By MIKE GRIMALA
LAS VEGAS — It’s been a busy summer for Troy Brown Jr., as the 6-foot-6 guard has shuttled across the country on the EYBL circuit while also finding time to try out for the USA Basketball Under-17 team (he made the cut). So it’s only natural that he’s relishing the benefits of playing in the NY2LA Summer Showdown, which is being held in his hometown of Las Vegas.
“I sleep in my own bed and I just drive over here,” Brown said with a laugh after playing in front of coaches from Oregon, Cal, Utah, Gonzaga, Texas, UNLV and many more on Wednesday. “I like to do good all the time, but especially having friends and family here, I wanted to prove a point.”
Brown won’t get to relax for long, however. As one of the most coveted backcourt prospects in the Class of 2017, he’ll soon have some big recruiting decisions to make. For now, Brown plans to narrow his choices down sometime within the next month.
“Right now I’m getting close to cutting down my list in a couple weeks,” he said. “When it comes to deciding, I feel like I need to take my visits and figure out where I’m going to go and just get on campus and talk to the coaches about what position I’m going to play and what they see for my future.”
Brown has offers from schools such as Duke, Cal, Kansas, Arizona, Oregon, Stanford, UNLV and UCLA, and when it comes time to trim his list, he’s going to put a lot of stock in personal relationships.
“I would say building a one-on-one connection with the coach [is most important],” he said. “That’s huge for me, especially if I am going to play that point guard position. I need to know how he feels about everything and what he wants me to do.”
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