As a sophomore, Xavier Cochran was thrown into the starting lineup for a young Huron High School boys basketball team that saw its ups and downs in 2012-13.

In the months following the season, he’s seeing that experience pay dividends.

Cochran said his recruiting has picked up considerably in the last few months, as he’s drawing interest from a few high profile schools like Xavier, Butler and VCU and other mid-majors like Rhode Island, Akron and Buffalo.

“A lot more schools than that,” Cochran said. “I can’t really name them all.”

They all know what's becoming apparent to area basketball followers: that Cochran projects to be one of the area’s top players for the next two seasons.

“He’s one of the top players in the state, and he’s being recruited pretty heavily,” Huron coach Waleed Samaha said. “Some high majors are showing interest, but a lot of the mid-majors are recruiting him hard.”

Cochran was at Pioneer Wednesday night for the annual Ann Arbor Shootout summer basketball tournament. He’s sitting out for now, after suffering a minor knee injury a few weeks ago, but expects to be back to action in time for the summer AAU season in early July, when he will play for Dorian's Pride out of Saginaw.

Huron played a junior varsity lineup in Wednesday’s tournament, which also featured, Pioneer, Skyline and Father Gabriel Richard as teams start to prepare for next year.

“We’re progressing,” Samaha said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but everyone’s got a lot of work to do this summer, but so does everybody else.”

For the River Rats next year, Cochran figures to be a key cog. He averaged 12.6 points per game last year, the only player to start every game on a team that featured just three seniors.

A self-described slasher, Cochran said the experience helped the game slow down for him. Now, he’s trying to improve his strength and speed going into his junior and senior years.

“I’ve been lifting a lot this year, so strength and speed-wise have been the biggest parts I’ve been trying to work on this year,” Cochran said.

Pioneer going young

While Huron is working with a lineup that will be mostly intact, across town, Pioneer is gearing up for a year that could feature its youngest lineup in recent memory.

Ten seniors graduated from Pioneer’s 2012-13 team. Only one rotation player, guard Tre Wallace, will return to next year’s squad.

That’s means summer games this year have been noticeably different than in years past.

“It’s been a test of patience for the coaching staff,” Pioneer coach Rex Stanczak said. “We’re real small, and I think we’re going to be scrappy. We’ll figure it out.”

Stanczak said next year’s team figures to include three sophomores and one freshman. That’s more sophomores and freshmen than he’s fielded on a varsity team in any of his previous eight seasons at Pioneer -- making for an interesting offseason.

“It’s been an up-and-down summer,” Stanczak said.

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.