Four-star combo guards game is evolving
One of the best pull-up jump shooters in the class of 2015, four-star combo guard Jimmy Whitt is making some adjustments to his game in preparation for the college level.
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A 6-foot-2 rising senior at Columbia (Mo.) Hickman who ranks No. 52 nationally in the Rivals150, Whitt earned his reputation as a scorer. However, he has been focusing more and more on being a point guard.
"Mostly playing point is really going to help me in the future," Whitt told Rivals.com. "With my height, colleges are looking for me to play a lot of point."
It isn't that Whitt hasn't played the point up until now. He has spent plenty of time running an offense. However, he has been more of a guy that coaches rely on to get them buckets because of how skilled he is at creating space off the dribble and scoring in the mid range.
Whitt is particularly comfortable in situations where he is given a high ball screen.
"Since freshman year I've been coming off of ball screens," said Whitt. "I'm really comfortable with that. Going left off the ball screen or being able to make plays out of them, I really pride myself on that."
Adding strength to his frame is a priority for Whitt along with continuing to upgrade his passing ability.
"Me personally I'm working on the things I'm not comfortable with," said Whitt. "Like with passing I'm working on setting my teammates up better and getting the ball to them in their spots."
On the recruiting front, Whitt has overtures from all across the country. Arkansas, Creigton, Colorado, Illinois, SMU, Wake Forest, Wisconsin and many more have offered scholarships. Under new coach Kim Anderson, hometown Missouri has really turned things up as well.
"They have come after me really hard," said Whitt of the Tigers. "Ever since coach Anderson got there they've been talking to me and getting me up there to play with their guys. We went to the MU team camp and they've done a really good job of keeping up with me."
According to Whitt, Arkansas and SMU are both likely to get official visits and he is going to hit Illinois and Wake Forest unofficially in August. He would like to use all of his official visits and wants to be sure he is making campus visits when school is in full session so he can get a true feel for each school.
In order to set up the rest of his visits, though, Whitt is going to need to cut his list down a bit. That cut should be made after the July evaluation period.
"I've talked to my mom and dad about it," said Whitt. "We're going to really start sitting down and figuring out what schools we are looking at. After July comes around we'll look to knock it down to around five."
Eric Bossi is the national basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.
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