Jalen Duren enjoyed his visit to Kentucky. (Twitter Photo)
Five-star center Jalen Duren completed his visit to Kentucky and is scheduled to reduce his list of possible future options to today. That could include colleges and/or professional options. He currently is in the 2022 recruiting class but is expected to reclassify to the 2021 class and would be eligible for the 2022 NBA draft. The 6-10 center led Monteverde (Fla.) Academy to the GEICO Nationals title last season when he averaged 17 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks per game.
About two months ago Duren announced his top 11 future choices were the NBA G League — where speculation has been he might get a $1 million salary — along with the Australian professional league along with going to college at Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Memphis, Miami, Michigan, Penn State, UCLA, and Villanova.
But that was also before the name, image, and likeness changes were enacted and now a one-year college career could be very lucrative, especially at Kentucky.
Duren is giving SI All-American exclusive access about his decisions/future and shared a blog post this week about his recent visits to Miami, Memphis, and Kentucky.
Here’s what he posted about his trip to Kentucky:
“My most recent visit was to Kentucky and it was great. I spent a lot of time just getting to know Coach (John) Calipari and the staff and spending time with the players. We had a lot of fun, just kicking it.
“Even though there weren’t as many students on campus with it being the summer and all, I could still tell that the fans are great! Especially on social media, they really showed a lot of love, which was cool!
“I definitely saw how I could fit in there and, more importantly, how I could improve in that system. That’s a big thing for me because I’m always looking to get better!”
Duren also made it clear that those speculating about his future do not speak for him.
“I know there are a lot of rumors flying around about my plans and things like that, but this is what I want everyone to know: Anything that is going on with me comes from either me or my mom. If it’s not from there you just know not to believe it,” Duren wrote.
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To see the complete blog post by Duren, go to https://www.si.com/college/recruiting/basketball/jalen-duren-blog-miami-memphis-kentucky-visits.
