Top national recruit No. 1 on Dogs’ list
September 10, 2009 by NICK PARKER
Filed under Sports
At 6-foot-7, with the ball-handling, court vision, and passing ability of a point guard, Wheeler High School’s Jelan Kendrick, the No. 15 ranked player in the senior class according to scout.com, possesses a rare combination of size and skill, allowing him to play any position from point guard to power forward and making him one of the most heavily sought after players in the country.
With that tremendous versatility also comes a host of suitors as he claims to be “still wide open” to the 25 or so schools vying for his commitment. Although Kendrick refuses to list schools for fear of forgetting someone, he says his list is actually expanding rather than decreasing as more and more schools begin to recruit him, with the most recent being a trio of Pac-10 schools – UCLA, Southern Cal, and Arizona State.
One school definitely on Kendrick’s list is the home-state Bulldogs, and Kendrick says Georgia Head Coach Mark Fox tells him he is “No. 1 on Georgia’s list.”
“I think Georgia is a good program. I think Coach Fox is going to do a great job there with my close friend Howard Thompkins. I think he’s going to have a terrific season,” Kendrick said. “I have nothing bad to say about Georgia. I think they’re a wonderful program, and hopefully I will get to go down there to Athens soon to visit because that’s what we’re working on now.”
However, if Kendrick, who many compare to Penny Hardaway, is to ultimately sign with the Dogs, he would like to see his relationship with the coaching staff improve.
“Well, me and the coaching staff haven’t been able to develop a close, close relationship like I think that we should have.” Kendrick said.
“But with the little knowledge I do know about them, it has been good talking to them and whatnot. I do know one of the [assistant coaches] that came from Virginia Tech because we had a personal relationship when he was up there, so we keep in touch. But with the little I know about the staff, I believe they’re good people.”
When asked why he believes the relationship between him and the coaching staff hasn’t progressed like he thinks it should have, Kendrick said, “I’m not sure, you’d probably have to ask them.”
Despite not knowing Fox and his staff as well as other schools’ staff, Kendrick believes pairing him up with Thompkins at Georgia could result in big things for Bulldog basketball.
“I’m really hoping that [Thompkins] has a great season and goes on to the NBA,” Kendrick said. “Then if he doesn’t, and I decide to go to UGA, then I believe we could make anything happen with his size and his work ethic and my size and my work ethic. I believe we could make a run for the Final Four or even the championship.”
Wherever Kendrick decides to play his college basketball, they will have to “help [him] become a great athlete and prepare [him] for the real world from an education sense and a business sense, and [he wants] to go to school in a city or town that supports their college team to the fullest.”
Kendrick doesn’t seem to be in a rush to make that decision, though, saying that he has no visits currently scheduled and doesn’t know when he will narrow down his choices or make a commitment.
However, he said he and his father plan to sit down soon and map out where they would like to visit because he knows that a school is going to strike him as a good fit, and his decision could come in the fall or spring, depending on when it feels right.
