Future Star: Dillon Mitchell Plans to Play Both Basketball and Football

Caleb Couturie FishWrap, FishWrap Archive

Four-star football recruit Dillon Mitchell, who committed to Oregon earlier this year, announced yesterday via Twitter that he plans to play basketball for the University as well. Mitchell, the speedy Junior WR is highly touted for his football skills, but many argue that his true value is actually on a basketball court.

The junior stud has 25 touchdowns and 2,238 all purpose yards for White State High School in Tennessee, so it’s safe to say that he’ll produce just fine for the Ducks come football time, but the self-described “pass-first point guard” would be on par with some of the best basketball recruits Dana Altman and the Ducks have had in recent years. ESPN.com currently gives Mitchell a grade of 80, and ranks him as the fifth best point guard in the entire state of Tennessee.

Dana Altman works well with point guards, and with Mitchell's talent the two could make a formidable duo.

Dana Altman works well with point guards, and with Mitchell’s talent the two could make a formidable duo.

Mitchell attributes his basketball success to his mentor, former NBA great and Tennessee product Penny Hardaway. Mitchell said, ”We talk about a lot of stuff. We talk about life.” Getting a recruit whose mentor is Penny Hardaway is no small feat, and the Ducks should be very excited about what Mitchell will bring to both the football and the basketball teams.

Although Mitchell still has a ways to go before he actually arrives on campus to officially play for the Ducks, his commitment bodes well for Ducks’ basketball recruiting classes in the near future. The highest graded player for the Ducks’ 2014 class was current starting small forward, Dillon Brooks, who was also an 80. Getting a four-star recruit to commit so early will help the Ducks build a more successful recruiting class and continue their recent success in college basketball.

Below are highlight videos of Mitchell both on the football field and on the basketball court. Hard to choose where you’re more excited to see him in 2016, huh?

Top photo from Video

New 2024 FishDuck Publishing Schedule….

During the off-season the FishDuck.com publishing schedule will consist of articles on Mondays and Tuesdays. Do keep checking as new articles could be published during the week when a writer has something to say.

In mid-August of 2024, we will go back to the seven-days-a-week of articles during the football season as we did in the football season of 2023.

The Our Beloved Ducks Forum (OBD) is where we we discuss the article above and many more topics, as it is so much easier in a message board format over there.  At the free OBD forum we will be posting Oregon Sports article links, the daily Press Releases from the Athletic Department and the news coming out every day.

Our 33 rules at the free OBD Forum can be summarized to this: 1) be polite and respectful, 2) do not tell anyone what to think, feel or write, and 3) no reference of any kind to politics. Easy-peasy!

OBD Forum members….we got your back.  No Trolls Allowed!