2014 Recruit: Jon Elmore

Being the son of a VMI Hall of Famer who is one of only three men to have a jersey hanging in the rafters of Cameron Hall comes with some difficult shoes to fill. How about replacing a man who is arguably the greatest point guard in VMI basketball history? Ask West Virginia-native Jon Elmore and he'll probably tell you he's up to the task.

In our final installment of the 2014 recruiting preview, we feature Jon Elmore, an early signee who committed in November of 2013. Jon is notable through his dad, Gay Elmore, who was a two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year in the late 1980's. Gay amassed 2,422 career points, a VMI record that stood for 20 years until some guy named Reggie Williams broke it. Elmore the elder, along with Williams and Ron Carter, are the only basketball players to have their jerseys retired by the school.

Case in point, Jon has big shoes to fill. Luckily for us, it seems he got his father's genetics. Jon is a 6-3 point guard from Charleston, West Virginia who averaged a team-leading 19.5 points this past season for Christ School in Arden, North Carolina. He was also first in assists per game (4.5), first in steals (3) and second in rebounds (5). In his junior year Jon averaged 13 points and 6 assists. Christ School went 17–15 in 2013-14, which included a 7–2 record in league play (they were 31–6 the year prior).

Per his Keydets.com bio he was ranked as the 8th-best player in North Carolina, although I couldn't find any confirmation on that. I did see, however, that according to 247sports.com, Jon is the 19th best player in the state. He is certainly no scrub; according to Coach Baucom, Jon received 22 Division I scholarship offers and decided to continue his family legacy. "The coaching staff is awesome, they had at least one coach at every game this summer," he said. "My brother is there and it has been a dream of ours to play college basketball together." Jon will join his brother Ot, who was redshirted as a freshman last year and thus did not see any playing time.

VMI bound 🏀💵✊
— Jon Elmore (@elmore33) June 22, 2014

Although I cannot say the same for his brother, there is little a doubt in my mind that Jon will be the starting point guard next year. Pair him up with the lethal Brian Brown at shooting guard and you've got quite a 1-2 punch. I'm expecting big things from this kid.