Carson continues to garner interest

Jahii Carson de-committed from Oregon State to see which other programs would get involved and after his play so far on the spring AAU circuit lots of teams are making their move.

Arizona, Arizona State and Marquette are the newest offers for Carson, a cat-quick point guard from Mesa, Ariz., who plays with Compton Magic, and the 5-foot-10 prospect said the Wildcats especially stand out because of coach Sean Miller and assistant James Whitford.

"I like U of A a lot," Carson said. "It's right in the backyard and they're a point guard school. They let the point guard run the offense and just play. I'm also building a relationship with coach Whitford and coach Miller so U of A is up there right now.

"Coach Miller being a point guard himself he understands how to coach guys as point guards and how to make them better players. He tells me that with Nic Wise if he would have had Nic Wise earlier he thinks he'd be in the NBA. When he tells me he can get me to the highest level, and tells me I have to be an overall good player, not just a point guard, that makes U of A really high for me."

It's still early though and since Carson has already backed out of one commitment he's going to take his time, build relationships with coaches and probably not rush into another pledge.

Alabama, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Indiana were other schools he mentioned along with his newest offers and Oregon State as places where he'd like to know the coaches more so Carson seems like he's back to the preliminary stages of the process even though Arizona sticks out more than some others.

"I'm going to wait it out," Carson said. "I don't want to give any school an edge over any other school. I just want to weight my options at the moment and see what other schools are coming in.

"I just want to build a relationship with all the coaches and see where they stand and where they feel like I'd fit in their program."

Carson has shown this spring he can fit pretty much anywhere. He has an incredible vertical leap, can do 360-degree dunks during warm-ups, is super fast with the ball in his hands and has the ability to find open teammates and not force the issue too much on offense.

He's clearly established himself as one of the best point guards on the West Coast - if not the country - and that's been his goal, to prove he can play with anyone, anywhere.

"I was just trying to go out and play my hardest," Carson said. "I try to play with a chip on my shoulder because I feel like I wasn't ranked as high as I thought I should have been and I want to show people that I can come out and prove my game.

"I want to play at a high level so I can get high-level offers and I can pick from high-level types of schools."