Road warrior Duval nears college basketball decision
BY DAVID WILSON
dwilson@bradenton.com
BRADENTON
A few minutes after 9 a.m. on a typical Wednesday at IMG Academy, Trevon Duval strolls into one of the academy’s training rooms on the east end of campus. For more than half an hour on a day that will otherwise be filled with classes and basketball, Duval straps both his legs into a pair of NormaTec Recovery pants.
All the aches and pains that come with a rigorous end-of-season schedule for the nation’s top recruits will, theoretically, be tempered by IMG’s professional level training staff. This bit of technology uses compressed air to massage the limbs and can cost up to about $2,800.
Duval needs some of this help right now as he works his way back to full strength following a hectic month. His knee was acting up near the end of March, and by mid April he was dealing with an ankle injury.
“It’s been busy,” Duval said as he fiddles with his phone while wearing a Seton Hall T-shirt. He’ll be strapped in for a while.
Duval’s month began in Chicago with the McDonald’s All-American Game on March 27. From Chicago, he headed straight to Dick’s Nationals in New York with the Ascenders. A week after that, Duval flew to Portland for the Nike Hoop Summit on April 7. Another week after that, Duval was back in Brooklyn for the Jordan Brand Classic on April 14. Around it all, he still had normal teenager things to do, such as go to prom and make a trip home to Delaware for a family matter. His travel to showcase events has continued into the early days of May.
His most important high school moment is still coming, though. During the next week or so, Duval said, the No. 1 point guard in the nation will make his college choice. He’s coveted by just about every school in the country, but he’s down to a final five: Duke, Kansas, Arizona, Baylor and Seton Hall.
“I’ve just been enjoying it, having fun, soaking it all in because I’m not going to go through this all again,” Duval said. “I’m just trying to make the best of it.”
As one of the top high school players in the nation, a presumed one-and-done and potential lottery point guard, Duval was never going to have a typical high school experience. He has been regarded as one of the best in the class of 2017 basically since he started playing Amateur Athletic Union basketball.
He started at Saint Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J., for two years before spending his junior year at the now-closed Advanced Preparatory International in Dallas. When Advanced Prep shut down amid questions from the NCAA, Duval settled on IMG as his final destination before college with some urging from his father.
“These last couple years have been hard because he’s turned into a teenager, and he just wants to be a normal kid a little bit,” said Trevor Duval, Trevon’s father. “For the most part, he realizes his path, too. This is what’s gotten him to here.”
Trevor Duval has been pushing his son since essentially the moment Trevon could walk. Duval started walking at about six months, his father said, and started dribbling a basketball about six months later.
THESE LAST COUPLE YEARS HAVE BEEN HARD BECAUSE HE’S TURNED INTO A TEENAGER AND HE JUST WANTS TO BE A NORMAL KID A LITTLE BIT.
Trevor Duval, Trevon Duval’s father
By the time Duval was two, his father was lying about his age to get his son into an instructional league at the YMCA for 4-year-olds playing on plastic Fisher-Price hoops. As he grew up, he kept playing against older competition in the Y’s leagues until he joined a 9U Amateur Athletic Union team in Delaware as a 6-year-old.
Eventually, Duval outgrew the competition he could find in Delaware and started seeking bigger leagues beyond the state’s borders. He went to Baltimore to play with the Sam Cassell All-Stars. Then the drives got longer: He caught on with the 9U DC Assault, a veritable all-star team of future Division I prospects that won a national championship. The drive from his New Haven, Del., to Washington could take more than two hours.
“Depending on how fast my dad was driving,” Duval jokes.
It was the start of Duval as the guard who’s at his best when surrounded by other skilled players he’s able to make better. His mix tapes for the Ascenders tend to morph into compilations of his alley-oops to top-ranked junior forwards Silvio de Sousa and Emmitt Williams. He has drawn comparisons to quick, athletic point guards such as Jeff Teague, Derrick Rose, John Wall and Russell Westbrook.
With his speed and ability to penetrate, Duval fits some of the mold for the modern drive-and-kick point guard, even if he lacks the physical profile matching the 6-foot-5 and 6-6 guards who have come en vogue.
At 6-2, if Duval goes in the lottery of the 2018 NBA draft — and DraftExpress.com currently projects him as the No. 11 pick — he could be the shortest point guard taken there since Trey Burke was picked ninth in 2013.
“He just has a special gift. He gets the ball from foul line to foul line faster than anybody,” said Brian Nash, IMG’s director of basketball. “When he plays with better players you see his vision and his passing ability.”
At a school such as Duke, Kansas or Arizona, Duval would once again be in a spot where he’s surrounded by other players destined for the next level.
6’2”Trevon Duval’s listed height, in feet and inches. He could be the shortest lottery pick taken since Trey Burke in 2013.
During the weekend, Duval broke a long silence on a sporadically updated blog he does through USA Today to briefly discuss his looming commitment.
“I don’t even care about how I let everyone know, but my dad keeps telling me that it should something memorable and something that no one has ever done,” Duval wrote. “Basically it’ll be remembered and the way I announce should reflect me as a person and everything I’ve been through to this point.”
For Duval, it means something atypical, which would be just typical for the best high school point guard in the country.
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/sports/article149100864.html#storylink=cpy
BY DAVID WILSON
dwilson@bradenton.com
BRADENTON
A few minutes after 9 a.m. on a typical Wednesday at IMG Academy, Trevon Duval strolls into one of the academy’s training rooms on the east end of campus. For more than half an hour on a day that will otherwise be filled with classes and basketball, Duval straps both his legs into a pair of NormaTec Recovery pants.
All the aches and pains that come with a rigorous end-of-season schedule for the nation’s top recruits will, theoretically, be tempered by IMG’s professional level training staff. This bit of technology uses compressed air to massage the limbs and can cost up to about $2,800.
Duval needs some of this help right now as he works his way back to full strength following a hectic month. His knee was acting up near the end of March, and by mid April he was dealing with an ankle injury.
“It’s been busy,” Duval said as he fiddles with his phone while wearing a Seton Hall T-shirt. He’ll be strapped in for a while.
Duval’s month began in Chicago with the McDonald’s All-American Game on March 27. From Chicago, he headed straight to Dick’s Nationals in New York with the Ascenders. A week after that, Duval flew to Portland for the Nike Hoop Summit on April 7. Another week after that, Duval was back in Brooklyn for the Jordan Brand Classic on April 14. Around it all, he still had normal teenager things to do, such as go to prom and make a trip home to Delaware for a family matter. His travel to showcase events has continued into the early days of May.
His most important high school moment is still coming, though. During the next week or so, Duval said, the No. 1 point guard in the nation will make his college choice. He’s coveted by just about every school in the country, but he’s down to a final five: Duke, Kansas, Arizona, Baylor and Seton Hall.
“I’ve just been enjoying it, having fun, soaking it all in because I’m not going to go through this all again,” Duval said. “I’m just trying to make the best of it.”
As one of the top high school players in the nation, a presumed one-and-done and potential lottery point guard, Duval was never going to have a typical high school experience. He has been regarded as one of the best in the class of 2017 basically since he started playing Amateur Athletic Union basketball.
He started at Saint Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J., for two years before spending his junior year at the now-closed Advanced Preparatory International in Dallas. When Advanced Prep shut down amid questions from the NCAA, Duval settled on IMG as his final destination before college with some urging from his father.
“These last couple years have been hard because he’s turned into a teenager, and he just wants to be a normal kid a little bit,” said Trevor Duval, Trevon’s father. “For the most part, he realizes his path, too. This is what’s gotten him to here.”
Trevor Duval has been pushing his son since essentially the moment Trevon could walk. Duval started walking at about six months, his father said, and started dribbling a basketball about six months later.
THESE LAST COUPLE YEARS HAVE BEEN HARD BECAUSE HE’S TURNED INTO A TEENAGER AND HE JUST WANTS TO BE A NORMAL KID A LITTLE BIT.
Trevor Duval, Trevon Duval’s father
By the time Duval was two, his father was lying about his age to get his son into an instructional league at the YMCA for 4-year-olds playing on plastic Fisher-Price hoops. As he grew up, he kept playing against older competition in the Y’s leagues until he joined a 9U Amateur Athletic Union team in Delaware as a 6-year-old.
Eventually, Duval outgrew the competition he could find in Delaware and started seeking bigger leagues beyond the state’s borders. He went to Baltimore to play with the Sam Cassell All-Stars. Then the drives got longer: He caught on with the 9U DC Assault, a veritable all-star team of future Division I prospects that won a national championship. The drive from his New Haven, Del., to Washington could take more than two hours.
“Depending on how fast my dad was driving,” Duval jokes.
It was the start of Duval as the guard who’s at his best when surrounded by other skilled players he’s able to make better. His mix tapes for the Ascenders tend to morph into compilations of his alley-oops to top-ranked junior forwards Silvio de Sousa and Emmitt Williams. He has drawn comparisons to quick, athletic point guards such as Jeff Teague, Derrick Rose, John Wall and Russell Westbrook.
With his speed and ability to penetrate, Duval fits some of the mold for the modern drive-and-kick point guard, even if he lacks the physical profile matching the 6-foot-5 and 6-6 guards who have come en vogue.
At 6-2, if Duval goes in the lottery of the 2018 NBA draft — and DraftExpress.com currently projects him as the No. 11 pick — he could be the shortest point guard taken there since Trey Burke was picked ninth in 2013.
“He just has a special gift. He gets the ball from foul line to foul line faster than anybody,” said Brian Nash, IMG’s director of basketball. “When he plays with better players you see his vision and his passing ability.”
At a school such as Duke, Kansas or Arizona, Duval would once again be in a spot where he’s surrounded by other players destined for the next level.
6’2”Trevon Duval’s listed height, in feet and inches. He could be the shortest lottery pick taken since Trey Burke in 2013.
During the weekend, Duval broke a long silence on a sporadically updated blog he does through USA Today to briefly discuss his looming commitment.
“I don’t even care about how I let everyone know, but my dad keeps telling me that it should something memorable and something that no one has ever done,” Duval wrote. “Basically it’ll be remembered and the way I announce should reflect me as a person and everything I’ve been through to this point.”
For Duval, it means something atypical, which would be just typical for the best high school point guard in the country.
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/sports/article149100864.html#storylink=cpy
