GALLOWAY, N.J. — Derrick Jones, the 6-foot-7 2015 wing from Radnor (Pa.) Archbishop Carroll, will visit Syracuse and Kentucky in the coming weeks.
“I’m going to go visit Syracuse on Aug. 30 on an unoffical visit and I’m going to go visit Kentucky in September,” Jones told SNY.tv at the “Live in AC” event.
Kentucky holds an annual showdown between two of its previous teams in early Sept., and Jones is expected to go for that.
Syracuse has been recruiting Jones for some time, and they hold their Elite Camp Aug. 31. Jones likes their style of play.
“With Syracuse, they’re a bunch of lanky forwards,” Jones said. “They’re all long and kind of thin.”
Syracuse assistant Gerry McNamara watched Jones and We R 1 win the 17U title with a 59-49 win over Expressions Elite. Jones flashed his athleticism by flushing an alley-oop dunk pass from teammate Ben Bentil, and also fed Bentil for his own dunk.
Kentucky coach John Calipari offered Jones after the recent Philadelphia Reebok event.
“They all run the floor and they all get out on the break and just dunk,” Jones said of Kentucky. “They have a nice halfcourt game and they’re just a team that runs fastbreaks and everything like that.”
Jones said he hears from the staffs of both schools fairly often.
“They just asking me when am I going to come down,” he said.
St. John’s also recently offered via assistant Tony Chiles, but Jones said he doesn’t know much about the school.
“I think that [head coach Steve] Lavin’s doing a great job building that program,” We R 1 coach Matt Pauls told SNY.tv. “It’s a local program tha’s a high-major elite program.
“Derrick is very close to his family so they’re going to want to see him play. We keep telling schools that he is wide open. Derrick is wide open.”
Kansas, Maryland, St. Joe’s, Penn State, Temple and Kansas State are among those who have also offered.
“He’s just barely scratching the surface, this kid has gotten so much better,” We R 1 coach Terrell Myers told SNY.tv.
“He can actually do a lot more than people have seen. When I first saw him in seventh grade, he was a point guard. He doesn’t get to show that as much because he’s so athletic and people see the athletic plays and they just see that. They don’t understand how well he passes the ball, he can shoot the ball.
“Once he adds strength and he adds some muscle, he’s just going to take off.”
