Coach | 2024 F Royce Parham Would Be Good Fit With Notre Dame
There’s a lot to like about Royce Parham, a 6-foot-9, 200-pound forward who can play behind the arc and above the rim, but what Dwayne Wise likes most may not be obvious at first glance.
“The thing that stands out the most when it comes to Royce is he has unbelievable hands,” says Wise, who serves as Director of Recruiting for the Team Durant EYBL program.
“His hands are like gloves. It makes him an exceptional rebounder; offensively and defensively. That's number one; he has great hands.”
Those hands are part of the reason that Wise and Team Durant program director Wayne Pratt, Kevin Durant’s father, call Parham “Tim Duncan.”
“He's a fundamentally sound type of a player,” Wise continues. “He's a throwback, but he's very competitive.
“When you think about how Tim Duncan was, he always just had a knack for getting his hands on the basketball. Whether you give the ball to him or he gets it off the rim, he just had a knack for having his hands on the ball, which allows him to be a 10-plus rebounder. That stands out the most.”
Parham recently added Notre Dame to an offer list that also includes schools like Maryland, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Rutgers, Penn State and Wisconsin among several others.
Wise expects that list to continue growing as Parham continues to grow as a player.
“The other thing that stands out about him is his developing skillset,” says Wise. “He can now step out to the three and he's making threes. He's very, very good from the mid-post and he just has an exceptional motor. He doesn't get tired. He's a competitor.”
Wise may be the Director of Recruiting for Team Durant, but he hasn’t had to do much for Parham.
“Every coach that has offered him, me being the Director of Recruiting, it has nothing to do with me calling them,” he says. “It's all about his play on the court.
“That's a testament to how good Royce can be.”
The offer from Notre Dame certainly made an impact on Parham.
“It's all about perception and when you think about Notre Dame, you're thinking a really, really big school,” Wise says. “When you think about the schools that are on his list, of course, you always have tradition having a great football program as well. He's high on academics. He's very good in the classroom. That also factors in.
“Him and the school sort of go hand-in-hand because he's a high-academic kid as well.”
Wise is very confident Parham will visit South Bend soon.
“I know he will.”
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