RJ Hunter is the third guy from the D3 Heat that we’ve caught up with this week. Hunter is a dead eye shooter that has been working to diversify his game. RJ’s father, Ron Hunter, is the head coach at IUPUI but RJ recently scored a high major offer.
Describe your game. I’m a dead-eye shooter. I base my game around shooting. I play hard on every possession and I don’t take plays off. Really I’m just a team player. I’m not a player who likes to go down and take three dribbles and then shoot, I’m not a one pass and shoot player, I just like to play with a team. If I’m not on a good team, I’m not going to be a good player.
Did you hear from anyone on June 15th? I got offered from Cincinnati yesterday and I talked to Xavier and Michigan State yesterday.
Did State and Xavier just call to let you know you’re on their radar? When you talk to Izzo when he’s dealing with all that stuff, with the Cavs and stuff like that, you know the offer he’s got with that, saying he’s staying? I just thought it was kind of big for him to call when he’s going through all that with the job offer.
Any visits planned? Usually my coach does that but I’ve been to Michigan twice. I don’t really know, my coach just calls me and says, ‘You want to go down?'” It’s usually just like that.
When were you at Michigan? I went to the Michigan-UConn game and I went to the Michigan-Notre Dame football game.
How did you like your visits? The football game was unreal. We were really close, it was just–the crowd and the fan base was crazy. I couldn’t believe it. And then after the game, just how cool all the people were and stuff, how they came up and talked to you because they knew you were a recruit.
Planning on going to any elite camps? I just came back from a St. Louis camp. I don’t think I’m going to do a lot of camps, I’m really worn down, so I’m just going to do my school thing for June and then AAU in July.
Any timeframe for commitment? Probably either next summer or that last signing period for seniors.
Have you met the Michigan coaches? Oh yes.
What do you think? I’ve always been a Beilein fan when he was at West Virginia. He’s really cool, he’s really down to earth–you can talk to him about anything. He comes up to you and speaks, he’s not like one of those coaches you just throw on the phone and just talk to him. He really wants to talk, he really wants to know what you’re doing. I really like Coach Beilein.
What do you like about Michigan? Probably the fans. The fans are probably the best part of it. The fans at the football game? How many there were? And how they interacted in basketball games, that was probably the best part.
How would you fit into Michigan’s offense? Yeah, like Stu Douglass, I think that’s kind of how I’d fit in. I’ve only seen him play once, and actually I saw him handle the ball a lot, so yeah I’d probably be like Stu Douglass.
Any specific area of your game you’re focused on improving? Defense. That’s probably the main thing since my ballhandling has really stepped up since last summer. Probably just defense.
Any specific player people have compared you to? Stephen Curry. I get that all the time.
What ultimately goes into your decision? Relatively close to home, the coach, and just the school, the school campus and all that stuff. The coach is one of the biggest ones, obviously. If I don’t like the coach I’m not going to go there, even if it is a great school. I love Michigan’s coach.