By RYAN FISH
CHICAGO — It didn’t take long for elite point guard prospect Troy Brown Jr. to make a good impression at the ninth annual Nike Global Challenge.
In the tournament’s opening game Thursday morning, Brown led his USA West squad to an 86-79 victory over the Dominican Republic at Whitney Young High School. The Las Vegas native had 13 points and three assists in 26 minutes on the court, all of which were team-highs. Brown was also active on the boards, grabbing seven of his team’s 56 rebounds.
“It’s really fun playing against the best competition in the country,” Brown said after the game. “It’s really fun having the experience to come to Chicago; I’ve never been here. So I’m just taking it all in and trying to enjoy it.”
In terms of his future, the 2017 prospect said he was still keeping his options open and that he would not be cutting down his list of favorite schools until sometime during his junior year.
The 6-foot-6 Brown already holds offers from Duke, UCLA, Arizona, Kansas and UNLV, among others. He took an unofficial to Duke in August.
Brown also said he isn’t leaning toward any particular school at this point, but when asked he discussed a couple of programs that have been linked to him in the past. Brown’s sister Jada plays basketball at Kansas, leading some to think that he may follow in her footsteps.
“Yeah, [Kansas] is one of the possible schools because my sister goes there and all that stuff,” Brown said. “With coach [Kurtis] Townsend, and [head[ coach Bill Self especially, they’re a good program and I really like them.”
Self was on hand to watch the action Thursday, as was Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Seeing them left a good impression on Brown.
“It was a cool moment,” Brown said. “I didn’t get to see [Coach K] much at Peach Jam so for him to come out here, it was really fun playing in front of him. [Duke] is also a good program. Even though my list is open, I would say that they’re high on my list.”
USA West will play again Thursday evening against Canada and against USA Midwest on Friday afternoon before pool play concludes.
