Jayson Tatum, one of the top players in the Class of 2016, has cut his list to four schools.
The 6-foot-8 small forward out of St. Louis (MO) Chaminade is down to Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and his hometown St. Louis University.
Tatum told SNY.tv in December that Kentucky is in a good position.
“They’re pretty high on my list,” Tatum said. “I have a great relationship with Coach Cal [John Calipari] and Coach [Kenny] Payne, I have a lot of interest in Kentucky. [Coach Cal] … said he wants to coach me and he could develop my game, and help me get better.”
Kansas, Wake Forest, UNC and Duke are the only schools to offer the trio of Tatum, Harry Giles and Dennis Smith Jr., That group has discussed a big package deal.
But of that group Tatum said Duke and Kentucky are working the hardest for him. Three coaches from Duke have been in touch.
“I talk to Coach [Jon] Scheyer the most,” Tatum said. “I talk to Coach K and Coach [Jeff ]Capel, too. They said that I fit very well into their system. They said they’d like me to have the ball in my hands if I went to Duke, because they feel like I make plays when that happens.”
Tatum says that right now, while the possibility is in the air for Giles, Smith Jr., and him to attend school together, it’s not something that they are focusing on at the moment.
“That’s probably going to be something that we’ll discuss when the time comes,” Tatum said. “Only [some] schools are recruiting all three of us, it doesn’t play too much of a part, because I like the other schools.”
Meantime, Missouri and Saint Louis were the local schools, and now only St. Louis remains.
“I have very high interest in those two schools as well,” Tatum said. “They’ve been interested in me since the eighth grade, so they were two of the first schools to look at me.”
