User:Bstevens90/Brandon Paul

Brandon Paul is a Division I basketball player at the University of Illinois. He was born on April 30th, 1991 and grew up to attended Warren Township High School, located in Gurnee, Illinois, where his basketball talent was first noticed during his sophomore year. From that point on he has been in the eyes of many basketball enthusiasts. He is a 6'3" guard who contained enough talent that many options were available to him after his senior year. After graduating High School he now attends the University of Illinois and is be playing as a freshman there.

Family
Brandon is the son of Cliff Sr and Lynda Paul. Cliff Sr served over 14 years active duty in the U. S. Navy. Cliff also played semi-professional football for the Racine Raiders including their championship 1989 season. His mother and previous AAU (Amateur Athletic Union)team owner & coach also showed a large amount of athletic talent as she played at Ball State University. Brandon also has an older brother Cliff at the University of Illinois and a younger brother Darius who plays basketball at Warren High School.

High School
Brandon had a very strong high school career gaining a prestigious awards and rankings due to his very good basketball statistics. Brandon also achieved the award of Mr. Basketball of Illinois for 2009. This is an award that has been received by many NBA greats such as Derrick Rose, Kevin Garnett, and Darius Miles. Coach Bruce Weber of Illinois had this to say about it, “I’m very excited that Brandon won it, he had a tremendous finish, and it’s a great honor for him. Brandon is a very talented young man." His main superfan was close friend Pat Walters and are still close friends today.

Statistics
Brandon posted some very promising high school statistics. It was these scores that were the foundation for winning Mr. Basketball of Illinois and lead to his recruitment to the University of Illinois.


 * During Brandon's junior year he managed to average 20 points and 6 rebounds per game.
 * Brandon posted an average of 19.8 points per game, had 7.3 rebounds and 3.0 steals during his senior year.
 * Brandon had exceptional senior season playoffs by averaging 27 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

Rankings
Brandon was ranked by many of the recruiting sites which signified his tremendous talent during his high school basketball career.

His rankings in the 2009 graduating class were as following:


 * No. 35 by Prep Stars
 * No. 42 by Rivals.com
 * No. 87 by ESPN
 * No. 15 shooting guard by Scout.com

College
Brandon is attending University of Illinois as a freshman. He plans to major in Recreation, Sport and Tourism along with seeing where his basketball career takes him. His first game played was an exhibition match against University of Missouri Southern on Friday, October 30th. He received 17 minutes of playing time during this match. He made good use of this scoring 13 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, and having 3 assists. He got to the free throw line 5 times making 7 out of 10 shots. This first game has excited many Illinois basketball enthusiasts who look forward to his college career. Brandon will be looking to crack the starting lineup in the regular season debut versus Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Friday November 13.