After talking with Rice coach Moe Hicks about Durand Scott the other day, I caught up with Durand himself today on the phone.
He says he has a top eight schools of UCLA, Miami, UConn, Tennessee, Xavier, Pittsburgh, Memphis and Virginia
“When I get down to my top five, those are the five schools I’m going to take a visit to,” the 6-4, 180-pound Scott said, adding that he plans to cut his list “before school starts, around early September.”
Hicks had said Scott would take official visits to Pitt, UCLA, Miami and Louisville and unofficials to St. John’s and Seton Hall, but Scott had a slightly different version.
He did not include Louisville among his final eight, although he said he may well take an unofficial visit there. And he concurred that he would take unofficials to Seton Hall and St. John’s, but did not include them among his top eight.
“I will take a visit (to Louisville),” he said “I’m not saying I’m not interested in them. I don’t really know nothing about Louisville. I never really put them on my list. I just know they got a good coach (in Rick Pitino).”
Scott said he is friendly with Louisville guard Edgar Sosa, who also played at Rice.
“I am tight with him,” he said.
As for UConn, Scott recently went there for Jim Calhoun’s Elite Camp and he said he liked it, and could imagine re-joining Kemba Walker, who played at Rice and will be a frosh at UConn.
“UConn, they had a lot of pros that came from there,” he said. “(Coach Calhoun) seems like a very good guy. I played with Kemba, he’s going there. I’ve been down there and learned about it. I think I know enough.”
As for UCLA, Scott said head coach Ben Howland watched the Gauchos in Orlando and came to the semis and finals of the U17 national championship, where he offered him a scholarship.
“They came into the mix because they came to see me play in the semifinals and the championship game in Orlando,” Scott said. “I like what they did last year. I don’t really know nothing about them. From what I know, they seem pretty OK. I want to give them a look.
“I was offered a scholarship on the spot.”
Scott said Tennessee also offered a scholarship in Orlando, and that he is considering them. The Vols are also in the mix for Lance Stephenson of Brooklyn Lincoln and Dominic Cheek of St. Anthony.
He said neither St. John’s nor Seton Hall were in his top eight, but that he will visit.
“I will take an unofficial to both those schools,” he said. “I really have intentions of getting away from New York.
“(But) the game plan some of these local schools have, I guess I’ll give them a look. I’m not going to blow them off. That’s why I give them an unofficial.”
Scott will play Friday in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 event at Rucker Park.
