NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — After winning a gold medal with Jahlil Okafor in Prague, Justise Winslow is still considering joining the Chicago big man and point guard Tyus Jones in a three-man package deal.
If that were to happen, the 6-foot-6 Winslow out of Houston St. John’s believes some school would be getting a special situation.
“I think one, none of us are selfish and two, we’re just high-level guys that want to win and we’re not at the same position,” Winslow said after going for 12 points and four rebounds in the Houston Hoops’ 56-51 loss to Team Scan Thursday night at the Peach Jam.
“So you got a have a true point guard, an athletic wing, a dominant big man down low. With those three guys you can really build a team around them. Get a shooter and then a four or something, I think just our ability to compete and win just allows just to be able to play together rand we have played together before.”
Still, as Winslow told SNY.tv last month before the USA U19 team departed for the World Championship in Prague, he isn’t completely sold on joining the other two on campus.
“It’s not finite, it’s not something that’s concrete yet, ” he said then. “We all just gotta do what’s best for our families.”
Okafor and Winslow — the two lone high school prospects on the team — roomed together with Team USA and he said they discussed schools, but nothing was decided.
Winslow is still considering the same 10 schools he had before the trip.
“Yeah I’m getting close,” he said. “I haven’t cut it yet. I thought about it but I wasn’t sure about a couple things.”
Duke is considered by some a favorite to land Okafor and Jones, and Duke’s Rasheed Sulaimon was also on the U19 team.
“Duke is actually on my list,” Winslow said. “He was telling me the pros and cons of Duke. But he really just helped me speed my game up, I gotta make decisions faster and things like that.”
Tourney MVP Aaron Gordon continued to work the Arizona angle, too, but mostly Winslow said the players were focused on one thing.
“Some of those guys were trying to recruit us,” he said. “It was fun. But overall, they weren’t really trying to recruit us, they were just trying to win the gold medal.”
**For more coverage of the USA U19 and U16 teams, click here.
