NEW YORK — Moments after his team lost to the Knicks, 104-101, at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night, Celtics coach Doc Rivers talked to me about the recruitment of his son, Austin.
The 6-foot-3, 175-pound Rivers is the No. 2 shooting guard in the nation and a junior at Winter Park (Fla.).
After initially committing to Florida, Rivers opted to visit Duke and is now considering North Carolina as well.
“Florida is still the front-runner and Duke, it’s those two. He’s just looking around. I think he wants to really look at other schools to get a bearing on what he likes and I like what he’s doing,” Doc said.
Asked when Austin might visit Carolina, Doc said his son wasn’t sure.
“He doesn’t know when or when he’s gonna make a decision now, where early on he wanted to do it before the summer ended,” Doc said. ” I think the new thing with a lot of these guys is they’re going to wait late now.”
Several elite seniors have yet to announce their choices, including guards Brandon Knight, Josh Selby, Doron Lamb and Cory Joseph. Lamb and Selby are due to announce April 17 at the Jordan Brand Classic here in the Big Apple.
Duke won its fourth NCAA championship Monday night with a 61-59 victory over Butler in Indianapolis.
Could that have an impact on Rivers’ decision-making process?
“It has to impact him, but I don’t know if that will make a decision,” Doc said. “But it’s an impressive program.”
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
