Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Rebels in the running for 2021 recruit Arthur Kaluma

Rebels Practice with New Coach

Wade Vandervort

Rebel players huddle around head coach T.J. Otzelberger at Mendenhall Center at the UNLV campus, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019.

College sports may be at a standstill due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but recruiting never stops.

The UNLV basketball program got some good news on that front on Wednesday, as Class of 2021 forward Arthur Kaluma announced his top eight college choices and included the Runnin’ Rebels.

Kaluma posted an image on Twitter declaring his eight:

The other schools on list are Syracuse, Oklahoma, Arizona State, Arkansas, USC, Texas A&M and Kansas.

The 6-foot-8 Kaluma is heading into his senior year at Dream City in Glendale, Ariz. He is ranked No. 20 in the nation by 247Sports and No. 5 among power forwards.

UNLV has taken a laissez-faire approach to Kaluma’s recruitment, opting to lay back and allow the Texas native to sort out his options without a constant bombardment of texts and phone calls. The Rebels have largely been content to let their recruitment of fellow 2021 prospect Zaon Collins do their talking for them.

Collins, a 4-star point guard at Bishop Gorman, is UNLV’s top recruiting priority; he is also good friends with Kaluma. Their relationship is strong enough that Kaluma left his AAU team in Houston to join Collins’ squad, Vegas Elite, for the 2020 summer circuit.

The pandemic put a crimp in their plans to play together this summer, but Kaluma and Collins appear to be exploring options for a team-up in the future. Texas A&M, USC, Arizona State and UNLV are the schools currently recruiting both players.

As of now, UNLV has one commitment from the Class of 2021. Former Durango point guard Keshon Gilbert pledged to the Rebels last fall; the 3-star recruit is heading to a private school in St. Louis to play his senior season.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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