign – Robbie Keyes (golf, Xavier), Emma Kuntz (cross country/track and field, Furman), Yared Nuguse (cross country/track and field, Notre Dame) and Jordan Thompson (field hockey, Hofstra).
* Sacred Heart had 12 athletes sign – Morgan Tinsley (golf, Xavier), Taylor Jones (field hockey, Lindenwood), Meghan Strite (field hockey, Missouri State), Audrey Tabor (field hockey, Missouri State), Lauryn Bennett (volleyball, Emory), Megan Crush (volleyball, American), Nadia Dieudonne (volleyball, Xavier), Kaelin Gentile (volleyball, Northern Kentucky), Elizabeth Stigger (volleyball, Transylvania), Brooke Forde (swimming, Stanford) and Colleen McDermott (swimming, Miami).
* North Oldham announced five signings – Joe Boyle (baseball, Notre Dame), Cameron Masterman (baseball, Louisville), Bryce Barber (baseball, Asbury), Madison Clements (volleyball, Trevecca Nazarene) and Mason Lenhart (golf, Cincinnati).
* North Bullitt’s Lauren Deel signed to play basketball at Bellarmine.
* Bullitt East’s Lindsey Duvall signed to play basketball at the University of Louisville.
* D’Angelo Hunter, a Pleasure Ridge Park graduate now at Navarro College in Texas, signed to play his final two seasons of basketball at West Virginia.
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046 and jfrakes@courier-journal.com.