By JOHN PAVIA
Special to ZAGSBLOG
NEW YORK – The road back from a serious knee injury has been a long one for Harry Giles, but lately he has shown signs of returning to the form that had him rated as the No. 1 player in the Class of 2016 by some media outlets like 247 Sports.
Giles, a 6-foot-10 forward who plays at Wesleyan Christian Academy (N.C.), finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds on Saturday for Team Freedom in the Under Armour Elite 24 game in Brooklyn. He shot an efficient 8-for-16 from the field and also grabbed seven offensive rebounds.
Giles tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus while playing for the USA Under-16 team last summer and missed his sophomore season of high school basketball. He finally returned to the court this May after 11 months of rehab and recovery. Giles has shown some signs of rust which is natural when returning from an injury of that nature, but in similar fashion to his performance in New York on Saturday, Giles has begun to display the kinds of performances that have the bluebloods of college basketball very interesting in gaining a player of his ilk.
“It’s been good,” Giles told SNY.tv when asked how his recovery was going. “I’ve just been going hard rehabbing and getting better every day.”
Giles also listed Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas, Ohio State, UNLV and Texas as the schools recruiting him the hardest right now. He does not have any visits planned right now, but said, “I’ll probably take some during next season or a little before that.”
He also touched upon possibly teaming up with two of the players also at the Elite 24 game in college.
“Jayson Tatum and I talk about that all the time,” Giles said. “I talk to Dennis Smith, too. We all talk about it all the time, but nothing is set in stone.”
It should come as no surprise that the three players have plenty of the same schools recruiting them and any possible duo or trio would be a huge get for any school.
