Fresh off an appearance in Friday night’s Boost Mobile Elite 24 event in New York in which he scored 13 points in a winning effort, Jordan Hamilton and his family drove to UConn Saturday for an unofficial visit.
The 6-foot-7, 210-pound small forward out of Dominguez High in Compton, Calif. was making his second visit to Storrs after attending the Elite Camp there last year.
“I came up today with my family,” Hamilton said Saturday by phone after dining with his parents, three brothers and sister at an Outback Steak House. “It’s a great school, great tradition. The wings come out of there and go pro a dime a dozen.”
Ranked No. 13 overall by Scout.com in the Class of 2009, Hamilton said he will take official visits to UConn, Texas, Kansas, Syracuse and Cal, but listed the first two as his leaders.
“UConn, Texas, Kansas and Syracuse are my schools right now,” he said. “My West Coast school is Cal-Berkeley. Those are going to be my five visits. The schools that I’m very interested in are Texas and UConn.”
Hamilton met with head coach Jim Calhoun and assistant Patrick Sellers to discuss various aspects of the program, including academics and how the program develops wing players.
“I was looking at who they have at my position,” he said. “Nate Miles, he’s pretty good. Stanley Robinson, he’s a solid player. Next year they get Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs.
“I just think the’rey going to be good the next few years. If I choose to go there, I could possibly make an impact.”
Hamilton added that academics were a prime concern for he and his family.
“We talked about the academic part (with the coaches), that’s one of my main concerns,” he said. “I want to go in and really do well also.”
As for Texas, Hamilton took an unofficial there last year and enjoyed it.
“Texas is a good school,” he said. “The coach (Rick Barnes) is good at developing their wings. That’s one of the main things I’m looking at.”
Hamilton said he enjoyed being on the winning team (Blue) in the Boost Mobile event at Rucker Park, which was televised live on ESPNU, even if the game was far from his native Cali.
“It was a great opportunity, it was kind of an East Coast show,” he said. “If I was to be in L.A., it would be the same for me. New York fans are crazy about New Yorkers. I played pretty well.
“It’s a fun event wrapping up the summer. I think it’s a great thing. You get a lot of stuff from Under Armour. It’s a great event.”
As for when he might decide on school, Hamilton plans on taking his visits and then huddling with his family.
“We don’t really have a set date,” he said. “I’m going to go sit down with my parents and set all that up in a little while. We’re going to plan on doing everything after we get back home.”
***Speaking of UConn, John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant reports that UConn’s Division of Athletics has hired HOK Sport, Inc. of Kansas City to coordinate architectural and design services for a new men’s and women’s basketball practice facility. The facility will feature practice space for both the men’s and women’s teams, as well as space for sports medicine, strength and conditioning, video services, academic support and coaches offices.
