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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Jordan Tucker’s summer schedule got thrown into disarray on Wednesday when he received a late invitation to the USA Basketball U18 training camp beginning June 14 in Colorado Springs, Co.
But the 6-foot-7 Tucker is happy to have the scheduling problem on his hands.
“It’s hard because they extended the school year so I don’t finish school until June 10,” Tucker told me Thursday at the Frankie Williams Classic held at his own Archbishop Stepinac High School. “I want to rest and get ready so I can perform well out there.”
Tucker had hoped to visit Maryland and Villanova this month, but those visits are now complicated by the USA Basketball situation.
“I’m going to try to get them in in June,” he said. “It’s going to be hard because I just got the news I’m going to U18 camp [Wednesday].”
Tucker is also uncertain if he will attend the St. John’s Elite Camp June 8 because of finals.
He said he impressed USA Basketball scouts at the last Nike EYBL session while playing with the NY Rens.
“I know that they had sent ttheir USA socuts to the fourth session to see who was playing well so that Sunday I had a good game against the Expressions in the morning and then I had a really good game against Las Vegas Prospects,” Tucker said.
Through it all, Tucker says Syracuse is now on tops in term of working to recruit him.
“Syracuse [is] probably the working hardest,” he said. “I know they thought I wasn’t interested a while ago and then I told them that I’m really interested in Syracuse. It’s still high on my list so they jumped right back into my recruitment.”
Tucker said he also wouldn’t mind seeing 6-10 Taurean Thompson commit to the Orange. Thompson told SNY.tv he’s down to Syracuse, Michigan State and Seton Hall and will decide after visiting Sparty.
“Yeah, he would help tremendously because the way he can spread the floor, shoot, post up, block shots,” he said of Thompson, his teammate on the Blue team that beat the White team, 140-120, in the Frankie Williams game. “So that whole senior class is leaving [Syracuse] so I would definitely want someone to be there to help.”
Tucker visited Syracuse recently with Thompson, his Rens teammate Hamidou Diallo and PSA Cardinals point guard Quade Green.
“We [Tucker and Diallo] talked about Syracuse and that was pretty much it and Maryland,” he said. “Syracuse was the only visit that we took together. We both enjoyed it, but who knows what other schools he’s interested in.”
The 6-6 Diallo also holds offers from Kentucky, Duke, UConn and St. John’s, among others.
As for St. John’s, Tucker had previously said they were working the hardest, but not so much anymore.
“Yeah, they’re working the hardest because I’m close, I’m a New York kid,” he said. “They haven’t been on me as much you know.”
St. John’s has focused more recently on 2018 and ’19 kids, like Naz Reid (’18) and Tucker’s Stepinac teammate Aundre Hyatt (who will attend their Elite Camp) and Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine (’19) of the Ranney School.
Meantime, he remains interested in both Maryland and Villanova.
“I’m a shooter and they run up and down a lot,” he said. “[Maryland coach] Mark Turgeon, he likes wings that can shoot the ball and score in different ways. The one thing he told me was that they’re going to really need me to buckle down on defense.
“I’m gonna go to USA camp and [Texas coach] Shaka [Smart], Mark Turgeon and [UConn coach] Kevin Ollie are all gonna coach there so those are all defense guys so I’m going to really have to step it up if I choose to go to those schools.”
