In the midst of some of the top high school basketball all-star games going on right now, another took place Friday night inside historic Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, as the 2012 Derby Festival Basketball Classic hosted some of the premier basketball talents across the country.
Amile Jefferson, a 6’8 F out of Friend’s Central (Pa.), scored 26 points and grabbed 5 rebounds for the black team and took home the Most Valuable Player honors, but it wasn’t enough as the white team earned a 130-127 victory behind the efforts from Louisville signee Terry Rozier’s 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“While I’m happy about that, I think I missed a couple of chip shots that I usually can make. I know I can play better than that,” Jefferson said after his 26 point showing. “But in the end, I’m happy with the performance. I came out and got some good buckets. I definitely took away from this game that I have to get stronger. I’m really looking forward to college and improving my game and I think by September, I’m going to be a totally different player and have a totally different body,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson entered Friday’s Derby Classic as the only undecided player on the roster. The 2012 Gatorade Player of the Year in Pennsylvania and McDonald’s All-American led Friend’s Central to it’s fourth straight Pennsylvania Independent Schools State championship while averaging 19.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in his senior season.
“It’s a great time to be in this city, with Louisville going to the final four, Kentucky winning it all, as well as the Derby coming up, I’m really happy to have been here and the atmosphere was wonderful,” Jefferson said on his experience at the Derby Classic. “It was amazing and I’ll never forget this. It’s a premier event and I would recommend to any player to come play in the Derby Classic.”
Jefferson said that he has yet to set a date to announce his college destination. Among Duke, Jefferson lists North Carolina State, Kentucky, Ohio State, and Villanova as his final five schools.
As Jefferson still goes through the recruiting process, the NBA decisions of Duke’s Mason Plumlee, North Carolina State’s CJ Leslie, and the Kentucky underclassmen are playing a huge part in his decision and has been the main reason why he has carried his recruitment on longer. New NCAA guidelines require underclassmen to make their decisions quicker than ever. The NBA’s early entry deadline is April 29, but the NCAA requires players who haven’t hired an agent to declare by April 10 that they are not entering the draft.
Duke and North Carolina State have been assumed to be in the “drivers seat” for the services of Jefferson for months now. Jefferson would fit in very well at Duke as the coaching staff would use him in their successful stretch 4 position, a la; Ryan Kelly, Kyle Singler, Luol Deng, Mike Dunleavy, and Shane Battier. Duke has kept Jefferson on their radar since his sophomore year and has been aggressively pursuing Jefferson for the last few months. “The school (Duke) speaks for itself. Basketball and academic wise, it’s pretty much in a class by itself,” Jefferson said Friday night. “Playing for Coach K would be amazing. He is one of, if not the best college coach that there is in the game.” Duke only has one signed player from the 2012 class in Rasheed Sulaimon.
North Carolina State head coach, Mark Gottfried, has assembled one of the best recruiting classes for next season. Of the three signed players, two were in action Friday night, TJ Warren and Tyler Lewis. Warren scored a game high 27 points going 11-16 from the field, while Lewis finished with 11 points and 6 assists. Lewis and Jefferson were also the Derby Classic’s 2-on-2 tournament champions during Thursday’s Night of the Future Stars.
Fresh off of their 8th national championship, the Kentucky Wildcats seemed to get a significant boost in Jefferson’s recruitment. “I really like UK. Coach Cal has done something remarkable with that program, getting those young guys to play at such a high level so early in their college careers is amazing to me. I just really like the system they run and the things that they do,” Jefferson said. Earlier in the week, Jefferson heard from Kentucky assistant coach, Kenny Payne, and Payne hinted to Jefferson that Kentucky would lose 6 primary players. With Kentucky possibly losing 5 underclassmen from their championship team, the Wildcats could hold all the cards in the recruiting game right now.
By Chad Lykins
@CLykinsBlog
