Prior to starting his senior year in high school, blue-chip basketball recruit David Lee will have …
In short, the 6-foot-9 St. Louis Chaminade High standout will have a handle on the sometimes overwhelming recruiting process.
“Over the years, my son’s AAU team — the St. Louis Eagles — have had kids who have gotten a lot of attention,” Lee’s mother, Susan, said Thursday after returning from Lawrence.
“The head coach of the team got together with us last August and said, ‘This is what’s going to happen. Here’s a way of handling it that might help.’
“To start with, we were told we’d need two real big file boxes for mail and, I said, ‘Yeah right. This is my kid we’re talking about.’ He was right. We’ve gotten mail from universities all over the country.
“All we’ve done is listen to some people who know what they are talking about and have experienced this before. The other thing is David. He’s not going to let it get to him. He doesn’t talk about it a lot or worry about it.”
No big deal. Lee and his mother made the four-hour drive from St. Louis to Lawrence Wednesday for a leisurely day on the KU campus.
“It was a lot of fun. I was pleasantly surprised,” David Lee said.
He’s also visited St. Louis, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Florida with trips to North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky on tap this month.
“I went with Nick Collison, Drew Gooden and Kirk Hinrich to see Allen Fieldhouse and the dorm,” Lee said. “I met with coach (Roy) Williams. The campus is nice. The coaches seem hospitable and players are great. Kansas is a powerhouse school with great tradition.”
So are the most of the schools on his list.
“I’ll visit Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky, go to Nike camp and Peach Jam in July and cut my list to five, then make some official visits,” Lee said. “I’ll have to evaluate everything (before picking the final five).”
Evaluation should be no problem. A brilliant student, Lee has a 3.8 GPA.
“I understand recruiting is a business,” Lee’s mom said. “The coaches at these schools do it year in and year out. But we’ll only do it once. We’re trying to enjoy it.”
Getting a head start on recruiting, David Lee has made a batch of unofficial visits, with some more on tap this month.
Lee, a 6-foot-9, 215-pound high school senior-to-be from St. Louis, Mo., already has visited Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Florida.
Lee and his mother Susan will tour Kansas University’s campus Wednesday.
He and father, Gary, will trek to Duke and North Carolina the following weekend, with a stop at Kentucky likely on tap in late June.
“These schools have expressed an interest in David, so he would like to take a good look at them,” Susan Lee said Monday. “It’s a good time to drive to Kansas and meet with coach (Roy) Williams and his assistants and just take a look around the campus.”
Lee he averaged 24 points per game a year ago while maintaining a 3.8 GPA at Chaminade High likely will make some official visits in September and October and try to sign in November.
“I am wide open right now, but I am considering Missouri, Florida, Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Illinois and a few others. I do not have any leaders at this point,” Lee told Marc Maggard of KentuckyWildcats.net.
“I want to go to a school which combines academics with a great basketball program. Obviously, I am looking for a coach that I can relate to and have a good relationship with and the right group of guys to play with.
“I would probably prefer to play an up-tempo style of game. I am not looking to get into a slow, half court only style of play. I know that a good half court game is needed, but I also want to get up and down some as well,” Lee told Maggard.
Lee impressed at the recent Nike Bluegrass Classic in Louisville. He had a ferocious one-handed slam after getting hacked on an intentional foul call. He also hit a three-pointer for the St. Louis Eagles, forcing overtime.
He also exhibited a nifty spin move a la former KU standout and current Denver Nugget power forward Raef LaFrentz and soft touch on his jumper.
“He is a great all-around player,” recruiting analyst Mike Sullivan of Insider’s Report said of Lee. “He can post up, set picks, work people off screens. I don’t know if he has a weakness. He has a good feel for the game. I saw him play four times last year and have heard he’s improved since then,” added Sullivan, who will assess Lee several times in July.
So far, Lee and his family are handling the recruiting process well. They have been patient with everybody wanting updates on his summer schedule.
“He’s got a lot of pressure on him,” Susan Lee said. “It’s going to be a busy summer. To be gone so much, we don’t like that. We’ll make sure he takes his time to make the best possible decision. It’s his decision to make.”
Lee will attend the Nike camp in July, plus the Nike Peach Jam in Georgia along with some other events.
