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The Jaylen Brown Blog: No. 2 ranked senior talks UNC visit, SAT, HS season and more

After a stellar junior season, in which he led Wheeler (Marietta, Ga.) to a runner-up finish in the state tournament averaging 20 points and five assists a game, Jaylen Brown began one of the most dominant AAU campaigns of the summer leading Game Elite (Ga.) with 26.1 points and 8.6 rebounds a game. His stellar play has college basketball heavyweights like Kansas, UCLA and Kentucky, among many others, in hot pursuit. Brown, who is ranked No. 2 overall in the ESPN 100, has agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to everyday life in a blog. 

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What’s up everybody this is JB and I’m back at it again with my blog.

I haven’t seen you guys in a minute so we’ve got a lot to cover.

It’s been a good senior season so far. I’ve been playing with the same guys that I played with in AAU and most of us grew up together so to be able to finish out my high school career with friends is a blessing and I’m very appreciative of that.

The way we play is a little different than other teams.

We don’t have high major players besides myself, we don’t have big names; we just have a bunch of guys that play the game the right way.

We play with a chip on our shoulder because we know that we don’t pass people’s eye test.

We went down to the City of Palms and won it all. We had the toughest road to do it too. We had to beat Harry Giles and the No. 2 team in the country then Ben Simmons and the No. 1 team in the country, Malik Monk and V.J King but we did it. I was really proud of the way we played. People said it was a fluke but that’s because they don’t know how hard we go.

We ended up losing a game after that in Oregon and I give that team a lot of credit because they came out and played hard and got it done. This isn’t an excuse but we had two players out sick and we definitely didn’t play to our potential. We can’t get it back, but you’ve just gotta move on and win the next one. We learned how to play in a hostile environment and that’s only gonna help us going forward because people hate us here in Georgia too.

Everyone wants to see the winners fall, but we’re not planning on that.

To us, we never even lost that game. You can call us crazy, but that’s our mindset.

Our first game back in Georgia we played Milton and beat them by 48 points and they’re supposed to be one of the top teams in Georgia but we destroyed them. I was proud to see that because it showed me how we’d respond to losing.

We’ve got guys on our team that deserve notoriety and deserve to have their names start picking up some buzz like Cam Jordan, Shembari Phillip, Kenny Aninye and Darius Perry; they’re all guys who can really play and can really produce. I think they’re really underrated. Somebody better check in to these guys because they’re stars!

We’ve got a tournament coming up in Springfield, Massachusetts next and we’re really excited about that!

I love traveling with my team; we have a ball just hanging out at the hotel and in our downtime just joking and having fun.

I love playing in front of people that have never seen me play before but have heard the hype and are expecting to see something. I like to prove that it’s not hype at all; I like to show them that this is what I do.

I had my visit to UNC last weekend and I had a great time!

Marcus Paige hit a crazy finger roll off the backboard over three people at the buzzer to beat Louisville and just to be a part of that environment with those fans was special to me. You should’ve been in that locker room after the game! It was just really genuine and hype.

Coach Roy told me he knew they were gonna win the whole time. I said, “Are you sure?” He said, “Yep, I’m sure!”

I had a great visit! I would give it a 10 out of 10.

I met with Coach Roy a bunch of times, the academic advisor, ate at coach’s house, hung out with the players at their dorms and all that. I had a ball!

They definitely know how to treat you at North Carolina.

Next I’m gonna take a visit to Michigan on the 24th. I’ve got a lot of family up there and so it’s gonna be a little reunion while I’m there. A lot of them went to Michigan and Michigan State so I’m really excited to see the campus and see my people.

That’ll be my fifth official visit and I’ll take an unofficial visit to Georgia on the 17th for a game.

After the season, I’ll know when I’ll want to make my decision. I set that as a goal for myself; I’m not saying I’ll know where but, I feel like I’ll know when I’ll want to have a decision by.

It’s funny just talking to all of the different coaches and how we have relatable conversations that aren’t about basketball. Like Coach Cal talked about his relationship with Drake, which was cool because I’m a fan of his. Some coaches even ask about girls, music or anything that might be going on with us. Coach Duane at UCLA actually surfs. That’s funny because that’s not really a typical sport for an African American male, so I thought it was cool to hear about him riding the waves.

I also got great news from USA Basketball; I made the Hoop Summit team! That’s a big time achievement for me. I had a list of things from when I was a kid that I wanted to do when I was in basketball and I’ve done pretty much everything on that list. I mean I had everything up there; even that I wanted to have a HoopMixTape! Haha!

Sometimes it’s cool to sit back and reflect on where you started and where you’re at now. I do that just to make sure I’m pushing forward with everything.

I’m going strong in school too y’all!

Last semester I had a 3.1 GPA and I recently got my SAT scores and they were really good!

I want to get better grades this semester so I’ll keep y’all posted.

In my Lit class I’m working on my senior project! It’s a semester long project and there are lots of things we have to do for it. I’m thinking about doing mine on sports marketing.

And I think everyone should be listening to that new J. Cole. That’s the only thing that you need to be listening to be honest. It’s definitely fire!

I would definitely stay it’s a five mic album. That stuff he’s talking about is better for younger ears to me because he’s not rapping about selling drugs or anything like that. It’s just everyday situations that we can relate to. Check it out!

OK guys this is JB, I’m checking out but I’ll see you in my next blog!

Don’t forget to follow Jaylen Brown on Twitter: @FCHWPO

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