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NEW YORK — Mohamed Bamba is heading into the last spring and summer of his AAU career and is excited about playing for a loaded PSA Cardinals outfit on the Nike circuit.
“Obviously, you want to be the No. 1 player in the class [of 2017] and you want to be the alpha dog in the class,” the 6-foot-11 junior from Harlem told SNY.tv on Saturday at the PSA Cardinals media day. “But I’m really looking forward more to participating with this team. This might be one of the best [AAU] teams ever.”
Bamba, who plays at The Westtown (Pa.) School, was surrounded in the Frederick Douglas Academy gym by teammates like 2017s Brandon Randolph and Hasahn French and 2019 point guard Cole Anthony, the son of former NBA point guard Greg Anthony.
It’s safe to say college coaches will be all over this team this summer, beginning at the Nike EYBL stop in Brooklyn next month.
“I’m really more looking forward to playing with this team, whether I average 2 points or 20,” said Bamba. “I don’t care, I like playing for this team.”
Ranked the No. 2 player in the Class of 2017 by 247Sports.com, Bamba holds offers from virtually every major program in the nation, including Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke.
He will take an unofficial visit to Harvard sometime between March 24-26.
“I’m going to visit Harvard sometime this week,” Bamba said. “Harvard is really close to home and Harvard obviously has a very strong alumni base. You can go into any job interview and say, ‘I’m a Harvard grad.'”
Harvard-bound point guard Bryce Aiken, Bamba’s AAU teammate, would love to see the big guy come to the Ivy League.
“I’m trying to get him to come to the school,” Aiken told me. “I would love to have him as my teammate in college. Oh my God, that would be a tremendous addition to the team.”
He added “Like Coach [Tommy] Amaker and everyone evolved are trying to evolve the Harvard program and make it not just an academic school but a basketball school, too, and I think he would put us over the top with that.”
Aiken knows Duke and Kentucky and others are involved, though.
“Everyone growing up, that’s the dream school,” Aiken said. “Obviously, you see what Kentucky does with their players, gets them into the NBA so that’s something that’s really a deciding factor. For him to decide what he wants to get out of basketball and life.”
He added: “Wherever he goes, his potential is through the roof. He’s going to be a lottery pick wherever he goes so why not go to Harvard and do it there? Be the first one ever, you know?”
Aiken also said seeing Yale win an NCAA Tournament game against Baylor has inspired him and his future Harvard teammates to follow in the Bulldogs’ footsteps.
“Yeah, most definitely,” Aiken said. “I have confidence in my team next year regardless. I believe we’ll be able to do something similar next year, maybe better. But good luck to Yale, making the Ivy League look better so that helps us. But our goal next year would be to win.”
Meantime, Bamba said he planned to watch the Duke-Yale game on Saturday also.
“I caught the end of that game when they playing against UNCW [Thursday],” he said. “I’m definitely going to watch them today against Yale.”
Bamba is strongly considering the Blue Devils.
“Duke is a great program and they have something that I’m looking into just as much as another school, more of an alumni base,” Bamba said. “I want to have a huge sense of pride that I’m an alum of this university or that university.”
Bamba said he talks frequently with fellow 2017 forward Wendell Carter Jr. of Pace (GA) Academy about playing together — possibly at Duke.
“We’re pretty tight,” he said. “We’re looking at a lot of the same schools together.”
Are they talking about going to school together?
“Yeah, no doubt about it,” he said. “Not as a package but we’re talking about doing things together. We both play the four, but the thing about us going together is there’s no clear ‘You’re the four, you’re the five,’ just switch it up. He can really pass and really score and I can really pass and score.”
He added that they’re not just talking about Duke.
“Everywhere that’s recruiting us together,” he said.
Kentucky coach John Calipari was among those watching Bamba in January at the Hoophall Classic, but he said that’s not a focus for him and Carter.
“No, we haven’t really talked about Kentucky much,’ he said.
Bamba likely won’t take any official visits until August, PSA Cardinals Terrance “Munch” Williams has said.
BRANDON RANDOLPH’S STOCK ON THE RISE
Brandon Randolph, a 6-foot-6 guard from Westtown and the PSA Cardinals, continues to see his stock rise.
The Yonkers, N.Y., native, holds offers from Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Seton Hall, Vanderbilt, VCU, Quinnipiac, Manhattan, George Washington, James Madison and Hofstra, with interest from Kansas, North Carolina, Marquette, Xavier, Maryland, Georgetown, St. Joe’s and Oregon State.
His mother, Robin, told SNY.tv he plans to take unofficials this spring and summer to Xavier, Florida State, Vanderbilt, VCU, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Louisville and others.
“I have to take my SAT and my ACT and after that I’ll take a couple of my visits but I’m not sure where,” Randolph said Saturday.
Randolph said Louisville assistant Kenny Johnson “wants me to visit bad.”
“They’re a great program,” Randolph added. “I know Russ Smith and his family, we’re really close.”
As for the sex scandal at the school, Randolph said, “They’re not really talking to me about that, they just want me to come on a visit. I think they’re going to get over it.”
As for Wake Forest, Randolph said head coach Danny Manning is recruiting him.
“They want me to come visit, too, check out the program,” he said.
Randolph also recently attended games at Seton Hall and St. John’s.
“He’s a high Division 1 player who will play from Day One on the campus he lands on,” Munch Williams said. “Basketball will be a profession for a long time. He’s one of the few big shooting guards in the country at 6-6 and scores the ball from all three levels. Needless to say, he’s a handful.”
