Having returned from a weekend unofficial to USC, Shabazz Muhammad’s next planned visit is to Duke for the North Carolina game March 3.
“We have the Duke-North Carolina game,” Ron Holmes, Muhammad’s father, told SNY.tv Friday by phone. “He’s going to do an official visit for that game.”
The No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2012, Muhammad had an in-home visit with Coach K Sept. 12 and he holds him in high regard.
“He’s a real legend of the game, a Hall of Fame coach who can teach you so much,” Muhammad told DevilHoops.com. “There’s no doubt that he can make you as good of a basketball player as you want to be.”
Muhammad spent last Saturday on an unofficial to USC during which he watched the football game, a 56-48 loss to Stanford.
“We were up there to see the football game and talk to the athletic director,” said Holmes, a USC alumnus. “They did a marketing presentation for Shabazz, what playing in Los Angeles and USC could do for him.”
Muhammad previously visited USC unofficially in August.
USC next year is expected to return guards Maurice Jones and Jio Fontan, the former St. Anthony star who is out now with a torn ACL. They should also have center Dewayne Dedmon.
Three transfers — senior forward Eric Wise (UC Irvine), junior forward Ari Stewart (Wake Forest) and sophomore guard J.T. Terrell (Wake Forest) — will also be eligible in 2012-13.
“They are telling us [about] winning the league and contending for Final Fours,” Holmes said of USC’s future. “We will see.”
Muhammad is also considering Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Texas A&M, UCLA and UNLV, and still plans on signing in the spring.
His father said they plan to just watch a lot of college basketball this year and see how the various teams play.
In the meantime, Muhammad focused on his senior year at Bishop Gorman.
“We’re just going to focus on the high school season,” he said. “The team has a chance to be really good.”
