Jones wondering now or later

Verdell Jones recently went to the biggest midnight madness in the nation. He has a couple more trips in the works, too. But will he ink in November or wait it out until the spring?

The 6-foot-4, 160-pound point guard from Champaign (Ill.) Central has some major questions to ask himself in the coming weeks regarding his college future.

A trip to Kentucky for Big Blue Madness was a major success and planned official visits next month to Minnesota (Nov. 3) and Oklahoma (Nov. 10) will certainly give him plenty to think about.

His time in Lexington with the Kentucky program set the standard high, he said.

"I would say it was probably one of the greatest trips I've ever had. It was nothing like I expected," Jones said. "Their fans love basketball. They treat them like gods. It was probably past capacity. They were loud, yelling the whole time. Whenever the recruits walked into the gym, they just stopped what they were doing and started cheering for us and calling out our names and everything. It was crazy. We felt like rock stars."

Minnesota will get the next crack and Jones said he is looking forward to seeing the Big Ten campus for the first time and the week after he'll make it down to Oklahoma.

"Tubby Smith came down to an open gym recently and that was good because he'd been recruiting me since the summer but we've never had a chance to see each other. He's wanted me to go up there for a visit so that worked out well," Jones said.

"I didn't hear from Oklahoma for a while but they called my dad and showed some great interest and offered after coming to an open gym. They asked us to come in for a visit so we said we would."

As recruiting goes, Jones knows interest will start to come from places he hasn't heard from before the longer he waits to make a decision.

"I've heard from Texas a lot. Marquette wants me to come up. I'll probably take a look at them but not sure when I can because our season is right around the corner," Jones said. "A lot more schools have came on now that Iman Shumpert committed to Georgia Tech. In fact, I just got a call from North Carolina (on Sunday) so I think I'm going to wait a little bit. I can see myself making a verbal this year but I'll most likely wait until the spring to sign.

"I feel like I'm one of the top point guards that is untaken so that helps me out some going into my season and being able to find the right place."

"My dad wants me to take all of my visits before I make a move with anything and make a decision," Jones said.