One of the country’s top high school basketball players happens to hail from Kansas.
He’s Dennis Latimore … a 6-foot-9, 235-pound senior-to-be from Halstead High, who led the North to a gold medal at the recent U.S. Olympic Festival in Colorado Springs, Colo.
A second-team all-state pick named to Parade’s All-America team after last season, Latimore averaged 14.8 points and 9.6 rebounds for the victorious North squad.
“I wasn’t trying to prove anything, just trying to compete and help my team win,” said Latimore.
He scored 10 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the North’s 95-90 championship victory over a star-studded West team that included four players considering Kansas University Aaron Miles (21 points), Jamaal Williams (21 points), Jamal Sampson (10 points, 12 rebounds) and Josh Childress (six points).
“A lot of guys were trying to do their own little thing. I was trying to play team basketball.”
Latimore, whose been playing with the Pump all-star team out of Los Angeles at various summertime events, will attend the adidas camp next week in Teaneck, N.J. He’ll also attend an AAU Tourney in Las Vegas during a busy summertime of basketball.
“I’ve been playing every weekend. This week I’m off,” Latimore said Monday. “I like basketball and I like to travel so it’s been fun.”
What he is not sure he’s going to like is the recruiting process.
Latimore says he has narrowed his choices to seven schools. They are: Kansas, Arizona, UCLA, Stanford, Texas, Kentucky and Florida.
He made an unofficial visit to Lawrence to watch last year’s Kansas-Missouri game.
“I’m getting tired of it already,” Latimore said of phone calls regarding recruiting. “I’ll visit five of the schools probably and I hope I can pick one in November.”
Of KU’s chances he said: “As good as anybody else. People say I favor them, but they don’t know.”
One internet site caused a commotion this week indicating Latimore had committed to KU.
“That’s not right,” he said. “I guess some people are confused.”
The fact he has a tattoo that says “Kansas,” means nothing, he indicated.
“It means the state is my home. It has nothing to do with a school,” said Latimore, who played high school ball in Mesa, Ariz., while living with his father his sophomore year of high school, returning to Halstead his junior year. “I’ve got it down to seven or so now. A few teams may drop off by August.”
He’s hoping for a big senior season. Halstead went 11-10 last year. Latimore faced a lot of double teams.
“If that happens, I’ll work on my assists,” he joked. “I think we’ll do well this year.”
