USA Basketball: Kevin Knox and Wendell Carter lead the way

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Five-star forwards Kevin Knox and Wendell Carter took big steps toward making a spot on the U17 USA Basketball team with a standout performances on Day 2 of training camp.

Knox ran the floor well and won some rebounding battles with the bigs down low. After a slow start Friday night, Knox has turned it around and has done everything to almost solidify a spot on the team.

On the recruiting front, the six-foot-eight wing plans to cut his list down after Peach Jam in July. Knox has visited Duke, North Carolina, Florida State, and Miami and seems to have a strong relationship with each of the coaching staff.

“I’m just looking for a program that’s making me a priority,” Knox said. “A coaching staff that’s talking to me and my family every day and showing how much they care and that they really want me.”

Villanova, Kentucky, and Kansas have also been in contact recently.

Another player that’s dominating the field is five-star power forward Wendell Carter. Almost every player said Wendell is the toughest competition in the paint. Carter is nearly unstoppable in a pick-and-roll situation and he’s being aggressive on the boards.

All the top schools are still in the mix for Carter including Duke and Kentucky. Academics are important to him as well so he plans on talking a visit to Harvard and he mentioned the in-state schools Georgia and Georgia Tech as other programs that stay in consistent contact with him.

Five-star guard Troy Brown says he wants to play point guard in college, but his ball-handling still needs to get a little better. Brown has shown glimpses this weekend of a more comfortable and confident point guard. He was making great passes up the sideline in transition and getting stops on defensive against top guards like Collin Sexton and Gary Trent Jr.

Similar to Kevin Knox, Brown will be cutting his list down sometime before the end of the AAU season. "Arizona, Cal, Kansas, Stanford, Oregon. They're all recruiting me to play the one,” he said. “But they also say that they like that I can play the one through the three."

Four-star point guard Collin Sexton dominated in the two man pick-and-roll drills. He reads the defense well and made successful passes to any power forward or center that was partnered with him. In the five-on-five scrimmages, he’s had to work a little harder on offense since every player on the floor knows he’s the leading scorer in the EYBL.

Sexton plans to cut his list down in the next month. Right now Arizona, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Florida, Texas, and Alabama are the schools he mentions that are pursuing him the hardest. He’s been to Arizona, Alabama and Oklahoma State on unofficial visits most recently.

Class of 2018 four-star point guard Tre Jones, younger brother of former Duke guard Tyus Jones, said he hopes to be back from his thumb injury suffered at EYBL Hampton by the Peach Jam event in July. He also gave an update on his recruitment and talked Duke, Arizona and Baylor.