Jordan Mickey, one of the top forwards in the Class of 2013 out of Arlington (TX) Grace Prep, is taking a summer tour of various schools and looking to trim his list by the end of July.
His father, James Wright Mickey, told SNY.tv Wednesday that he and his son have already visited Kentucky, Louisville, Ohio State, West Virginia, SMU and Arkansas this month in between stops at adidas Nations, the NBA Top 100 Camp and the Amar’e Stoudemire Skills Academy.
They are currently at LSU because Jordan’s brother plays football there and plan to go back to SMU early next week.
Every school except Kentucky has offered a scholarship to the 6-foot-7 Mickey, ranked the No. 20 power forward by Rivals in the Class of 2013.
“[Kentucky coach John] Calipari said he was going to watch him a couple times in July,” James said. “Everybody else has offered. Kentucky is the only school that we visited that hasn’t offered a scholarship.”
Several other schools — including Kansas — are also in the mix.
“We are also planning to do unofficials at Texas and Baylor and trying to work out our schedule to get to Alabama, Providence and Texas Tech,” James said.
“I don’t know if our schedule is going to permit it, but I’m hoping by September we have it narrowed down to our five official visits.”
At this stage, James said Louisville and Ohio State would “probably” get officials based on their recent experiences there.
James and Jordan were especially impressed with Louisville coach Rick Pitino on the visit.
“Louisville was great,” James said. “Coach Pitino is a phenomenal coach. Throughout most of our visit, he’s so hands on.
“Coach Pitino and [SMU coach] Larry Brown are phenomenal coaches and what impressed us about both of these guys is their energy level. They go and go and go. Their passion for basketball has not changed.”
The family lives about 10 minutes from SMU and plans to get out there again early next week “just to give [Jordan] an opportunity to get to know coach Brown and see if the chemistry sparks there.”
Ohio State also figures strongly and is likely to get an official.
“Louisville and Ohio State all did great jobs with their visits,” James said. “The chemistry was definitely there. Those are places that we’re probably going to get in to our official visits.”
James added that they had also visited Kansas in the past and that “Kansas is definitely in that front-running, too.”
West Virginia was also a positive experience.
“They havea an excellent facility,” James said. “It’s more like a home setting. Those guys relly made us feel welcome and at home. They took a lot of time out going over what they’re trying to accomplish, exactly how they could implement Jordan in their program, how Jordan would be utilized and gave us an opportunity to see their skill sessions and their coaching philosophy and also giving Jordan an opportunity to do a Q and A with all of the coaching staff. Coach [Bob] Huggins has a really good staff.”
James said Providence was working as hard as any school and that they would like to visit the campus.
“I can’t think of a school that’s recruiting him harder than Providence,” James said.
Still, the family plans to take more visits before cutting the list in July and then deciding on officials.
“We’re still open,” James said.
