texags.com
The Class of 2012 offers many talented wings and guards and the Blue Devils are interested in a number of them. However, as the players look to begin the junior years, some have received more attention than others. One player who is starting to garner more interest from the reigning national champions is combo guard Rasheed Sulaimon from Houston’s Strake Jesuit school. On his high schoolsquad, Rasheed plays the point guard position as he’s the team’s best ball handler. However, when he’s playing with his AAU team Houston Hoops he is able to comfortably slide over to the shooting guard slot without missing a beat. On a team like Houston Hoops, which boasts both LJ Rose and J-Mychal Reese in Rasheed’s class at PG, somebody had to move over in order for all that talent to get on the court.
Growing an inch over the summer to get to 6’4″, Rasheed is able to defend taller guys at the 2-guard slot, but still has the ball-handling ability and court vision to facilitate his teammates. When faced with the choice between being a passing guard and a scoring guard, there is no hesitation, “I’m not going to lie, I like putting the ball in the basket.” One game in high school stands out in particular. “I scored 45 points in this one game. My team had 54. I was just in a zone. I made it to the free throw line 25 times (he went 21-25) and my teammates were just feeding me the ball.”
His success doesn’t just come on the court, “I have a 3.7 GPA. My parents are real strict on me about my grades and education. That will be important when I make a college decision, but I think all of the schools I’m looking at have something valuable to offer in the classroom.”
Texas schools are notorious for doing their best to keep their talent in state. Thus, the three schools he’s hearing from the most are Texas, Baylor, and Texas A&M. “We are in constant communication everyday via email, phone calls, or on Facebook.” Getting all that attention would seem to be a burden, but many youngsters including Sulaimon appreciate it, “It shows that they are really, truly interested in me. Sometimes it can get to be too much, but if it does, I’ll just take my time getting back to them.”
With all of that attention, the talented youngster has developed a relationship with many of the coaches he talks to. He talks to Duke assistant coach Nate James often, “Nate, he’s my man. He’s a really cool guy,” Rasheed says laughing. As we reported earlier this weekend, the Houston native accepted James’ invitation to attend Duke’s version of Midnight Madness, Countdown to Crazieness. Besides that trip, Rasheed is confirmed to visit Texas on September 11th for the football game against Wyoming and will possibly visit Baylor and Texas A&M as well.
During the busy summer travel season, players will often talk about playing with each other at the next level. Rasheed got to know another Duke recruit at the iHoops event in Phoenix, Arizona this summer in Shabazz Muhammad. “We talk about playing together when we go to college. He says that he would move over to the 3-spot so we could play on the same team.”
Any school would be lucky to have two talented scorers like Rasheed and Shabazz in the same class. In their latest rankings, Rivals.com has Muhammad at #3 and Sulaimon at #21. The sky is the limit for these two versatile talents, with both able to play multiple positions on the court.
