BOURBON — Triton junior Clay Yeo may still have two years of high school basketball to play, but he already knows where he'll be playing collegiately. The 6-foot-5 Yeo made a verbal committment Saturday to play Division-I basketball at Valparaiso University. "After I left my visit to Valparaiso, like 30 minutes later, after talking with my parents, I called Coach (Homer) Drew and told him I'd be attending Valparaiso," Yeo said Sunday afternoon. The decision to travel down U.S. 30 to continue his basketball career was based on the relationships he made with the university. "They were one of the first schools to contact me and started to recruit me pretty heavily," Yeo said. "The coaching staff and really everyone that's had anything to do with Valparaiso were great," he added. "It has a real home-like atmosphere, which I enjoyed." In his two seasons at Triton, Yeo has averaged 13.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, and increased his assist totals from 24 as a freshman to 68 as a sophomore. Along with Valparaiso recruiting him, Yeo also said Boston College, Xavier and Illinois had also contacted him, but the calls should come to an end now that's he's verballed with the Crusaders. "I have two years of high school left, but I just wanted to get it over with so I could focus on playing," he said. "Now I know where I'm going." Triton coach Jason Groves will be the beneficiary of Yeo's play the next two seasons, and he couldn't be happier for the junior. "I'm pretty excited and happy for Clay to be offered a full-ride scholarship to Valparaiso," Groves said. "It's a good school and a good basketball program." Playing in the Horizon League, Yeo will get the opportunity to face teams such as Butler and Cleveland State, while also facing some good teams out of conference, like Purdue. "Everybody that plays basketball wants to play at the highest level," Yeo said about playing at a D-I school. "Playing at Valparaiso, I feel like they can offer me what I want." Starting as a freshman at Triton, Groves has seen Yeo improve each year, and doesn't think the improvement will end anytime soon. "He has all the physical tools," Groves said. "All the schools like his length, and now, he's a legit 6-foot-5. He has the height, length and physical tools, and the crazy thing is, he's only a junior. He's only going to get better." And Yeo knows how he can get better. "Shooting off of screens and ball handling, because you can never be too good at that," Yeo said about areas he can improve on. While he's working on refining his game, opponents may be in trouble against a Trojans team that's gone 45-7 in Yeo's two years with the school, including last season's run to the state finals in Class 1A. "This will probably bring more attention to our program, and show other teams we aren't one to be messed with," Yeo said.
