Tigers after Top-25 2020 point guard
HOOVER, Ala. — Dalen Terry’s Compton Magic team didn’t get to ease into this weekend’s Adidas Gauntlet championship, thrust into a super pool alongside fellow tournament favorites D1 Minnesota and Indiana Elite.
The Magic went 1-1 across that stretch but hasn’t lost since then. Terry credited that tough start for getting his team in the right frame of mind to attack the rest of one of the toughest weekends on the AAU calendar.
“We didn’t even have a warmup game. It was like, this is personal. Teams that we have to play, they’re the top teams in Adidas Gauntlet, and we wanted to show we were No. 1,” Terry said.
A top-25 player (No. 25) according to 247Sports, Terry is a 6foot-6 guard/wing from Corona del Sol High in Tempe, Arizona, with offers across the map. Memphis, Marquette, Arkansas, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, Illinois and UNLV are just some of the programs to extend a scholarship to a player who believes he can develop a strong enough handle to play point guard at the next level. Vanderbilt also has gotten involved recently.
“I watch a lot of big point guards’ highlights. Just guards in general, any guard that’s bigger,” Terry said. “It’s just something I study a lot. My trainers are point guards. Everybody I’m around is point guards, coaches are point
guards, so it’s just like they’re telling me I’m such a good passer that they say, ‘You’ve got to be a point guard.’”
Terry will wait until after AAU play concludes to evaluate his options and trim his list. He plans to cut his list down to five schools, then start taking visits, though he doesn’t have a firm commitment deadline.
For the moment, he’s focused on finishing July at full speed, something he said would qualify as growth from a year ago.
“I feel like mentally, I’m a lot stronger,” Terry said. “Last year, around July, I started to break down. My body started breaking down. It was because I believed I was done early. Now, going to all the camps in June and not getting time to rest and stuff, I had to mentally just tell myself, keep doing this, keep my foot on the gas and just keep going.”
What Memphis is saying: “They say (Memphis coach) Penny Hardaway is the biggest point guard there is, and I’m the biggest point guard in the country.”
Arizona’s message: “I was on a visit there a couple weeks ago. Point Guard U. I’m a big point guard. They say, how can’t I go to the league? For me, that’s something I love to hear, and I’ve still got to trust the process.”
The schedule from here: “After my top five comes out, I’ll probably take visits. … I don’t have a timetable. I just feel like, once I know, I’m going to commit.”