Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
Karl Towns will announce his college choice Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Joe’s-Metuchen High School and all signs point to him selecting Kentucky, multiple sources close to the recruitment told SNY.tv Monday.
Towns played for Kentucky coach John Calipari and assistant Orlando Antigua last summer on the Dominican Republic National Team that played Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and Team USA in Las Vegas. In May 2011, SNY.tv wrote about Calipari’s recruiting edge vis-a-vis Towns and the Dominican team.
Towns also visited Kentucky just last week to see the campus and the Wildcats’ victory over LIU Brooklyn.
The 6-foot-11 Towns is also considering Duke, Florida, Michigan State, N.C. State, Rutgers and Seton Hall, among others.
“It’s obviously early for me, but when the coaches can start calling and things like that I know it’ll get way crazier,” Towns told USA Today. “I just want to end it before it starts.”
TheWildcats dropped out of the AP Top 25 poll Monday for the first time since 2009, but are expected to get a dose of great news out of the Garden State Tuesday morning.
New Jersey has produced Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving, the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft out of Duke, and Charlotte Bobcats forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, the No. 2 pick in the 2012 Draft out of Kentucky, and Towns could well be next in that lineage.
“He is a program-changer,” Ed Bright, executive director of Towns’s AAU program, Sports U, previously told SNY.tv. “He’s a program-changer on two different levels. No. 1, obviously, because of basketball. You’re talking about a kid that will wind up 7-feet, can shoot lights out from 23 feet on in, understands the game, good passer.
“He has to work on his overall agility but at 7-feet how much agility do you need?
“But his character, the poise he has as a 17-year-old, I’ve never seen. How he will represent a program, even a community, he’s special. A lot of people throw special around casually. You can’t throw that around casually with Karl Town Jr.
“You can build a program around him. If he’s coming to your school, you build a program around him.”
Towns is the consensus No. 1 player in the Class of 2015, but could reclassify to 2014, putting him closer to the 2015 NBA Draft.
“I don’t know about reclassifying up,” he told USA Today. “You’re talking about losing an extra year of education and being with my teammates and not winning another state title ring in high school. I don’t know about that. I’ve got to beat my dad with the ring count. Right now we’re tied 1-1. I don’t know what I’ll do as far as moving up. I’m not ruling it out, but we’ll just have to see what happen.”
Towns told USA Today he plans to study kineseiology in college.
“I definitely want to play in the NBA, but that’s not my only goal,” Towns said. “Kinesiology is basically about being a scientific trainer. I’ve done a lot of studying on it and I’m really intrigued by it, so I want to keep my grades very high. That’s one of the big reasons I decided to get this out of the way.”
Photo: USA Today
Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle.
A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.
Karl Towns will announce his college choice Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Joe’s-Metuchen High School and all signs point to him selecting Kentucky, multiple sources close to the recruitment told SNY.tv Monday.
Towns played for Kentucky coach John Calipari and assistant Orlando Antigua last summer on the Dominican Republic National Team that played Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and Team USA in Las Vegas. In May 2011, SNY.tv wrote about Calipari’s recruiting edge vis-a-vis Towns and the Dominican team.
Towns also visited Kentucky just last week to see the campus and the Wildcats’ victory over LIU Brooklyn.
The 6-foot-11 Towns is also considering Duke, Florida, Michigan State, N.C. State, Rutgers and Seton Hall, among others.
“It’s obviously early for me, but when the coaches can start calling and things like that I know it’ll get way crazier,” Towns told USA Today. “I just want to end it before it starts.”
The Wildcats dropped out of the AP Top 25 poll Monday for the first time since 2009, but are expected to get a dose of great news out of the Garden State Tuesday morning.
New Jersey has produced Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving, the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft out of Duke, and Charlotte Bobcats forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, the No. 2 pick in the 2012 Draft out of Kentucky, and Towns could well be next in that lineage.
“He is a program-changer,” Ed Bright, executive director of Towns’s AAU program, Sports U, previously told SNY.tv. “He’s a program-changer on two different levels. No. 1, obviously, because of basketball. You’re talking about a kid that will wind up 7-feet, can shoot lights out from 23 feet on in, understands the game, good passer.
“He has to work on his overall agility but at 7-feet how much agility do you need?
“But his character, the poise he has as a 17-year-old, I’ve never seen. How he will represent a program, even a community, he’s special. A lot of people throw special around casually. You can’t throw that around casually with Karl Town Jr.
“You can build a program around him. If he’s coming to your school, you build a program around him.”
Towns is the consensus No. 1 player in the Class of 2015, but could reclassify to 2014, putting him closer to the 2015 NBA Draft.
“I don’t know about reclassifying up,” he told USA Today. “You’re talking about losing an extra year of education and being with my teammates and not winning another state title ring in high school. I don’t know about that. I’ve got to beat my dad with the ring count. Right now we’re tied 1-1. I don’t know what I’ll do as far as moving up. I’m not ruling it out, but we’ll just have to see what happen.”
Towns told USA Today he plans to study kineseiology in college.
“I definitely want to play in the NBA, but that’s not my only goal,” Towns said. “Kinesiology is basically about being a scientific trainer. I’ve done a lot of studying on it and I’m really intrigued by it, so I want to keep my grades very high. That’s one of the big reasons I decided to get this out of the way.”
Photo: USA Today
