James Blackmon Jr. will visit Indiana after Kentucky and hopes to decide by the early signing period.Jeff Rabjohns reported that Indiana coach Tom Crean saw Blackmon Jr. on Monday and that the the 6-foot-4 shooter from Marion (IN) High School will visit Indiana after the Oct. 18 visit to Kentucky for “Big Blue Madness.”
“I really don’t have a timetable in mind [for deciding] but it should be before the November signing period, but I’ll probably commit before then,” he told SNY.tv by phone from the recent USA Basketball camp in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I really don’t have a date set up, I’ll probably know that in the next week or so.”
Blackmon Jr. decommitted from Indiana in August, but is still considering Indiana, along with Michigan, Michigan State, Kentucky and Kansas. He has only visited Michigan officially so far since the decommitment.
Blackmon’s father, James Sr., went to Kentucky and they remain a strong contender for his services, especially since they need a shooting guard in 2014.
“I like that it’s one of the biggest places in college basketball,” he said. “Coach [John] Calipari gets players better and where they need to go, where they want to be, so that’s always appealing.”
He added of Calipari: “He said he can prepare me for the NBA and that if I come in there and work hard and do what I’m supposed to do, I’ll be looking in the Green Room. But he also says that it’s going to be real tough and going to Kentucky is probably one of the hardest things I will do.”
Having missed out on Kelly Oubre (Kansas), Kentucky is also recruiting Stanley Johnson and Devin Booker on the wing, and is looking for their first commit there to complement Tyler Ulis at the point and Karl Towns Jr. down low.
“That’s something that I looked at, but he also said I can play the one and two so that’s really what I want to do in college,” he said. “I’ll probably transition over to the one a lot. That’s something I want to do because my ball-handling is there. I just want to keep working on my point guard skills.”
Despite the decommitment, IU is still in play.
“A lot of people think just because I decommitted from there, I’m not looking at them,” he said. “But they’re still one of my top five and if it’s the right fit for me I’ll definitely go back because I love that place. I’m from Indiana so that’s always a plus.”
Photo: USA Basketball
