NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — This could be the year that the Houston Hoops win the Peach Jam.
After two straight quarterfinal losses with teams that featured Justise Winslow and other stars, the Houston team may finally be poised to win it all this year.
And that is certainly what senior point guard De’Aaron Fox has in mind.
The 6-foot-4 floor general from Katy (TX) Cypress Lakes went for 19 points and 7 assists Friday night in a convincing 89-66 win over Miles Bridges and The Family that improved Houston to 3-1.
Coaches have flocked to see Fox and the Hoops at this event, but he says four schools are showing the most interest.
“At this point, Kansas, Texas, Louisville and LSU,” he said. “LSU’s really come on strong in about the last two weeks. So those four I would probably say are coming at me the strongest.”
He also mentioned that he has interest in N.C. State, Baylor and other schools.
As for Louisville: “I’m one of the only point guards that they’re recruiting. They want to play me how they played Russ Smith, Peyton Siva, Chris Jones, Terry Rozier, a lead guard that gets after everyone defensively. Even Terry Rozier in the NBA Draft Combine, no guards wanted to work out with him because of his tenacious defense. No one wants to play against that and that’s something I can bring to the table.”
He likes coach Rick Pitino’s system as well.
“I like it. Those guards are going to pick up fullcourt but they play sort of a 2-3, but a matchup 2-3 so it has more man principles. The defense has a lot of thinking to it, but as a point guard you should be able to run every spot on the court.”
On Kansas: “I like the way they’ve played over the last couple of years. I don’t think they’ve had the point guards that they could’ve gotten. Frank [Mason III]’s played really well the last two years. Right now they’re in South Korea and he’s leading them in points, steals, assists, almost every category, and I think if I was to go there I don’t think Frank will be there so I think I could just kind of step into the role.”
On Texas: “Coach [Shaka] Smart, he really made it a priority to try to keep me in state. His second day in office, he called me. I went up there and he wasn’t even there a week yet. He still had boxes to unpack and it just made me feel good that I was a priority because he wasn’t even done packing and he called me”
On LSU: “They called me a couple days ago and offered me and they’re really trying to get on me. Everyone thinks it’s locked in that I’m either going to Texas or Kansas, that’s what they heard. I told them that that’s not what it is. I’m wide open right now and they really want to step in.”
On his deciding factors: “The main factors for me are playing time and my relationship with the coach. I don’t want to go somewhere that you’re not going to play. That’s how guys end up transferring. But if you have a bad relationship with the head coach, guys end up transferring because of that, too. So those are the main things.”
