By JACOB POLACHECK
Class of 2024 four-star guard Labaron Philon is down to eight schools.
The 6-foot-3, 160-pound point gaurd from Baker (AL), cut his list on Monday and is now considering Alabama, Auburn, Michigan, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Kansas, Ole Miss and Tennessee.
He broke down each program for ZAGSBLOG:
Alabama: “They’ve been talking to me since I first started. The relationship is there. It’s right up the street from where I live, only two to three hours away.”
Auburn: “The family ordeal, more than basketball, all the guys treat me like family every time I come there. I went there at the beginning of the summer and then I went there again and got the same result. Everybody on campus showed me love, riding around with Coach [Bruce Pearl], you see all the campus and how they look. The love is different there. You never know what you’re going to get.”
Michigan: “I feel like Michigan is a place you can become good at, get stronger, develop your game more and I think Coach Juwan Howard is a good coach. Especially with the AAU program, Nightrydas, he has a great relationship with them. He loves our program. His son played in the program. It’s just family ties.”
Arkansas: “I love Coach [Eric] Musselman and the things he’s doing right now. With the guys he’s recruiting and the things he’s doing, I feel like they’re going to be really good, probably one of the top programs in the country in all of college basketball. I feel like they’re going to have a couple pros come out of there as we go along. In reaching my goal, I want to become a pro and I feel like Arkansas can be one of the top choices.”
Cincinnati: “They’ve been keeping up with me for a long time, ever since the summer started. They’ve been sending emails, phone calls and whatever they can do to reach out at any given time. They stay in touch. My relationship with the coaching staff has gotten really good throughout the way. They send me a lot of posters and all that. We stay in touch.”
Kansas: “I was first recruited by Coach Jeremy Case. He’s a really good coach. He loves to talk to me outside of basketball. A lot of coaches don’t do that. He’s just focused on recruiting, but coaches that make you feel like you’re a part of the family is really special. That’s what you want to look at when you’re making your decision to know where you want to go to college.”
Ole Miss: “They’ve been recruiting me since I was in eighth or ninth grade. They’re not far from home. In my recruitment, it doesn’t matter how close or how far. I’m just looking at the guys they’ve had in the previous year, how the guys now are doing, how they’re being coached, how the staff is doing things, how the program is run, how they’re taking care of their players and the health side. How are they building their bodies to get stronger day in and day out? Ole Miss is doing a great job of taking care of their guys. The campus is beautiful. I could see myself up there.”
Tennessee: “They’re not new, but oncoming. Coach [Gregg Polinsky] and Coach [Rick] Barnes love me. Coach GP loves me like his own son. We’re just talking about the football game and all that. It wasn’t about basketball, but he’s one of those guys that’s going to try and put the fight in you. He’s not going to let you go easy. That’s important because you don’t want a school that’s going to let you go easy. You feel like you want to be recruited. I feel like I want to be recruited hard. They’re doing what they can with the interviews and all that. They’re keeping a good reputation there.”
Philon has already taken visits to Auburn, Alabama and Ole Miss. He said he has an upcoming visit planned to Tennessee, but has not set a date yet.
“I’m pretty close to deciding where I want to go to school,” Philon said. “I feel like there are going to be some more schools that offer me and I’ll probably like those guys. The list can change. I haven’t really made up my mind on a decision yet. We still have plenty of time. Basketball season is just getting on the road now.”
As far as the deciding factors, Philon said he’s looking at the players currently at each program and who they are recruiting.
“I want to see who I’m going to be competing against at practice every day,” he said. “Who am I going to be around every day? What is the latest situation there? Nobody wants to be in a bad living situation. I want to have a good living situation and be able to go to school and get an education while I’m doing the thing I love, which is playing basketball.”
Ranked by On3Sports Composite as the No. 7 point guard and No. 43 overall prospect in the class of 2024, Philon describes himself as a “shifty point guard.”
“I can get it done on both ends of the floor and I can shoot really well,” he said. “I’m good at spreading the floor. I can guard the best guard on the other team and do a great job at that. I take charges and make stops on the defensive end. A lot of recruiters tell me how they like me taking charges. I impact the game.”
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