The recruitment of Austin Rivers, currently the newly #1 rated prospect in the 2011 HS Recruiting Class by Rivals, has been a bit confusing. After initially giving a verbal commit to play for Billy Donovan at the University of Florida early in his HS career, Rivers has officially re-opened his recruitment this April, leading up to his senior campaign at Winter Park HS in Orlando, Florida this Fall.
As his game has grown and developed from a rising sophomore to now a Top 3 prospect by all scouting sources, a number of top tier schools have been clamoring for the player known for his sweet feathery jumper and nearly un-unguard-able step-back move for the ‘11-’12 season. The list of potential suitors reads like NCAA heavyweights – Florida, Kansas, Duke, and North Carolina.
While Austin, regarding his recruitment, has kept things quiet up to this point, he keeps his fans in the know-how by informing people of his every move via Twitter. In fact, he recently sent out a tweet which may have given his thousands of fans and prognosticators alike a hint as to where he will be playing his college ball:
While it’s not an official commitment, Duke has to now at least be considered Austin’s favorite. After all, once prospects get on campus, especially during Midnight Madness, 9 out of 10 players usually chose that school to commit to. So even if it is not official, it’s a big coop for Coach K and the Blue Devils staff and players just to have Rivers chose their school for the official kick-off event of the ’10-’11 NCAA season.
In a bit of bad news for Billy Donovan and Gator fans, Rivers recently made another announcement that hands-down, he will not be playing at the University of Florida, further narrowing his list to 3 schools. But don’t feel bad for the Gators as they quickly hit the recruiting trail and picked up a commit from the #2 ranked shooting guard in the class(and #7 overall) in the form of the sharp-shooting Bradley Beal. Nice fallback option Billy!
If the 6‘3, and 175 lb Rivers does indeed commit to Duke, maybe that would entice one of this year’s top incoming NCAA freshmen Kyrie Irving to stick around Cameron Indoor for a 2nd season for a chance to pair with Rivers, giving the Blue Devils arguably the best back-court in the nation. Of course, heading to UNC to possibly play alongside Harrison Barnes, Kendall Marshall, and/or James MacAdoo in another season has to be enticing as well. I guess we’ll have to stay posted to Austin’s Twitter account to get the latest scoop.
Check out Austin’s 2010 Summer highlight reel, showing off his amazing skill-set:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
