NEW YORK — Trevon Duval hasn’t always been associated with the Under Armour brand.
Two years ago, he was a key player on the Nike-sponsored NY Playaz team that won the prestigious Peach Jam thanks to the inspired play of current Kentucky guard Isaiah Briscoe.
But across the last two years, perhaps no player has become more synonymous with the emerging Under Armour grassroots brand than the 6-foot-3 Duval.
One year after impressing NBA scouts at the Elite 24 Game, Duval is back again as arguably the centerpiece of Saturday night’s nationally televised affair (ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.).
Both Jamal Mashburn and Tony Delk told SNY.tv this week that it’s only a matter of time before Duval ends up in the NBA.
So, does Duval feel that he represents a major piece of the Under Armour brand?
“Yeah, this is my second year playing with Under Armour,” Duval said Friday after practice at the Gauchos Gym. “This is my second Elite 24. I’ve just won a [UAA] final, so they’re kind of pushing me a little bit because I’m an Under Armour kid, so yeah.”
Looking ahead a couple of years, Duval could become a centerpiece for the Under Armour brand at the NBA level, following in the footsteps of Steph Curry.
None other than grassroots basketball legend Sonny Vaccaro said Under Armour needs an infusion of young talent to try to challenge Nike going forward.
“Under Armour’s still under-fed and under-nourished in grassroots basketball,” Vaccaro said on The 4 Quarters Podcast. “They got Steph, they need some young blood.”
For the second straight year, Duval enters the Elite 24 Game facing decisions both about his high school and college choices.
He is expected to make a decision about his next high school any day now — and most recently has been linked to St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, which happens to be an Under Armour school.
As for his impending decision, Duval said: “I’m almost there. I’m almost there. I’m trying to decide right now where I’m going to go to high school at.”
Duval has spent time at both Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s Prep and Dallas (TX) Advanced Prep International. After leaving St. Benedict’s in 2015, he departed API this year after it became clear that players were having trouble getting qualified from there. Arizona commit Terrance Ferguson will play in Australia after failing to get qualified from API.
“I think people understand why I left that situation,” Duval said. “Because the academics and everything wasn’t really totally stable there. I’m trying to go somewhere and have a stable education and all that.”
He added: “I’m not worried about it affecting my eligibility and all that. I’m fine with that.”
Asked if he had chosen a region of the country for his next school, Duval promised he will play on the East Coast.
“The East Coast,” he said. “Not too far up but on the East Coast, not like Maine or nothing like that.”
In terms of the college decision, Duval is still considering a number of schools, including Maryland, UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, Cal, Villanova and Kansas.
(Kentucky and Duke, which are recruiting other 2017 point guards like Trae Young, Quade Green and Tremont Waters, do not appear to be pursuing Duval.)
He has long been linked to Maryland — Under Armour’s flagship school — and more recently to UCLA — which recently inked a 15-year, $280-million deal with the apparel company.
“There’s a lot of people saying that, Maryland, UCLA or just Under Armour schools, period,” Duval said. “Even for high school, but me and my dad, we just decide the best situation for me. If I go to a Nike or adidas school, it doesn’t really matter. It’s where I need to go to get to the next level.”
After the high school decision is made, Duval plans to take a West Coast swing with his father, visiting Arizona, Oregon and Cal, along with Kansas.
“Yeah, soon I should be taking some visits over on the West Coast, like Arizona, USC, Cal-Berkeley, Oregon, Kansas, schools like that,” Duval said.
He broke down a few of those schools.
As for Arizona, he said, “Arizona, it’s Point Guard U. Coach Book [Richardson], he always talks to me, he’s trying to bring Point Guard U back with elite point guards. This year they just got Kobi Simmons, a top elite point guard in that class and they’re recruiting point guards in my class. So they could come back and be Point Guard U.”
On Maryland: “I hear from them pretty often. They let their guards play freely. Coach [Mark] Turgeon, he lets Melo [Trimble] get up and down and play how he wants. They play a lot of pick-and-roll, so they’re a guard-heavy school, too.”
On UCLA: “Pretty much the same thing, they get up and down. Real fast. They kind of play my style of play.”
On Villanova: “Really good guard school. Coach [Jay] Wright does a really good job developing his guards and making them really good guards on the college level and even on the pro level.”
He added: “I’m looking forward to visiting all the schools really. I’m want to see the different campuses and the different lifestyles on the East Coast and the West Coast and even in the South, really.”
Time will tell if he ends up carrying forward with the Under Armour brand.
