One of the top players in junior college is headed to UCF.
Tyem Freeman, a NJCAA First Team All-American, signed with the Knights on Friday. He's coming off a standout year at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa, averaging 18.1 points and 7.3 rebounds with a 52.2 shooting percentage.
Freeman, who is from Springfield, Mo., began his college career at his hometown university, Missouri State, enrolling prior to the 2019-20 season. The plan was to redshirt him that first year as he was coming off an ACL injury suffered midway through his senior year in high school. He made the decision to leave Missouri State after just one semester, transferring to Indian Hills in spring 2020 to play for head coach Hank Plona.
"When we got him (last spring) he was in the process of getting cleared," Plona said. "You could see he was healthy, doing what he does, dunking the ball. You could tell he was back. But we were in the middle of the season with a pretty good team making a stretch run, so it didn't make sense to rush him back. It was good for him though being around us, just seeing what our program and what junior college basketball is all about. Then things got shut down pretty quickly with the pandemic."
Like athletes all across the country, Freeman spent the rest of the spring and most of the summer at home before returning to Indian Hills for the fall semester.
"We knew we were going to have one of the best players in junior college on our hands," Plona said. "He knew a couple guys on our team and we know where he'd played before, so we knew about his ability. He had options, but he came to our place. He was a big recruit for us. We knew he was a guy who had a chance to be an All-American caliber player. As things got rolling, Tyem was a huge part of it. He's a very versatile player. Great kid. He does a little bit of everything. He can play and guard any position.
"Coming off the injury, it took a couple games to get his feet under him and his confidence back. We lost our first game of the year and he probably only took three shots and had five points. His second game he had 30. He realized he had to play at a high level and things took off from there. He's a very unselfish person. He doesn't want to make things about himself. He's very talented and started to understand he needs to be an aggressive player. I think he realized we needed him to be an elite type of guy. He has ability that not a lot of people have. He's got a great feel for the ball and can make plays for himself and others. He understood he needs to be aggressive and trust his ability."
With Freeman better understanding his role, Indian Hills was off and running. The Warriors finished with a 21-3 overall record, No. 6 national ranking and Region XI Championship.
"He's a heck of an athlete," Plona said. "Obviously, you'll see him make plays like dunking, rebounding and blocking shots that stand out for sure. He also has great feel, making the right play, dribble or pass. I think the game just comes naturally to him. He's got great pace and decision making. The athletic stuff stands out, but his feel for the game is why he's such a great player."
Plona said Freeman's game could elevate even further with improvement of his long-range shooting,
"He's right on the brink of it," Plona said. "He works on being a three-point shooter and it's right there. I tell him all the time that he just needs to improve on the confidence of his shot. His form is there. He can make shots. In our biggest games this year he made two or three threes, but sometimes he misses the first one and doesn't think he should keep on firing. He just needs to get a consistent feel."
Freeman is a great teammate off the court as well.
"Everybody likes playing with him," Plona said. "He lets his game speak for itself. He's not the type to tell guys what to do. But being so strong and athletic, and seeing how hard he plays, the guys look up to him. I've never heard him say a negative word to his teammates. He has their backs. Guys love playing with him. Sometimes when guys are scoring 25, 30 points a game, some guys tend to resent that a little bit. But with him there's none of that. He's a beloved teammate."
Recruiting has been different this past year with college coaches off the recruiting trail. There's obviously still video to distribute and Zoom calls to keep in touch, but Plona said the biggest change might have been due to the NCAA Transfer Portal as many Division I programs were focused on portal additions before making decisions on players in junior college.
"It was weird not having coaches in our gym, but I think people knew about Tyem," Plona said. "It wasn't hard to get him a scholarship. He technically has four years to play still. What's more tricky for our guys is the transfer portal and being immediately eligible. With Tyem, I think some decisions could have come sooner. On March 1, a lot of schools were only looking at portal guys who had already played Division I basketball, older guys."
As for UCF, assistant coach Robbie Laing had been in touch throughout the course of the season with interest picking up over the last month. At that point, the entire staff became involved in his recruitment.
"My guys don't usually speak a lot to coaches during the season because they're focused on our own season," Plona said. "They're locked in. After April 10, that's when they turn the page to recruiting. UCF was a consistent school the whole time. They made it known he was a priority. I think as he learned about them, did Zooms with the staff, he understood there was a fit and comfort there.
"UCF really sold him that they can best develop him as a person and a player. He felt comfortable with the personality of the staff. They've had players with similar situations they've been able to develop. He obviously wants to be a professional basketball player at some level and they crafted a plan that makes sense to him and will put him in position to be successful.
"He also wanted to find an opportunity where he can make an impact next year. This will be his third year in college. He was looking for a high-major situation with a coaching staff that believes in him. He believes he can be an impact player at UCF."
Other schools involved in Freeman's recruitment included Tulsa, Oregon, Murray State, South Florida, New Mexico and Texas Tech as well as many others.
"I just think UCF's approach stood out to Tyem," Plona said. "He was able to narrow it down and feel comfortable in his decision."
Freeman will finish up his semester at Indian Hills next week and enroll at UCF in June.
He becomes UCF's fourth signee in the 2021 class, joining Darius Johnson, P.J. Edwards and Ed'Xavior Rhodes.
