HIGH SCHOOL

Major schools courting Thomas Bryant

James Johnson
ROC

Thomas Bryant is now as tall as an NBA forward and has a chance to play with another USA Basketball team.

The former Bishop Kearney forward also has a chance to play with a big-time college basketball program after he leaves high school in West Virginia.

Syracuse University, Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina, are among the dozens of colleges that have offered scholarships, according to Bryant. So have Florida and a school named University of California, Los Angeles, but better known as UCLA, he said.

“I’ve met all of the coaches except (Florida’s) Billy Donovan,” Bryant said Wednesday from the NIKE Peach Jam tournament in South Carolina.

Which school will he choose? This is not the first or nowhere near the last time Bryant, a senior-to-be at Huntington Prep, will be asked that one. Even Bryant’s list of finalists — the schools he plans to visit during official recruiting trips — is a hot topic. Or it will be, soon as Bryant puts one together.

CBSSports.com reported that Bryant plans to visit Syracuse, Ohio State, Kansas and Missouri, which hired Huntington Prep coach Rob Fulford as an assistant coach.

“I haven’t decided yet on the five schools,” Bryant said.

Recruiters are interested because Bryant, who said he is 6-feet-10 inches tall and weighs about 230 pounds, is considered a top 10 prospect in the class of 2015 by some recruiting websites, including ESPN’s. Others have Bryant in the 20s and 30s nationally.

“It’s very exciting,’’ Bryant said. “It’s not that crazy, I don’t let it get to me. I’m just finishing high school basketball and staying on my academics.

“I just tell (people who ask) I’m taking my time. I’m nowhere close to making a decision.’’

Bryant averaged 14.1 points, 13.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots in the 31 games Huntington Prep played last season before the Dick’s Sporting Goods National Tournament. He was voted on to the All-Greater Rochester teams after his freshman and sophomore seasons at Bishop Kearney, and was Most Valuable Player of the 2013 Class AA New York State tournament.

USA Basketball announced Tuesday that Bryant is one of 36 players on the USA Men’s Under-17 World Championship team training camp roster. Bryant, who won a gold medal with USA Basketball last year at the FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship in Urguay, said that he will attend the camp in Colorado Springs.