Jones, who is giving us monthly insight into his recruiting on a USA Today High School Sports blog, mentioned in June that he and Winslow were trying to sell him on the idea of playing together. This joint visit now adds more fuel to that fire.
"You guys already know that me and Jahlil are gonna play together in college, and now we're feeling pretty good about getting our boy Justise Winslow to come along with us as well," Jones said in June. "It's looking pretty good for that. We're, all three, really great friends and we've got a close bond so we all like the idea of playing together in college."
Winslow and Okafor were teammates for the U.S.'s U19 team that won gold in July at the FIBA World Championship in Prague, and Jones and Okafor have had a longstanding friendship that dates to childhood.
Duke has room to install stars at center and point guard, and it likely will have a need for a quality small forward if Rodney Hood opts to leave for the NBA after the 2013-14 season.
Or maybe this is just a chance for Winslow to make a great trip with two good friends. Winslow is also being pursued by UCLA, Texas A&M, Florida and Arizona, among others.
Bruins coach Steve Alford appeared to make an impression on Winslow recently, with the recruit calling Alford an "Indiana gangster."
"With Justise's choices, he can't make a bad choice so we approach our visits more on the comfort level," Winslow's mother, Robin Davis, told SNYtv's Adam Zagoria. "I look at it as basketball is going to take care of itself. ... But are you going to take care of my son? It's more of a comfort that way for me. That's where our visits are now, because how many times can you tell me this is where you're going to play him?
"It's more on the personal side."
BIG BLUE CAMP-NESS
Here's what many of us have planned for this week -- go to work, go home, eat, and sleep.
Here's what some members of Big Blue Nation already have executed -- camp out for Big Blue Madness tickets that come available on Saturday. Wildcats fans began lining up at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning, with 650 tents set up outside the ticket office. That's 55 more than the record number of tents seen last year.
This isn't just the game of the year they're waiting to grab tickets for. It's just the opening event of the state's religion, and it's free.
It even came with a few public service announcements -- don't hassle the players!
Yes, they do it right -- and crazy early -- at Kentucky. The Wildcats are ranked Sporting News' preseason No. 1 team with an unrivaled recruiting class and a coach that knows how to put the pieces together.
When daylight came, here was Lexington's Tent City.
The turnout sure caught Wildcats coach John Calipari's attention, as he wrote on Twitter, "650 tents already? You people ARE crazy!!!"
DISTRACTION-FREE
This is how Chris McCullough prepares to play college basketball at Syracuse -- by attending a school where he struggles to get cell phone reception.
McCullough, a 6-10 power forward prospect in the Class of 2014 who hails from New York, is playing his senior season at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., a place of 6,200 residents that's not far from the Maine border. His intent on heading far from home was to focus on his game and his academics, Syracuse.com reports.
So if McCullough doesn't have 100 percent connectivity with his phone (he's on Twitter a fair amount, however) and also doesn't to deal with the "foolishness" of his Bronx neighborhood, then Jim Boeheim should have a good player on his hands next fall.
McCullough's AAU coach, Terrence "Munch" Williams, says McCullough's game should remind Orange fans of a former Syracuse standout who's now in the NBA.
"He's bouncy like Hakim (Warrick) and he's got a good motor," Williams told Syracuse.com. "He's stretched his perimeter game out to shoot the 3 and his ballhandling has gotten better. The sky's the limit for him."
Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy ranks McCullough as the No. 11 prospect in the Class of 2014.
Contributor: Roger Kuznia
