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Top 50 senior Lester Quinones pondering more visits

Lester Quinones
Lester Quinones (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)

TAMPA -- One of the premier jump shooters in the class of 2019, top 50 shooting guard Lester Quinones is getting closer to decision time.

Playing his senior year for the Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy Prep team, he's rebuilt his body and taken advantage of being around other high level talent while maximizing his game.

"I'm in better shape with the sprints the weights and the rest it's a good transition to help with getting used to the college level having my body ready," said Quinones. "The strength trainer there is a big part of it.

"The high school team at IMG has three McDonald's All-Americans and six five-stars, I'm practicing with them sometimes, getting in the gym with them. The competition is great. I'm getting in there, getting myself ready and I feel like my game is there. I still have little things to work on but my confidence is there for the next level to be freshman in college playing major minutes."

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IN HIS OWN WORDS

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So far, Quinones has taken official visits to LSU and Maryland while Memphis is pushing hard for a third. He discussed each program and touched on who else is pushing for visits.

LSU: "(The visit) was a great experience. Coach (Will) Wade, or coach (Bill) Armstrong or both of them I think are coming out to watch me next week. My relationship with them is really good, we stay in contact, I watch them almost all of their games so it's a great relationship with them.

Maryland: "Another great visit. Coach (Mark) Turgeon he has a great relationship with my mom and my dad and coach (Kevin) Broadus calls me or texts me every day. So, another great relationship with them."

Memphis: "They came in probably in November. That's when Mike Miller started texting me a lot. He's close with Oz Cross my AAU coach so him and Oz stay in contact a lot. Now they are coming at me very hard and pushing me for a visit so I'm starting to build my relationship with coach MIller and I'm going to start to build my relationship with coach (Penny) Hardaway."

Others pushing for visits: "MIchigan, coach (John) Beilein is pushing. Georgia, I have coach (Tom) Crean pushing for a visit and coach (Jim) Larrañaga with Miami so I'll probably try to choose between those three."

RIVALS' REACTION, WHAT'S NEXT?

Given how few pure scorers are left on the board and the need for high level shooters, it's kind of a surprise that Quinones recruitment hasn't turned into all all out frenzy. But, him and his comfort with LSU and Maryland and his growing relationship with Memphis has a lot to do with that.

Quinones didn't specify an exact timeframe for a decision and it's pretty likely that he will set and take at least a few more visits and he doesn't appear to be in a gigantic hurry to get his school choice out of the way.

As he looks to set other visits and move towards a decision, LSU is perhaps a slight leader but that's Rivals.com's read of the situation and not anything that Quinones has said himself.

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