By ADAM ZAGORIA
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Tyler Betsey, the 6-foot-8 forward from St. Thomas More (CT), drew a crowd of coaches Thursday night at Peach Jam.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer and two assistants, UConn coach Dan Hurley and two assistants, Alabama coach Nate Oats and an assistant, Indiana associate head coach Kenya Hunter and Creighton assistant Jalen Courtney-Williams were among those on hand to watch Betsey make four 3-pointers en route to 14 points in the NY Rens win over the NJ Scholars.
Betsey hopes to trim his list by his birthday Aug. 2 and potentially decide sometime in October.
“My commitment, I think it’s going to be in October, mid- or late,” he said.
He plans to visit Duke the weekend of Sept 16. In June, he visited UConn, Indiana and Creighton.
He broke down several of his options:
Duke: “I’m going there in the fall. I know it’s in September. Jai Lucas, I talked to him. Chris Carrawell, I talk to him a lot.
“They just show me how good they are with freshmen, like the freedom that they give their freshmen. This year, they [the freshmen] started off rough, everybody was talking about them, but they let their freshmen play through their mistakes. The same mistakes they made in December or at the beginning of the year, they weren’t making in March. And they made a run and won the ACC and then they won a game in the [NCAA] Tournament so obviously that’s a pretty first successful season as a head coach.”
Asked whether they’ve talked about Betsey and teammate Dylan Harper coming to Duke together, Betsey said, “They mention it a little bit but we have two different recruitments. If it ends up happening, great, that’s my guy. But we talk to each other, ‘Just do the best thing for you just to get to the NBA because that’s ultimately our biggest goal.”
UConn: “They show a lot of love, it was nice seeing them out here for the first day the coaches could be here.
“I visited them in June. It was a good visit. They just tell me it has to work as a hometown kid. They made it work with [Donovan] Clingan so far, I think he’s going to have a pretty big year and go to the league.”
Alabama: “Seeing what Brandon Miller did. I look at him, I think I can do stuff just like him. I didn’t see him jumping crazy high and doing anything crazy athletic. I think he was just a solid basketball player. He looks like me. And that system, they get up and down and shoot with ease, defend.”
Cincinnati: “The coaching staff, they reach out a lot and show a lot of love. One of my assistant coaches at school also went there so he just tells me how great of a city it is outside of basketball, so that’s intriguing. Just the coaching staff, they’re moving to the Big 12. Wes Miller, I hear a lot of good things about him, he’s really personable. He came to my school, sat down with me, just talked to me for like three hours straight. It was the first time I ever met him and I felt comfortable. It was a good conversation.”
Oklahoma State: “I just recently got an offer from Oklahoma State, so I’m going to see how that relationship goes.”
Betsey says he’ll choose a school based on how he’s “connected to the staff, mainly the head coach because that’s who you’re playing for but you also gotta connect to the assistant coaches. And also other people around the program, like the athletic trainer, the strength coach, the academic advisor, just everybody around the school because you’re also going to be a student, too. You’re not going to be playing basketball [all the time] so you gotta be comfortable on both sides.”
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