Cleveland Cavaliers Caris LeVert initially signed with Ohio University

On Feb 9, 2022

John Groce needed his memory prodded when it came to his recruiting of new Cavaliers guard/forward Caris LeVert, but not much.

The then-Ohio University coach now in his fifth season at the University of Akron, Groce remembered that not many schools were pursuing LeVert. Listed as 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds in his sixth year in the NBA, LeVert weighed 166 pounds as a 17-year-old.

Helping Pickerington South High School to a Division I state title in 2012, the two-year starter and team captain was a second-team All-Ohio selection.

The Bobcats were joined in recruiting LeVert by Alabama State and St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, confirmed UA associate head coach Dustin Ford, Groce’s lead recruiter at the time.

“[Ford] saw him and said, ‘You want to watch this kid, I think he’s got a lot of upside and potential,’” Groce said Monday after the Cavs’ trade with the Indiana Pacers for LeVert was approved by the league. “He was always really talented, long, but a little bit slight in terms of his body. There was talk of redshirt. Would we be willing to redshirt him, that way we could get a year of physical development?”

LeVert signed with Ohio University in November 2011 but was released from his NCAA commitment when Groce left the Bobcats for the University of Illinois. Groce said the Illini had no scholarships available, so LeVert chose Michigan, where then-coach John Beilein, who directed the Cavs for 54 games in 2019-20, did initially redshirt him.

“Then midway through the year — which you don’t see very often —they pulled the redshirt and started playing him,” Groce said.

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Groce thought that plan lasted nine or 10 games. Actually, it was six before LeVert blew it up.

“We tried to redshirt him and he was just killing us in practice every day,” Beilein told Brian Lewis of the New York Post in 2017. “As soon as we put him in the game, it was like it was just natural.”

LeVert came off the bench to play in 33 games as a freshman and the Wolverines reached the NCAA championship game before losing to Louisville.

LeVert knew why he didn’t get many offers.

“I was definitely small, but I was a little shorter too. I was like, 6-4, 6-3,” LeVert said Tuesday. “I was like a one- or two-star. And I was going to a mid-major school, OU down in Athens.

“When I was growing up, I never really thought I would be in the NBA. Was a dream, of course, but I was never a high recruit or anything like that.”

It helped that Michigan went to the NCAA Tournament three times in LeVert’s four years and LeVert left the university with 98 victories, six short of the school record.

A Columbus native, LeVert was traded to the Brooklyn Nets not long after he was drafted 20th overall by the Indiana Pacers in 2016. The Nets sent him back to the Pacers in January 2021 in the multi-team deal for James Harden that brought center Jarrett Allen to the Cavs.

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Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called LeVert “a first-class human being, first-class professional” on Sunday, and that’s what Groce remembered.

“Obviously a great kid. Still to this day remember his brother, Darryl, and his mother, Kim, just great people,” Groce said. “A great worker, high-character guy.

“He’s an easy guy to pull for because he’s a high-character dude.”

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Groce recalled how a cancerous mass on LeVert’s left kidney was discovered in the physical examination to complete the 2021 trade.

That’s not the only adversity LeVert has faced. In April 2020 when LeVert was 15, LeVert’s father, Darryl, a graphic designer, died of a heart attack at age 46.

“He’s been through a lot, which also makes you really want to root for him,” Groce said.

With LeVert back in Ohio, Groce can watch his former recruit on television. As he longed for a “do-over,” Groce said he will think back to LeVert’s days at Michigan, when the Wolverines went 6-0 against the Illini when LeVert played.