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Five-star Hunter Sallis discusses latest in Q&A

Hunter Sallis
Hunter Sallis (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)

OVERLAND PARK, Kans. -- Over the weekend, five-star combo guard Hunter Sallis was n the Kansas City area with his summer team the OSA Crusaders to compete in Camp United with KC Run GMC and Howard Pulley.

The 6-foot-5 rising senior at Omaha (Neb.) Millard North sat down for an in depth Q&A with Rivals.com and covered several topics.

Eric Bossi (EB): How has this spring and summer been? You prepare and you work all these years to get out onto the national circuit to show what you can do and then Covid-19 happens and takes that all away?

Hunter Sallis (HS):This whole quarantine I’ve just been working. My trainer has his own gym so he has been able to get me in there the whole time. So while people have been quarantined I’ve been trying to work so maybe I could jump up a couple of spots. I feel like I’m just now starting to get noticed a lot. So that work is starting to pay off. I feel like if got to play a couple of those high ranked guys I could have matched up and competed against them.

EB: North Carolina is one of your more recent offers. What did they say and how did that go down?

HS: We scheduled a zoom with them but I had talked to them earlier in the week. I talked to coach Roy Williams and he said that he doesn’t really offer kids that he’s not seen in person so he was telling me he probably won’t see me in person for a while so he was going to watch more film. So he did that and that next Tuesday we scheduled a zoom and he offered me then. He was telling me that he wants me to play my role like a combo guard and be scorer and a playmaker. Basically, just do what I do.

EB: As time has gone on and you have gotten more recognition and attention nationally, has the pressure to stay home and go to a Creighton or a Nebraska started to turn up? Are people around town starting to try and get into your ear?

HS: A lot of people from my hometown actually think I’m just going to go to a blue blood but I’m still really considering Nebraska and Creighton. I know they are recruiting me hard still and I’m still very much so considering those schools.

EB: What stands out with each of them?

HS: Staying home, having my family around and being close to them. They could come see me every game. Then my relationship since they’ve all been recruiting me since my freshman and sophomore year the relationship is good with both of those coaching staffs.

EB: Are they pretty different? Fred Hoiberg and Greg McDermott?

HS: Yeah, for sure. Coach Hoiberg he’s really like precise with his things. He likes everything done a certain way and coach Mac, I’ve been around him for a while and I’m really starting to get used to his personality and I like him a lot.

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EB: Kansas came up in the winter, offered, and then you went down for a game. How was that?

HS: That was visit was good. I really liked how they play. I got to watch where I would really be used. I really liked Devon Dotson and they were telling me that is how I would be when I get there. I really like that role. They weren’t promising me anything like a starting spot, but they were telling me that the opportunity is there and that if I came there I would have to work for it but it is there.

EB: Iowa State is another school that has been on you hard, what stands out with them?

HS: Just my relationship. That’s another school that has really been recruiting me hard. They were probably the first school that recruited me other than Drake. My relationship with their assistant coach, coach (James) Kane is really good. We talk almost every day and facetime almost every day so that relationship is good.

EB: Before we sat down to do the interview, you mentioned Alabama as another that has been coming at you really hard. What stands out with them?

HS: I just really like that playing style. I’ve been watching a couple of their guys and I feel like how they play is really similar to how I play as well so I feel like I could excel there. But I feel the same way with Oregon too.

EB: Dana Altman at Oregon has roots in Omaha from years coaching at Creighton what is his pitch?

HS: That if I come there they will help me develop and help me try to become a pro. Also that relationship has been good as well since they’ve been recruiting me since my sophomore year as well.

EB: You took an early official to Gonzaga. Have they stayed on you strong since the visit out there?

HS: They are still pushing hard. I talk to them often. Not like every day but I talk to them a lot.

EB: Louisville is one that you were trying to take a visit to during the winter, are they still involved?

HS: I talk to them a lot. They are another one of those schools that are up there with my top schools. The playing style and the coaches are telling me that a spot is open and they want me to go get it without them giving it to me. That feels like a family type deal and my dad really likes it and my mom really likes it. Assistant coach Luke Murray has been on me hard and our relationship is good.

EB: You don’t seem like you get too high or too low about anything. Is that an asset to you as you try to sort all of this out?

HS: I know my dad tells me that coaches are almost always going to tell me what I want to hear. So I’m really just taking it all in and processing which of them are really going to help me and which school would I have a big impact on.

EB: How do you differentiate between a recruiting pitch and something that is real because they all have similar pitches right? Is it just a gut thing, do you need to see them in person?

HS: It is how genuine they sound. The things we have noticed are different. Like my mom has noticed, and she likes this a lot, that when coaches call me son and they treat me how they would their own kids or they talk to me how they would their own kids, my mom loves that. My parents love that. When they talk about the team being a family, my mom if I do leave home she wants me to go somewhere that I’m comfortable and not homesick because I feel like I’m around family there.

EB: Visits are up in the air right now and I know you would like to take some before deciding. In a perfect world would you like to decide early? Or do you think you may have to wait through the winter now?

HS: If you would have asked me a couple of months ago I probably would have said that I would like to decide early. But with my visits and stuff, we are trying to wait and see when things open up so I can do visits or trying to see who all is still recruiting me.

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