PHILADELPHIA — While the potential Tyus Jones/Jahlil Okafor package deal has garnered the most attention among the Class of 2014, there is at least one other pair of elite players planning on playing together.
Abdul-Malik Abu and Jared Terrell of the Expressions Elite AAU program continue to plan a future on the same college hardwood.
“Yeah, definitely if it works for both of us, we’re definitely going to do it,” the 6-foot-7 Abu told SNY.tv after posting 20 points and 7 rebounds in the Mary Kline Underclassmen Game last Sunday.
“But if it doesn’t and we have to go our separate ways, that’s just life.”
Said the 6-4 Terrell of Brewster (N.H.) Academy: “Yeah, we want to do whatever fits both of us. If the same school doesn’t fit both of us as well as possible, we might go our separate ways.”
Asked which schools were recruiting both 2014 players the hardest, Abu rattled off, “Kansas, Florida, Iowa State, Providence, UConn, most of them are.”
Added Terrell, who had 6 points and 3 rebounds, “Providence, Boston College, St. John’s, Kansas State [and] Cincinnati.”
Abu said he planned to take officials in the “early fall.”
“I don’t have any school in particular that we have a clearcut visit date, but there’s definitely going to be a number of visits taken,” he said.
He then plans to pull the trigger before his senior season at Kimball (N.H.) Union Academy.
“I’m thinking late fall, early winter,” he said. “I want to get it over with before the season so I can focus.”
Before that he has a busy summer that includes the NBA Top 100 Camp, the Amar’e Stoudemire/Anthony Davis Big Man Academy and Peach Jam, among other stops.
If the two end up at the same program, Terrell said it would be an advantage for that school.
“[We would bring] a lot of energy,” he said. “We could be a big spark off the bench or if we start. We’re not selfish like that. We don’t care if we start, we just want to have fun.”
