West Linn’s Kaylor Buse bursts onto national HS basketball scene

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- In the world of high school basketball, the summer circuit is really where dreams are made or broken. AAU tournaments are teaming with college coaches looking for their next big prospect.

West Linn rising senior Kaylor Buse made her final season on the circuit count.

“I don’t even know,” Buse said through laughter of what got into her this summer. “I wouldn’t think I’d be here a year ago at all.”

She’s not wrong as Buse was not on most people’s radar going into June. By August, she was ranked the #52 recruit in the 2027 class by ESPN.

She says what caused her elevation was her desire to play well for others.

“I think just being around really good people,” said Buse of what upped her game. “We had a really special group in the summer that made me be like, ‘Okay.’ I’ve never really been not all in, but I was, like, all in, all in.”

All in led to Buse going from her best offer being from Gonzaga to begin the summer to having a top five currently consisting of Oregon, UW, Utah, TCU, and South Carolina.

“One of the parents was like, ‘Oh, Dawn Staley. She’s at your games!’ I was like, ‘No, she was not there for me,’” said Buse.

But she was.

In fact, the three-time national champion and eight-time Final Four attendee personally called Buse and offered her. The point guard had no idea it was coming.

“It was definitely like, ‘What is my life?’ Like, wow, I just got off the phone with Dawn Staley,” said Kaylor through amazement. “That was like, ‘Wow, she’s a big-time person in her environment and she has impacted so many people.’”

Despite the accolades of all of her final five programs, she says the most important thing she’s chasing in her next stop is not status, but rather stability.

“I value good people, and I value places that want their kids to develop and go through that whole process with people for all five years,” said Buse. “I’m not a kid that’s going to go move ship to ship. I want to be somewhere five years and pour into a community and invest in people as much as having that invested in me.”