Donivine Stewart Verbals to Bradley

Donivine Stewart gave a verbal commitment to come to Bradley in the fall of 2011, after next year's senior season at Bartonville Limestone HS.
Here's just about everything you'd want to know about Donivine's verbal--
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15140


I have watched Donivine Stewart play basketball since he was in 5th grade, and have seen at least 3 or 4 of his games every year since, and have seen him play some summer ball, also...as a couple of my own kids have played against him in school ball and summer ball.
I have never seen him have a bad game, and he's always been a great ball handler and a good scorer.
I recall one game back in 2005, I watched Donivine play when he was a 6th grader for his Pleasant Valley 8th grade team and he had 30 points and almost single-handedly beat a very good Peoria Christian team that finished 2nd in State (8th grade IESA).
The following two years he literally carried his team to the State Finals, even though there were no other reliable scorers on his team...
Even the year before when Donivine was just a 5th grader, he carried his team to State in the 7th grade Finals - but they lost in the quarterfinals...
http://www.iesa.org/activities/bbk/index.asp?year=2004&class=7A

But in 2006 - Donivine's Pleasant Valley team made it all the way to the 7A Championship game, with Donivine personally scoring 43 of his team's 56 points in a 60-56 losing effort...taking home the runnerup trophy.
That is NO MISPRINT - Donivine scored 43 of his team's 56 points!
http://www.iesa.org/activities/bbk/scoreboards/contestDetails.asp?StateContestID=16935&StateID=1699&Year=2006&Class=7A&Position=1

In the first round, quarter final, and semifinal games, Donivine also scored 16, 37, and 21 points for a tournament total of 117 points in four games....
To date that still stands as the ALL TIME record for points scored in a state tournament at any level...and probably will remain so since they no longer play 4 games at state...

"Class 7A: 1985-2006
Most Points, Tournament 117 Donivine Stewart (16-37-21-43) Peoria Pleasant Valley 2006

Most Points, Championship Game 43 (16@2, 3@3, 2-3 FT) Donivine Stewart Peoria Pleasant Valley 2006"
http://www.iesa.org/activities/bbk/records_Individual.asp

Donivine returned to the State Finals the next year as an 8th grader with Pleasant Valley (2007) but this time finished 4th...
The format of the games had changed as the schools were newly split into 4 classes, so in the 3 games downstate, Donivine scored 29, 39 (of his team's 45), and 24 points..
http://www.iesa.org/activities/bbk/index.asp?year=2007&class=8-2A

Donivine also still holds the all time scoring record for the 8-2A Tourney - but nobody at any level has ever broken it...


Then when Donivine went to Limestone HS he immediately scored well enough as a freshman to lead the entire state in scoring at nearly 30 ppg.
He has continued to score well, in the 22-28 ppg range but he has tried to help his teammates as well...
donivine has been the area scoring average leader in all three of his seasons thus far at Limestone....and should be closing in on 3000 career points by this time next year.
Unfortunately Donivine has never had much teammate help in the scoring column....
Donivine will likely hold many if not most of the yearly and career scoring records at Limestone by the time he's done...and also holds some records from the Tournament of Champions high school tourney that's been held the past few years around Thanksgiving in Peoria.

I am excited for Donivine and also excited for Bradley...
Donivine will be a fine college point guard.

Donivine had legitimate offers from Iowa, DePaul, Illinois, and West Virginia, and even some interest from North Carolina...but wanted to stay and play in front of his hometown fans.
Plus, the Iowa & DePaul situations are a little shaky and the other offers might come with other requirements like redshirting...


Here are some YouTube videos of Donivine...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDRJkS77udg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKj5U881T6k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5sFWv_Kdc&NR=1&feature=fvwp


As you can see from the video - Donivine is good friends with the Manual kids and can maybe help sway a few to check out Bradley!!

This is huge.....very few of the Top 10 kids in Illinois go to smaller schools or mid-majors...
The kids Bradley has landed the past few years from locally (Dyricus Simms-Edwards, Jordan Prosser, Donivine) are all rated quite highly and should be a great team together down the road!

Now, let's go get John Wilkins, Sean Harris, Max Bielfeldt, and maybe another BIG MAN and a scoring wing!!



When Donivine was in junior high...
in the four games at "State" that year (Donivine's 7th grade year), Donivine had 117 points...
That number STILL STANDS as the most points by any individual in a single (7A) State Tournament, and his 43 is the most by any player ever in the title game...

His 19 FG in that title game also still stands as the most field goals in any game at State...
BUT here's even more IESA records.....
Donivine also played for his Peoria Pleasant Valley 7A team while he was in 5th grade and that team went to state, and made it to the quarterfinals, so in those two games Donivine scored 34 more points, AND also Donivine's Pleasant Valley team made the 2007 8-2A State Tournament and played three more games (in Monticello) taking home the 4th place trophy, and Donivine scored 29, 39, and 24 points in those three games...which also still hold the records for BOTH Most points in a game (39) and most points in a tournament (92).

SO -- in NINE games over three years at the IESA State Tournies, Donivine has an impressive 243 points, and nobody else in the history of the state even comes anywhere close!