Springfield, Ill., prep guard/forward Andre Iguodala can picture himself playing basketball at Kansas University.
“I saw two practices. They are really intense. They like to run and really move the ball. I think it would be a good fit,” the 6-foot-6, 190-pound Iguodala said Sunday after returning from his official weekend visit to KU.
“It was pretty fun. The best part was hanging out with Drew Gooden and those guys.”
Iguodala was one of 10,100 fans to attend Thursday night’s Philadelphia-Utah NBA exhibition at Allen Fieldhouse.
“The NBA game was OK. Donyell Marshall impressed me the most,” Iguodala said of the 6-foot-9 Jazz forward who scored 19 points in Utah’s 95-70 win. “Stockton (John, eight assists) did OK, but I’m really not a Stockton fan. The game was kind of boring. It’s not like it would be watching a college game.”
Iguodala and his parents attended part of the Missouri-Kansas football game Saturday afternoon before heading home.
They garnered enough information on the trip to make KU a serious contender for Iguodala’s services. The prep who averaged 13.0 points and 7.0 boards last year and Lamphier High has also visited Boston College and Arizona and will complete his campus visits next weekend at Arkansas.
“The main thing is academics,” Linda Shanklin, Andre’s mother said. “We’ve selected some very good schools to look at and so far we see strong academic programs at each of the four schools. Kansas has a good program a good network there for him. These days when kids are jumping up and running to the NBA, if he wanted to come back and get his degree, he could. (KU coach) Roy (Williams) is a good person and we like Kansas.
“It’s all pretty even. We’re trying to keep it that way, just visit each school and make a decision by the signing period (Nov. 14-21). We set it up that he’d look at a school in every region (of the country). It’d give him a good assessment of what is out there.”
No leader has emerged.
“We started with the home visits. We had a set of questions lined up for everybody. All the coaches did a good job,” Shanklin said. “We see four great schools and coaches.”
Kansas has been recruiting Iguodala heavily “since the Nike camp (in July),” Shanklin said. “We’ve had a chance to interact with Roy at his home and with his staff. They have a great staff. It’s going to be a tough decision. He can only pick one school.”
Extremely organized, the family hasn’t been overwhelmed by the recruiting process. “Part of it is because it’s hard to reach us,” Shanklin said. “Andre lives in the gym. If the door is open, he’s in there. And we travel with our jobs a lot.”
Iguodala’s mom is contract administrator for the housing authority in Springfield, while his dad is a private consultant.
Hassan Adams, a 6-4 guard from Los Angeles, still is considering KU, Arizona, Cal-Berkeley and UCLA. Adams has made trips to two of the four schools with his Cal visit next weekend and UCLA the following weekend. Last week, Adams officially eliminated Tennessee, Oregon and Boston College.
“Kansas is still very much in the mix,” Westchester High assistant coach Marlin Morton told Jon Kirby of Alliance Sports. “I think right now you have to look real hard at Arizona or Kansas.”
UCLA recently received a commitment from prep forward Evan Burns, which might hurt the Bruins in their attempt to land Adams. Burns and Adams are similar-type players.
“He told me Kansas is in his top three,” Morton said of Adams, who has relatives in the Kansas City area. “I don’t want to say who is in the top three and who isn’t, but Kansas is there. It will take some time. He wants to take into consideration each school’s basketball program, educational system, and environment.”
Adams will sign with a school during the Nov. 14-21 signing period. KU has filled two of its three scholarships, landing commitments from Jeff Graves, 6-9, from Iowa Western CC and Moulaye Niang, 6-9 of ElCajon, Calif.
