Garrett Tucker:
Future150 Southeast Analyst. Covering high school basketball across the Southeast.
Moss Point, MS (Future150) -- Mississippi isn’t necessarily known for its basketball talent in the state, but college coaches are constantly passing through to catch 2014 Moss Point (Miss.) shooting guard Devin Booker.
From the east coast and the west coast, from north to south, schools from all over the country are in hot pursuit of the sharpshooter.
“Duke, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Alabama, LSU, Stanford, and Tennessee are some of the schools recruiting me,” Booker told Future150.com. “Everyone has offered except Duke and North Carolina.”
At some point this season, each of the aforementioned schools has come down to Mississippi to watch the junior. Duke and North Carolina are the latest to show interest.
“Duke came last Tuesday to my game and North Carolina came to a practice. Both of those schools are rather new right now.”
Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has made the long trip from the north to visit with Booker, as well as Michigan and LSU bringing their entire staffs to watch the 6-foot-4 shooter. However, everyone is on even ground at this point.
“I’m going with the flow right now. Everyone has an equal chance. I’ll sit down with my family and cut it down to ten schools and then to five in the future. Something like that.”
This season hasn’t necessarily been easy for the four-star junior; not only is his team young, but he also has had to deal with being the prime target for double-teams and box-and-ones.
“The season started out really slow. We’re a young team, but we have started to come around at the right time. I have been dealing with junk defenses since the end of last year, so I’ve just learned to deal with them and play through it.”
With his season now concluded, Booker will look to take some visits. He has had a planned trip to Gainesville for awhile now, but he just added some new dates.
“I already have plans to take a visit to Florida March 2nd."
Booker will also visit North Carolina February 23rd and Duke February 24th.
Booker is arguably the best shooter in his class, so that brings up the question: where did he learn to shoot so well from?
Melvin Booker, Devin’s dad and an assistant coach at Moss Point High School, played basketball at Missouri and then moved on to play overseas for several years. Nevertheless, the younger Booker says he got his shooting touch a different way.
“I always paid a lot of attention to NBA games when I was younger and how the players would shoot. I mimicked the players I saw. Not necessarily a couple of players, but I just tried to take things from different players.”
Fast-forward to present day and Booker is known for his shooting ability. A scout who watched the talented star play recently told me that Booker was the best shooter he had seen in five years. That is high praise considering the shooters we have seen recently.
While Booker didn’t watch any player in particular when he was younger, he now compares himself to a player that is doing some big things on the court.
“I’d say I play like Seth Curry. I can play as a combo guard and shoot it.”
With that being said, if Duke continues to pursue Booker, they may hold a nice chance to land him. He could be the next great shooter to roll through Cameron Indoor.
Booker is a four-star and comes in at No. 27 in the 2014 Future150 rankings.
Comments:
Be the first to post. Just use the form below.