Words. Jason Jordan

Jefferson (Portland, Ore.) forward Terrence Jones isn’t just holding out on picking a college because he doesn’t know where he wants to go. That’s only part of it. The other reason is because he wants his teammates to get the exposure they’ll need to land scholarships.

“It’s only right,” said Jones, ranked No. 31 in the HSH national top 50. “Coaches may like what they see while they’re coming to look at me. We all help each other out like that.” MORE >

Words. Jason Jordan

Will they sign during the Early Signing Period (which runs through Nov. 18) or keep us in suspense another five months and sign in the spring? Here’s a look at the top five unsigned seniors and what they will likely do.

1. Harrison Barnes (Ames High, Iowa), 6-6, SF We can all recite the schools on Barnes’ list by now — North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Iowa State, UCLA and Oklahoma — but come Friday we won’t have to. Barnes, HighSchoolHoop’s top prospect, will announce his decision live on ESPNU at 4 p.m. EST. “Everybody’s making a big deal about me announcing on Friday the 13th,” said Barnes. “It’s crazy to me… I don’t get into all of that spooky stuff.” MORE >

Words. Harrison Barnes

While navigating through the hectic recruiting process, HighSchoolHoop’s top-rated player, Ames High (IA) swingman Harrison Barnes, agreed to chronicle his thoughts for us during each of his five official visits. First was North Carolina, followed by Oklahoma, Kansas and Duke. Now Barnes reflects on his last official visit to UCLA last weekend…

First, I would like to say that the UCLA trip was outstanding! When I visited there unofficially this summer, I got a chance to tour the athletic facilities, meet with academic advisors and attend a class, so we didn’t focus on that for this trip. MORE >

Words. Harrison Barnes

As he navigates through the hectic recruiting process, HighSchoolHoop’s top-rated player, Ames High (IA) swingman Harrison Barnes has agreed to chronicle his thoughts for us during each of his five official visits. First was North Carolina; now Barnes shares his experiences from his official visit to Oklahoma the weekend of Oct. 3…

I thought that, overall, the visit went extremely well. When we first got there it was really late because our flights got delayed. My family and I, Doron Lamb and Coach (Jeff) Capel and his staff all flew in to Oklahoma City. We got in at about midnight and we didn’t get situated and get to sleep in Norman, Okla., until about 2 a.m. MORE >

Words. Jason Jordan

Ames High (IA) star Harrison Barnes, HighSchoolHoop’s top-rated player, confirmed to us that he has trimmed his list of schools from 12 to just six.

Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, UCLA and Iowa State all made the cut, while Florida, Stanford, Minnesota, Kentucky, Southern Cal and TCU all got the boot. MORE >

Words. dimemag

The Class of 2011’s Rakeem Christmas has had a long summer of outstanding performances at some of the most coveted basketball events. With the AAU basketball season drawing to a close, one of the nation’s best defensive players has garnered attention participating in the NBA Players Top 100 Camp, as well as the Amar’e Stoudemire and LeBron James Skill Academies. Before wrapping up his summer events next week at the Boost Mobile Elite 24 game at Rucker Park, the rising junior and his family decided on the schools he plans on looking closely at for options of attendance in 2011. MORE >