David Didenko, who committed to Georgia Tech Sunday, isn’t the typical junior college basketball player. For one thing, he enrolled at Palm Beach State College despite being academically qualified to play at the Division I level.
For another, he was attracting power conference attention before he ever played a minute of the season, his coach said.
Had Didenko chosen to play out the season before committing, Palm Beach State coach Martin McCann said, “he’d probably have 10 high-major offers and a lot of options. Georgia Tech has done a hell of a job identifying him and knowing that that’s what they want, no doubt about it.”
Didenko played at nearby Boca Raton (Fla.) Community High but did not play as a senior in part due to family circumstances, McCann said. He had played on the summer travel circuit as a rising senior but did not get much recruiting attention. Didenko spent his senior year working on his strength and skillset and then played again on an AAU team this past spring and summer, but his team did not get a great deal of exposure and he received only moderate recruiting interest.
McCann pitched him on coming to play at Palm Beach State, which regularly sends players to the Division I schools, where he could get attention and train against college-level players. The plan has quickly borne fruit. Competing in preseason scrimmages against other junior-college teams within the last month, Didenko has impressed coaches with his 3-point shooting touch, among other skills. Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Nebraska and Kansas State were among schools taking note, McCann said.
When McCann saw the interest, he said he reached out to Tech assistant coach Eric Reveno, to whom McCann once sent a player when Reveno was the coach at Portland. Reveno came down to Florida multiple times to watch Didenko play and was followed by coach Josh Pastner. A scholarship was offered, and Didenko accepted over the weekend without even having visited Tech’s campus. (He’ll come on an official visit between now and the start of the early signing period, Nov. 14, McCann said.)
Having already qualified academically to play in Division I, he can enroll at Tech next summer and be immediately eligible to play with three seasons of eligibility. Didenko, who is 6-foot-8 and 230 pounds, can play either small forward or power forward. He can “really, really shoot it,” McCann said. “He’s got one of those strokes where it looks like it’s going in every time he lets it fly.”
Tech needs as many shooters as it can find. The Jackets shot 31.8 percent from 3-point range last season, which was 325th out of 351 Division I schools.
McCann also said that he has a good feel for the game, is a gifted passer, plays with toughness, can handle the ball and play above the rim. In a highlight video on Youtube, Didenko’s perimeter shooting passing ability is particular clear, as well as a soft touch around the rim, although he’s usually playing against smaller competition.
“There’s a lot to like there,” he said.
He has been likened to Clemson forward David Skara but with a better 3-point shot. Skara, who came to Clemson as a transfer, was a role player last season for the Tigers, averaging 3.4 points and 2.7 rebounds in 19 minutes per game last season.
Didenko, who was born in Russia but became a U.S. citizen, takes one of Tech's three open scholarships available in 2019-20. He may not prove to be the star player that Pastner has sought, but a player who can score consistently from beyond the 3-point arc would fill a need.
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