Cathedral's Armaan Franklin bursts on to the scene in junior season

Advice can come from a lot of different directions for a high school basketball player. In Armaan Franklin’s case, he knows advice is coming from a good place if it is delivered by his aunt.

“She tells me that when I’m on the court I need to make it valuable minutes,” said Franklin, a 6-5 Cathedral junior guard. “‘Don’t just be out there. Try to make an impact.’”

Franklin is taking those words to heart. His transformation from a relatively unknown sophomore to a junior with a handful of high-major scholarship offers has been one of the surprise stories in the first half of the season.

In the past two weeks, Franklin has been offered by Butler, Xavier and Ohio State, adding to a list that had been Ball State, Evansville, IUPUI, Miami of Ohio, Morehead State and Toledo.

“The things you keep hearing about him (from college coaches) are his motor and his ability to do multiple things,” Cathedral coach Jason Delaney said. “He was so far under the radar and now he’s on it. In my mind he’s a lot like (former Evansville Bosse guard and New Mexico transfer) JaQuan Lyle, who could do everything in high school. He’s a triple-double waiting to happen.”

Franklin, who attended Cathedral as a freshman, showed flashes of potential last season as a sophomore at Fishers. Most notable was a 33-point outburst against rival Hamilton Southeastern in a sectional loss at the end of the season. He averaged 10.6 points and 4.3 rebounds – strong numbers for a sophomore, but maybe not a harbinger of a breakout season.

After transferring back to Cathedral for his junior season and carrying with him confidence from that 33-point game, Franklin has put it all together. Playing alongside 6-6 senior and Ball State recruit Jarron Coleman, Franklin is averaging a team-leading 21.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, along with 3.2 assists – all while learning to play point guard for the first time.

“I didn’t want to leave my freshman year so the transition coming back was easy,” Franklin said. “My freshman year I was more of a shooter. Now I’m a totally different player. I’m a lot more aggressive and not necessarily looking for my shot, but looking for the best shot. Running the point helps set up my teammates and if a team focuses on me, I can get them easy shots.”

Franklin gives an assist to his aunt for helping him develop that aggressive mindset. The words of Coquese Washington, in her 11th season as the women’s basketball coach at Penn State, carry some weight. Washington, whose sister, India Washington, is Franklin’s mother, played at Notre Dame and in the WNBA with the New York Liberty, Houston Comets and Indiana Fever before returning to Notre Dame as an assistant coach.

“She’s helped me a lot,” Franklin said. “The biggest thing is just telling me to make an impact when I’m out there.”

No problem there. Franklin has been a model of consistency for Cathedral, which improved to 12-2 with a 64-59 win over Carmel on Wednesday night. Purdue coach Matt Painter watched in person as Franklin finished with 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting, five assists and four rebounds.

“He’s such a great teammate and humble kid that he’s made it real easy for everybody,” Delaney said. “It’s the same as when we had C.J. Walker (at Tech). He’s a guy who is going to sacrifice some numbers for the betterment of the team. If we win ballgames, those individual things are going to come.”

Franklin, who grew up in South Bend and Houston before moving to Indianapolis four years ago, will likely start appearing on some national recruiting ranking lists soon enough. In addition to the three high-major offers he’s received in recent weeks, Indiana and Purdue have shown increasing interest and schools like Florida State, Texas and UCLA have reached out. He has been to three Butler games this season and also made visits to Ohio State and Xavier.

“It’s going to be fun to see what he can become because he has done this in such a short amount of time,” Delaney said. “Once he gets out on the AAU circuit, he’s going to be seen even more.”

He is not complaining about the college interest – not by a long shot – but Franklin is hardly a natural in the spotlight. When he receives a scholarship offer, he asks Delaney to put them out on social media instead of posting them on his own account.

“I’ve always been kind of a low-key person,” Franklin said. “It’s kind of shocking that my name is out there like it is now. I’m kind of opening up a little bit more now.”

Might as well get used to the idea. Franklin is having a season that should make him an Indiana Junior All-Star and set him up for a big spring and summer on the recruiting circuit.

“Right now I’m just looking at how (college) teams play and how they use their guards,” he said. “I’m looking for a place where I feel comfortable with the staff and players. Being a shy person, I want to be somewhere I feel comfortable when I step on campus.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

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