Rondos Stock on the Rise

Oak Hill point guard Rajon Rondo is the best unsigned point guard in the country. In fact, right now he might just be the best high school point guard in the country. At least his coach Steve Smith thinks so.

“I have been doing this a long time, coaching for 25 years, 19 of those here,” said Coach Smith. “Rajon is the best point guard we have had here, since Rod Strickland. And I have had five or so play in the league. I would not trade Rajon for any other point guard in the country, including Telfair and Livingston. He has such knowledge of the game and is so smart.”

“NBA scouts come all the time to see Josh Smith, and everyone of them to a man has come up to me afterwards and said that Rajon is the best point guard they have seen. They think he is a NBA lock after one or two years.”

Besides the impressive fact that the 6-foot-1, 155-pound Rondo is the floor general for a 19-0 team, he caught a lot of people’s attention when he scored 55 points in a game recently in Spain.

“Rajon played well every night in Spain, scoring and distributing the ball,” said Coach Smith. “In this one particular game Smith and [Brian] Johnson had three fouls each in the second quarter. Dayshawn Wright was not playing because he was sick. We were only up three at that point, so I pulled Rajon aside and told him he needed to score points. Well he ended up scoring 55 on 22 of 31 shooting. He made a lot of mid-range shots and made two out of probably four shots from three.”

Rondo spent this past weekend on an official visit to Illinois. Coach Smith has the feeling that Rondo will probably go to school somewhere close to his hometown of Louisville.

“I will be surprised if he does not stay close to home. Put it that way,” said Coach Smith. “He just got back from an unofficial visit to Illinois, and I will be shocked if Kentucky and Louisville don’t take him, maybe even Indiana.”

When asked about his recruitment, Rondo mentioned quite a few schools but is focused on three right now.

“My visit to Illinois went good,” he said. “I went to the game and talked to the coaches. I do not have any other visits planned, but I will probably take official visits to Kentucky, Illinois, and USC.... Other schools that I am hearing from are Maryland, Oklahoma, UCLA, Alabama, and Arkansas. Maryland get in the picture with those other three schools.”

One school that is notably missing from his list is Louisville. When asked whether he had shut the door on Louisville or whether they might come into the picture, Rondo left the door open.

“They are not in the picture,” he said. “I don’t know what is going on. There is nothing happening now.”

As to the recent rise in his stock, Rondo said he is not necessarily playing any better than he ever has.

“I’m doing what I’ve been doing, just on a better team that gets better exposure.”