Forrest garners high-major interest
Chris Walker was the top prize to come out of the Florida panhandle in the 2013 recruiting class. The next big thing from that part of Florida will be combo guard Trent Forrest who has already landed offers from schools in the ACC, the Pac-12 and the SEC.
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Forrest, the Rivals No. 59 ranked four-star sophomore holds offers from Florida State, Oregon State and Tennessee and is getting interest from N.C. State, West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Duke, Louisville, Alabama, Maryland and Xavier.
Forrest said schools are primarily contacting his AAU coach Robert Shannon.
This is the second year Forrest has played "up" with The Challenge 17-under Nike EYBL team; something he feels has helped him improve his game.
"I've been playing up pretty much all my life. I like playing up with older players, so it (playing 17-under) came naturally. It's helped me learn how hard you have to work. You're going against the top players playing up. Then playing EYBL, it's the best circuit in the world for AAU."
The 6-foot-4, 185-pound sophomore scores at all three levels, makes good decisions, passes well on the move and is a more than willing defender. Forrest averaged 12.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists for The Challenge, who struggled in Sacramento in EYBL Session One.
"We went 1-3 in Sacramento," Forrest said. "We had a chance to go 4-0. We won or lost by two points in all but one of our games. We just need to finish. We know what we need to do going into Dallas this weekend."
Forrest is also a high academic prospect who takes honors classes in Algebra II, English and Biology and recently had a 4.0 GPA.
"School is really good," said Forrest. "I'm still keeping my grades high but I got a B in one of my classes and my GPA dropped some but it stays around a 3.8 to 4.0. You can't get into college without your grades so I keep them up. I'm thinking of majoring in Sports Management or Engineering."
Listing no favorites, Forrest did talk about some of the in-state colleges that are recruiting him.
Florida State: "It's close to home and the fans are great. It just feels like home every time I go there on unofficials."
Florida: "It would be great (if they offered) because they are one of the top teams in the SEC and they are in-state. My eighth grade year I went to their summer team camp but they weren't looking at me then."
South Florida: "The coach before (Stan Heath) sent me some mail but I am not aware of the new coach (Orlando Antigua) getting in touch with my AAU Coach."
Russ Wood is a basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com and Inside the Gators. You can click here to follow him on Twitter..
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