Thanksgiving Hoopfest: Q&A with five-star junior Harrison Ingram

DALLAS, Texas -- Five-star junior Harrison Ingram continues to prove that he belongs as one of the top players in the class of 2021.

At the Thanksgiving Hoopfest, Ingram spoke about the latest in his recruitment. Where will he take his next official visit? How was his most recent visit? Who is trying to get involved and when might he decide?

Eric Bossi (EB): Let’s just get right into it, what made you decide to go ahead and lock in the official visit with Texas Tech?

Harrison Ingram (HI): Coach Chris Beard, he was the first to come to me, he came at 6:45 am on the first day of the recruiting period. His pitch was you saw what we could do with Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith, imagine what he could do with me. Then, just Texas Tech is a Texas school and I’m a Texas guy. I’ve got to show the local schools some love. I’m going to go down there on March 7th for the Texas Tech/Kansas game for an official visit.

EB: You went to Stanford again, what’s that four times you have been there?

HI: Yeah, four times.

EB: How do they handle those visits with you having been there so many times already?

HI: The first time I went it was a camp. The second time I went they were just kind of showing me around campus and did their little things. The third time was a game and then the fourth time I spent all my time with the guys and getting to know the guys. Like Tyrell Terry, Spencer Jones and some of the others.

Then you know Isa Silva, they are trying to get me back there with him and that’s one of my good friends.

You can see that they are improving, they are 7-1. Their only loss is to Butler. I was watching the game and the guy made a great shot. The team looks good and they think I can come in and make an instant impact.

EB: You mentioned you have some new schools, North Carolina was one of them. They were out here to see you today, is this the first time they’ve been out to see you?

HI: It was the first time for just me. They came out my freshman year but it was more for Jalen Wilson. They are saying that they are taking it slow and in the beginning of recruiting. I hear from coach (Steve) Robinson. I’ve heard from him twice and he said they were going to come down to this game.

EB: Do you have any early impression of them?

HI: I mean it’s UNC. It’s Roy Williams and a big time school, big time everything.

EB: Right down the road from UNC is Duke and they were here to see you too.

HI: I’ve said that I’ve never really had a dream school, but Duke was kind of my dream school because it brought everything education and basketball high level. But since I started recruitment I’ve dropped the dream school part because I want everybody to have a fair chance. So Duke has been my dream school and they came to see me today so I had to make sure I played really hard.

EB: What has Duke told you?

HI: They haven’t really talked to me yet. They’ve been talking to Von (summer coach Vonzell Thomas) and my trainer and said they liked the way I play. They came out in the summer and they watched me in Alabama for two games and said they loved the way I played.

EB: You mentioned Auburn as another new school, what sticks out with them?

HI: It’s how much they call me. I mean they just recently started talking to me and coach Ira Brown calls me almost every day or texts me every day. He knew my birthday, he knew everything.

EB: You have so many schools going after you. It’s like every time we see you there are new programs or places that you have links to. Has it gotten to a point yet where it’s getting overwhelming?

HI: A little bit. Sometimes I just want to sit at home and eat dinner and it’s like boop, oh my gosh. But, I’ve worked really hard for this and it’s a good problem.

EB: Have you guys talked about a time frame to shrink it down and make it a bit more manageable?

HI: I think I’m going shrink it down in mid AAU season. I’m going to go down to about five. I’m looking to make my decision earlier than most people make it because I want to focus on getting better.

EB: So you don’t want to do one of those cuts where there are many schools on your list that don’t really have a chance?

HI: No. I’m keeping it real.

EB: So does that mean you want to try and decide by next summer or something like that?

HI: The end of summer will probably be when I make my decision.

EB: What’s going to be the overriding factors?

HI: There definitely has to be a good education and I want to make sure that I choose the right school where I can have an impact early. I don’t want to go in there and have eight different people have the same position. What I mean is I want to make sure I have a good relationship with the coaching staff and that there’s no lying about who will be there and how I will play.

I don’t want them sugar coating it either. Like thing about Stanford, they cut right to the truth. One time (Jerod Haase) came down and told me “Harrison, make sure you focus on getting more athletic.” I mean he told me I played good but it wasn’t like “Oh you played great, you’re amazing”. He was like get more athletic, learn to slide on defense and that’s what I’ve been working on.