Brown narrows list to seven schools

Jabari Brown has had a busy spring and summer playing with the Drew Gooden Soldiers and now the Oakland, Calif., shooting guard has finally had a chance to narrow his list to a top seven.

Washington, Connecticut, Georgia Tech, Oregon, DePaul, Cal and St. John's made the list for Brown, a five-star recruit rated third at his position and No. 13 overall by Rivals.com.

"After I finished all the events I sat down and really started to narrow down the schools and where I planned to take my visits," Brown said.

"I was getting contacted by schools so I didn't want to cut out any new possible opportunities."

Brown, who helped lead the Soldiers to the Las Vegas Fab 48 championship last month, has set an official visit to Washington for the weekend of Sept. 18. Not only does Brown like Washington coach Lorenzo Romar but enjoys how the guards have freedom to play in the Huskies' system.

"I like their style of play a lot," Brown said of Washington. "They have had a lot of good guards and coach Romar is a good coach. It's a place where I can see myself playing."

Brown, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound prospect, said he is also planning to take an unofficial visit to Cal at some point but no other dates are set for any trips yet. He previously listed Washington, Kansas and Georgia Tech as his favorites but the Jayhawks didn't make the cut.

Connecticut and St. John's have moved up for Brown, who said he likes UConn's tradition and that first-year St. John's coach Steve Lavin is recruiting a lot of West Coast talent. That might not help land Brown but it's noticeable that Lavin is trying to use his former ties while at UCLA to bring some players to his new club.

It's still much too early to determine where Brown might end up since he hasn't even taken any visits yet but seven schools remain for one of the nation's top players.

"UConn is another school with great tradition and coach (Jim) Calhoun is another great coach," Brown said. "With St. John's, it's a great program and coach Lavin is a guy that has helped players go to the league. He is going after a lot of West Coast players."