The widespread perception may be that Kentucky, UCLA, Duke or even UNLV may end up securing the services of 6-foot-6 senior wing Shabazz Muhammad, but his father says Kansas has a legitimate shot to land his son.
“Kansas has a real shot, definitely,” Ron Holmes told SNY.tv Monday following his son’s official visit there this past weekend. “They did a great job.”
Muhammad and his father visited for the Border War — an 87-86 OT win Saturday over Missouri — and also spent time with fellow 2012 uncommitted players Tony Parker and JaKarr Sampson.
“When you go on these official visits, you might have a perception about a school but you can really see yourself playing there if the official visit goes right and the official visit definitely went right,” Holmes said.
Muhammad is considering Kansas along with Kentucky, Duke, UCLA, Arizona and UNLV.
“We go to Duke next week and do the North Carolina game,” Holmes said of the March 3 game at Cameron Indoor. “Just interested to see how it compares because I was very, very impressed with Kansas.”
As first reported by SNY.tv, Philly Friends Central forward Amile Jefferson will also visit Duke (unofficially) for the Carolina game.
After the Duke visit, Muhammad will play in the McDonald’s All-American Game, Jordan Brand Classic and Hoop Summit before announcing sometime in early April.
Holmes said his son would likely announce his college choice at Bishop Gorman High School, which on Friday won the Nevada 4A state championship behind Muhammad’s 36 points.
“He’ll announce in the early part of April, I guess,” Holmes said.
As for Kansas, Holmes said he was very impressed with the strength and conditioning program run by Andrea Hudy and the academic and career counseling program run by Scott Ward.
“Andrea Hudy was very thorough on how they would help Shabazz become a better athlete, make his movement better, all that kind of stuff, so I was really impressed with that,” Holmes said. “The academic situation is really, really good…Those things are helping your kid go the right away academically, physically with weight training.
“And it’s just a program, man. You look at winning eight Big 12 championships in [Bill Self’s] years. And even if you look at the team this year, it’s not as good as the team last year, so there’s never a dip there.
“The crowd support was very, very good after the game, wherever we went to go eat. Just everybody wearing their Kansas stuff. It’s just a program. I was just very, very impressed.
“I understand why when kids go there, they commit after an official visit because it was second to none in that area.”
Photo: ESPN
