After a long summer on the AAU circuit in which he endured a series of injuries, Tevin Baskin is back home in Stamford, Conn. and working on trimming his list of schools.
The 6-foot-7, 205-pound Baskin plans to visit Providence, Rutgers, Xavier, Auburn, St. John’s and UMass.
“Those are six schools that I’m definitely going to visit because I have interest in them,” Baskin said Monday by phone. “It can change at any moment because people are calling and things happen. You can wake up the next morning and they have someone signed in your position.
“I’m going to end up visiting UMass again. I know I’m definitely going to go to Providence, along with St. john’s, Xavier and Rutgers. Those are some of the schools that I definitely plan on visiting.”
Baskin has already visited St. John’s and Rutgers unofficially.
Last season, Baskin averaged 20.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.1 blocks for Trinity Catholic, which finished 24-4 and lost to Crosby, 82-79, in the state championship game despite 35 points and 12 rebounds from Baskin.
This summer, Baskin averaged about 15 points and eight rebounds for the New York Gauchos. They captured two tournaments in New York and made the final of the national AAU 17-and-under championship, losing to Team Breakdown of Florida, 77-60. That squad features Kenny Boynton and Brandon Knight.
“Once he got healthy he played at a high level and kept getting better,” Gauchos coach Dwayne Mitchell told The Stamford Advocate. “The last couple of games in Florida you could see why the recruiters want him. He’s an athletic kid and that is his strength. He’ll get a rebound and run the floor.”
Baskin sprained his ankle and pulled his groin early in the AAU season and later injured his Achilles’ tendon in Tennessee and endured a bad bug-bite in Arkansas.
“I sprained my ankle and pulled my groin in the same tournament, the Playaz Spring Fling in New Jersey,” he said. “I was at 70 percent and played my way back into it.”
Baskin also reinjured an Achilles’ injury he suffered in 2003, causing him to miss a tournament in Ohio.
“I wasn’t able to jump or run full sprints,” he said. “My Achilles’ was really bad.”
Now that he is back at home, Baskin says he’s OK and just planning out his visits.
“I’m fine now, I’m just working out,” he said.