Luke Allin, the brother of Laurier men’s basketball star Max, will be continuing the Allin legacy at Wilfrid Laurier University in the fall when he joins the team as a freshman.
The youngest in a family of eight siblings, Allin was the number one recruitment focus for men’s basketball head coach Peter Campbell. Three months ago, Allin narrowed his university basketball decision to three schools – Laurier, the University of Windsor and Carleton University.
The Allin family was approached multiple times by the three institutions, wondering if the youngest brother has decided on a university.
“The family has had no idea all along,” Campbell said. “I’ve been harassing [his sister] Molly and messaging Max and during the season we’d talk to [his mother] Helen. But everyone gave the same answer. ‘We don’t know. Luke’s keeping this one close.’ ”
On June 2, the final day for high school students to accept their university offers, Allin committed to Laurier.
“It was a long process, I’ll tell you that,” Campbell said. “But it was well worth it. To win that recruiting war, for whatever reason, you’re satisfied.”
He chose Laurier over Windsor, where brothers Greg, Conor and Rich played, and Carleton, the perennial powerhouse in the province.
Factors that influenced him range, but Campbell thinks it’s a combination of basketball, Max’s experience, and his sister Molly being a student at Laurier and still being close to his home in Chatham-Kent.
Campbell said he’s taller than Max – about six-foot-six – and a versatile player, currently able to play point guard, down low in the post, as well as out on the wing, with little trouble transitioning with his high school team.
“Trying to decide what he does best is hard and [his high school] played at a comfortable pace,” Campbell explained.
“[But] he has a good package. He can shoot the ball, he can play inside a bit and he passes the ball very well.”
Along with another player Campbell is waiting on marks from, he believes this is one of Laurier’s stronger recruiting classes.
“And then combined with the work a lot of our guys are putting in the offseason, we could be a pretty good team,” he said.
Coming to a school where his brother broke the single-game point record and became a well-known name in five years, Campbell thinks the fear of being compared to Max is in the back of Luke’s mind.
But it will be the first thing the coach approaches when he has the newest member of his team on the court.
“I think he has to be [worried], and that will be our job to convince him once he gets here that it’s Luke Allin, not Max’s brother,” Campbell said. “You’re not going to say in practice, ‘Max wouldn’t have done that.’ That’s never going to enter the equation. But you might be able to say, ‘Max couldn’t do that. Way to go, Luke.’”
And for Campbell, it gives him an opportunity to continue the relationship he’s built with the Allin family. Mother Helen will come to watch the games and Molly will be around all the time, as a family connection for Luke and rooting for the Golden Hawks in the coming four years.
“I would have kept that anyway if Luke chose somewhere else,” he said. “But it’s nice to know we’ve got five more years with an Allin.”
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