Bryant Crawford, one of the top point guards in the Class of 2015, visited Louisville this week and is definitely considering the Cardinals as a future destination after picking up a scholarship offer.
“It was nice, I enjoyed it,” the 6-foot-2 point guard from Washington, D.C., Gonzaga and Team Takeover told SNY.tv by phone.
Crawford met with head man Rick Pitino and his staff.
“[They said] if I came there based on whatever happened next year or who leaves next year, I could possibly play as a freshman,” Crawford said. “I should be prepared to play if I did come to Louisville.”
Crawford was supposed to visit Maryland Tuesday, “but I had family in town so I couldn’t make it. I think Coach [Mark] Turgeon was setting up another date. [Gonzaga] Coach [Steve] Turner hasn’t gotten back and told me anything yet.”
Maryland is an appealing local option.
“They’re close by. They just got a bunch of shooters and bunch of guards,” he said. “And a lot of their players has left, so that’s definitely opens up time for minutes.”
Crawford also tripped last Wednesday to Villanova.
“It was fun,” he said. “[I like] their system, coaching staff, Coach [Jay] Wright. Coach Ash [Howard] is real cool. The players treat each other like family.”
Villanova has several DMV area players on its roster, including Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins and Phil Booth, and Crawford is familiar with all of them.
“I saw Kris, Josh and Phil down there,” he said.
Crawford said Georgetown, Villanova, Indiana, Louisville and Maryland are recruiting him the hardest, but he’s also been hearing from other schools of late, including N.C. State, Ohio State and Wake Forest.
“Hopefully, I get on campus soon,” he said of the last three.
Indiana is in the mix even after former Team Takeover coach Kenny Johnson left for Louisville. He may still visit Indiana.
“I just actually talked to Coach [Tom] Crean about that the other day so hopefully, yeah,” he said, but no visit is planned.
Georgetown is also an attractive local option.
“It’s home,” he said. “And they just got a lot of good commits from my class, so we could definitely build a strong team down there. Strong class. JT3 is a winning coach, stuff like that.”
Crawford is impressed with Georgetown’s 2015 haul of forwards and bigs in Jessie Govan, Marcus Derrickson and Noah Dickerson, as well as Paul White and Isaac Copeland in 2014.
“I definitely would love to play with those guys,” he said. “I played with Marcus with Takeover. He can knock down the outside shot, he can rebound and play around the rim. And I played with Jessie out at USA. He’s definitely a very skilled big man, can knock down his shot, too.
“And I saw Paul White play out in this tournament out in Chicago. He’s definitely also a good piece to that puzzle, along with [freshman guard] Tre [Campbell] that I played with Takeover and with the WAAC.”
Crawford plans to cut his list “soon” and will play this summer at the NBA Top 100 Camp, the Kyrie Irving and LeBron James Academies and Peach Jam.
