Deng Gak and Matt Turner, the two most highly recruited Class of 2017 players at prestigious Blair (N.J.) Academy, have cut their lists and are planning to take visits.
The 6-foot-10 Gak, who runs with the PSA Cardinals, is down to five schools in Miami, Duke, Indiana, Florida and Kansas and will visit all of them, Blair coach Joe Mantegna told SNY.tv. No dates are set up.
“Deng is a late comer to the recruiting scene arriving in New Jersey as a junior,” Mantegna said. “He hasn’t even scratched the surface of what he will be as he transitions to a totally different culture and a very different style of basketball than he was used to previous. He has very little feel for the differences between these schools growing up in Australia, so the official visits will be a huge part of the process.”
Gak is close with current Lakers and former Duke wing Luol Deng. Deng attended Blair and both Deng and Gak are of Dinka descent. Duke offered Gak last April. The Blue Devils have also offered PSA Cardinals 7-footer Mohamed Bamba and 6-foot point guard Quade Green.
“Coach [Jeff] Capel’s been talking to me a lot, too, now, and coach [Jon] Scheyer,” Deng said in June.
“They say they’re offer to me has nothing to do with Luol Deng,” Gak added. “They offered me purely because they think I would fit their system. They just try to stress to me that it wasn’t because of [Deng].”
Duke remains in the mix for a slew of bigs in 2017, most notably Bamba and Wendell Carter Jr.
Miami is also strongly in the mix.
“Miami definitely is [recruiting me hard],” he said in June. “I was watching them play a lot last year and they had a really good year. I think that’s why I started liking them, just the way they play. When they beat Duke that was a really big game.
As for Kansas: “Bill Self is one of the best coaches in college basketball. He always has his squad in contention for a national title. I also like the huge development that their players make in their individual games, e.g. Joel Embiid. Kansas is also really close to where the majority of my family lives (Kansas City, around that area)”
Indiana and Florida are also in the mix for Gak.
The 6-foot-4, 180-pound Turner, a transfer from Trumbull (CT) High School,is considering six schools — St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, St. Joe’s, George Washington and Santa Clara.
Mantegna said Turner will visit St. Louis the first weekend of October.
“Matt has patiently and thoughtfully progressed through the recruiting process – the same way he has continued to grow his game as a player,” Mantegna said. “The two new Pitt and VA Tech offers have certainly added a bit of chaos to what was a pretty organized process before that happened.”
He added: “I have no idea where either guy is leaning at this point, as these staffs have all done a great job and it will certainly be a difficult choice for both of these guys. That said, I am not sure there is a bad decision to be made in the whole group.”
FREE THROWS
Class of 2017 point guard Makai Ashton-Langford visits UConn officially this weekend. He is down to UConn and Providence after enjoying a huge summer with Mass Rivals…Marcus Littles, a 6-9 Class of 2018 center from Team Final and Neumann Goretti, will visit Seton Hall today (Tuesday)….La Salle and UMass are the latest to offer 6-6 wing Alan Griffin of Archbishop Stepinac.
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