Recruiting News: Marquis Teague is taking his time

By Jason Jordan

nothing like free publicity 😛

ATTRIBUTION: http://www.highschoolhoop.com/recruiting-news/2009/11/marquis-teague-is-taking-his-time/

Pike High (Ind.) point guard Marquis Teague had one of the most productive summers of any guard in the country. As he gears up for his high school season, Teague, who checks in at No. 9 in the HSH top 50, is putting the grind of the recruitment process on hold for a while.

We caught up with his father, Shawn Teague, and talked about Marquis’ list of schools and how recent commitments have affected his recruitment.

HighSchoolHoop: What’s up with the recruitment today?
Shawn Teague: Nothing’s really new. What we’re doing now is taking time to get out and see the teams play this year. We want to get a gauge on who’s going to be there and things like that. We’ve kind of shut things down for a little while.

HSH: Is his school list the same?
ST: Yeah, it’s Kentucky, Louisville, Wake Forest, Indiana, Purdue, Cincinnati and Ohio State.

HSH: So you guys are pretty much taking the “don’t call us, we’ll call you” approach right now?
ST: Not exactly. It’s just that some of the schools are trying to get a feel for where we are right now, and we’re basically in the stage where we want to see everybody and follow their progress. So that’s our main focus.

HSH: So you plan on going to see some games?
ST: Yes.

HSH: Do you have any planned?
ST: Not right now. We want to get to all of them at least once. Obviously, we’ll catch them on TV too, but we want to actually go there and see them in person if we can. So we’re going to work on that.

HSH: Now I know that at one point, Marquis was ready to commit to Louisville, so obviously they’re strong with him. How does their signing of point guard Russell Smith (South Kent School, Conn.) in the 2010 class affect Marquis?
ST: We hadn’t really thought much about that at all. I’m not even aware of who it is, but he understands that when he puts things off and waits, schools have to do what they have to do. That’s kind of what we want to see happen. We want to see where everybody falls after everything and we’ll make a decision based on where things are at when we’re ready. If that fit is still good, he has no problem with their being another young point guard there. He’s really competitive and that wouldn’t deter him at all. I wouldn’t expect any program to hold on and wait until the last second. They have to do what’s best for them and we respect that.

HSH: What would you say that Marquis has gotten better at since the summer?
ST: From what I’ve seen, I would say his vision. Just the ability to see plays develop before they happen. That’s gotten a lot better and I’ve really been impressed by that.

Got a burning question for Jason? Email him: [email protected]

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009