NEW YORK — Myles Turner, the lone uncommitted player in the Jordan Brand Classic, will announce his college choice April 30 on ESPNU and is a gametime decision for Friday’s Jordan game with an ankle injury, his father confirmed to SNY.tv.
“I’m not sure if I’ll play yet but hopefully I do,” the 6-foot-11 Turner said Wednesday after watching practice in sweats at Basketball City in Manhattan. “Even if I don’t play its just an honor to be a part of all this.”
Turner remains undecided on college and is targeting a decision April 30.
“I’m definitely looking to announce on TV hopefully,” Turner said. “Definitely towards the end of the month after I get back home after this, I’m going to sit down with my parents and finalize everything.”
He’s now considering Duke, Kansas, Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, SMU and Texas A&M, and said reports that he’s down to three schools aren’t true.
“No, that’s false,” he said. “I saw that yesterday. I didn’t want to tweet anything about it but that’s not true. I still have those schools on my list.”
He added: “I definitely have favorites but I never put it out there who my favorites are.”
Asked if he had already decided in his mind, Turner said, “It’s kind of cloudy. I have ideas here and there where I want to go, but it’s not a straight shot.”
There are four commits each from Duke and Kentucky in the Jordan game, and two from Kansas. All of them are in Turner’s ear to some degree. Turner is on the West team alongside Kansas-bound Cliff Alexander, Duke-bound Justise Winslow, SMU-bound Emmanuel Mudiay , Arizona-bound Stanley Johnson and the Kentucky-bound duo of Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker.
“For the most part they let me be,” Turner said. “They’ll talk to me every now and then. They’ll say little dumb stuff like, ‘Hey, if I make this shot, you gotta come here.’ Stuff like that. But it’s been pretty fun. They just let me be for the most part.”
As we wrote earlier this year, Turner is using the three All-Star Games — McDonald’s, Hoop Summit and Jordan — to familiarize himself with different players he might play with in college.
“Oh, yeah, that was the plan coming into all these all-star festivities, just to be able to see if I can play with them and see how I jell and mesh with them,” Turner said.
Turner said nothing has changed in terms of what will trigger his decision. Texas was the last school he visited. He also took officials to Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Duke
“Just really where I’m feeling the most comfortable,” he said. “That’s really the biggest thing with me.”
Turner has been compared by some scouts to Channing Frye, but he idolized Kevin Durant growing up, and Durant is obviously a Texas product.
“I don’t show favoritism towards that,” he said. “Kevin Durant’s from Maryland and went to Texas and made a career for himself.”
He also broke down each school:
Duke: “I feel like I fit in because Coach K has coached a lot of versatile bigs and that’s kind of what I am at this point. I feel like he’s one of the best coaches in college basketball.”
Kansas: “Kansas, I like the high-low system that Coach Self runs, due to the fact that I can play both the high and the low in that system with Cliffand a couple of other bigs over there. That would be really cool to be a part of.”
SMU: “I really like Coach Larry Brown. I watched them play a lot this year. They get up and down the floor. That’s kind of where my game is, I like to run in transition. And being connected to Coach Brown has a big appeal to it.”
Texas: “It’s in my backyard. Hopefully I can come down there and make an impact like Kevin Durant did. If I were to be able to do that, it would be pretty cool.”
Oklahoma State: “I like the fact that I can come in there and immediately make an impact on their program because they’re losing a lot of people next year and that overall appeal to the Big 12, to go down there and make an impact that would be pretty cool.”
Texas A&M: “Coach Billy Kennedy, they need a big down there. They’ve been recruiting me for a long time. To come down there and do that, that would be a good experience.”
Ohio State: “They need a big as well. They don’t have a true center at this point. Coach [Thad] Matta, I really like him and his whole coaching staff. I”ve talked to them, they’re one of the schools that I’ve talked to the most.”
Photo: AP
