Ioannis Papapetrou

No, it is not European Baller, but this would be a story I am sure he would be interested in. Maybe even a player he knows something about? Well, this is from Dave Telep of ESPN Recruiting, talking about an intriguing Greek forward playing his last year of HS in Florida:

Greek forward has impressive offers

Here’s a name that’s managed to fly under the radar: Ioannis Papapetrou (Melbourne, Fla./Florida Air Academy). The 6-foot-7 small forward hails from Greece and quietly holds offers from Kansas, Florida, Texas, Alabama and George Mason.

His high school coach, Aubin Goporo, puts guys in college every year and knows a good prospect when he sees one. "He can shoot, pass, has skills and a great IQ," Goporo said. "Remember, he’s 6-8 too." I saw Papapetrou in the spring when he was 6-6 and playing for Nike Team Florida. He looked like a mid-major but Goporo says not so fast, there’s a reason for the evaluation.

"The kids plays outside, he doesn’t play inside. He doesn’t even have a post move." Papapetrou’s AAU career was short lived as it wasn’t for him. Basically, the evaluation we have on him from the spring is incomplete, if not inaccurate. Apparently, the colleges that did see him in different settings earmarked him as a bigger recruit than we witnessed (which is plausible).

"Alabama was here yesterday, Kansas’ Joe Dooley is coming back (on Friday) and Texas’ Rick Barnes is here on Monday," Goporo said. "Ioannis visited Florida and Kansas already. His Texas trip is Oct. 14. Alabama and George Mason want visit dates; the race to get him is officially on now just don’t tell anyone. The kid’s managed to fly below the radar this far.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/telep_dave/id/7036262/kendrick-nunn-wants-see-there

Big time offers, definitely one to watch. I personally would love to see more of the top European prospects play in the NCAA if they wanted to, the problem of course is that most of the best players are affiliated with teams at a really young age and lose their eligibility. If Enes Kanter would have been able to play, it might have opened up the ability for a lot of other top European prospects with interest in playing college ball coming over. But, since the NCAA has not dropped their concerns about "amateurism" yet, than we will still probably have most of the top European players playing pro instead of coming over.