By SAM LANCE
CHICAGO — Class of 2023 four-star combo guard Jamari McDowell will visit Texas A&M starting July 29, he tells ZAGSBLOG.com. McDowell could possibly be visiting Kansas as well starting July 26.
“It’s a maybe because I had canceled it because I had some school work I had to do,” McDowell said. “But the teachers are going to let me later since I’m going around and stuff, going around the country.”
McDowell, the 6-foot-5, 180-pound combo guard from Manvel High School (TX) and the Houston Defenders AAU program, has already visited Wake Forest and Xavier officially in June. He said on his visits he’s looking to see where he fits in with the program.
“If I don’t see myself in that system, it’s just not going to work,” McDowell said. “I have to see stability, too. Like I can’t have coaches bouncing around and stuff. The people I’m with have to be the people I’m with. I’ve been with the Defenders since I was a freshman. Before that I was with my dad’s team forever. So I need stability and it needs to feel like home.”
At this stage of his recruitment, McDowell has several schools involved. He named Wake Forest, Xavier, Colorado, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Kansas, Kansas State, Georgetown, Rutgers and Alabama as schools recruiting him hardest.
The guard broke down some of those schools:
Wake Forest: “Coach [Matt] Woodley and coach [Brooks] Savage right there just pointed at me and said good job or whatever. I know at Wake the people are solid for sure. They care about you and treat you like family.”
Xavier: “Same thing. They both have a small school setting. So it’s less people. The classes are small, it’s kind of like high school, but you still get the college joy.”
Colorado: “I’ve been talking to coach Rick [Ray] since I was like a junior, beginning of junior year. They were one of the first schools on me. I just kind of started talking to coach [Tad] Boyle. He seems like a really good dude. He’s been doing it for a long time and has a lot of experience. Coach Ray, he’s cool. I definitely have a good relationship with him. I’ve talked with him a lot and he’s been to my school multiple times, my games multiple times. So I think they are pretty good, pretty cool people.”
Kansas: “Coach [Jeremy] Case, coach Bill [Self], they all seem like really good people. I don’t even know. They are all just really positive, tell you what’s real.”
Georgetown: “I talked to coach [Patrick] Ewing. He gave me an offer of course. He was like ‘I love your game. I think you’re an amazing player.’ Coach [Pat] Baldwin, he seemed like a real down to earth dude. In my head, I’m 17 man, and I just talked to coach Ewing. Like that’s one of the goats. He wasn’t even worried about that. He was just like, he just want to hoop man. So he seemed like a really cool, down to earth dude.”
McDowell is looking to narrow down his list in August and then commit before the high school season from there.
“I don’t want to be in the high school season still not knowing where I’m going to school,” McDowell said.
As far as his game, McDowell describes himself as a two-way guard who can impact the game in multiple ways. He said some of his strengths are his explosiveness, craftiness and shooting ability. McDowell models his game after Kevin Durant.
“Kevin Durant is the goat,” McDowell said. “He’s better than Michael Jordan and LeBron James, combined. You can tell people Jamari McDowell said that.”
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