Rawle Alkins, a five-star combo guard, built a legendary resume this past summer; dominating the adidas circuit (24.3 points per game), leading the NY RENS to the adidas title, helping the U.S. Select team go undefeated at the adidas EuroCamp in Treviso, Italy and winning MVP at both the prestigious adidas Nations showcase and the Pangos All-America Camp. That kind of production has Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, St. John’s, UNLV, UNC and N.C. State all in hot pursuit. Now Alkins has agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a blog.
What’s up guys it’s your boy Rawle Alkins; I’m here doing my first player blog with USA Today!
This ride has been amazing!
I made the jump from New York to North Carolina and it’s a whole lot different, but I love it here. North Carolina’s treating me great, it’s like a second home.
I will say, though, it’s a lot slower here; I definitely have some bored days, but I think I need somewhere like this where I can just focus on books and basketball.
I’m from Brooklyn and there’s always something to do in the city; you’re never bored. Here, there are literally days where I’m just home doing nothing. Everything closes at like 8 p.m. down here, but I love it.
I’m here at Word of God Academy for those of you that don’t know and I’m loving school.
The classrooms here are so small and it helps because you get a lot of one-on-one time with the teachers. Coming from Christ the King you’ll see 600 students every day, but at Word of God you know all the students in the school.
I needed this.
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One of the biggest things I wanted to focus on was my grades and in my downtime I’m always working on homework or studying. It’s paying off too! I’ve got a 3.8 GPA, so I’m most proud of that.
I’m taking the SAT in November and I’m feeling a lot more confident about it since I’ve been here.
I went to the North Carolina state fair with my school and it was pretty cool; it’s like a fake Coney Island! Man there were some crazy things to eat; some of my classmates had these big turkey legs and fried alligator and fried pickles and stuff like that. It was wild!
I took an unofficial visit to North Carolina last weekend for the Late Night event and it was really fun. I loved talking to Coach Roy, he’s a really good guy with a great heart.
I would have to say that my favorite part was when Coach Roy hit the Quan!
For me, when I’m thinking about choosing a school, it has a lot to do with how the fans communicate with the players. Seeing how the UNC fans communicated with me was amazing!
My recruitment process is cool; I still plan to wait as late as possible before I decide. I just want to see who’s all definitely coming and who’s staying in school and who’s leaving. I just feel like people can be promised lots of things and commit early thinking the player that’s there is getting drafted but it’s all about how guys play during the season. It’s not about what people say. I think it’s just smarter to wait and get all of the information and then decide what’s best for me.
Makes sense, right?
My top eight schools, in no order, are Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, North Carolina, N.C. State, St. John’s and UNLV.
I’ve already visited everywhere except UNLV, Kansas, Louisville and Kentucky. I don’t have any plans for visits yet, but I’ll let you guys know when I start to set up my officials.
I’m definitely ready to get the season started up!
I’m doing stuff that I’ve never done in my life! I’m on the training mats, I’m lifting weights for the first time, I’m on the VertiMax, just a lot of different things that the top players have been doing since they were in eighth grade. Now that I’m training this way I know it’s gonna make me a way better player.
I can’t wait to see the new Rawle Alkins!
That’s all I worry about now.
I learned not to worry about rankings because none of that stuff really matters at all. I feel like I’m the No. 1 shooting guard in the U.S. and in talks for No. 1 guard, period, in the U.S.
I’ve played everyone that they said was the best and my team either won or I was the top performer in the game.
I know the USA Today basketball rankings are coming out soon and I’m hoping that they’ll be really accurate with their rankings.
I honestly think that we’re a top five team in the country.
We’ve got myself, Jaylen Fornes, who I call Klay Thompson. He’s a knockdown shooter who’s committed to UNCW. Then we’ve got Jalen Harris, a great point guard who’s committed to Buffalo. Then we’ve got some guys you’ve never heard of but will be hearing a lot about like Brandon Huffman, who’s a 6-10 center; he literally dunks everything. I see his stock rising tremendously. I think he could be top 10 in 2017.
I’m telling y’all we’re gonna be strong!
And, if you follow me, you know that my predictions are pretty accurate.
I can’t help but to think about how crazy it’d be if I got to play in the DICK’s Sporting Goods National tournament at the end of the season because the games are at my old high school Christ the King! I would love to end it like that; playing for the national title.
I’ll tell you something about me that you don’t know; before games I don’t listen to fast music, I’m a slow music kinda guy!
I just like to relax and be in my chill mode. I listen to a lot of Trey Songz before the games!
OK, I’ve gotta get going, but thank you guys for checking out my blog. Hopefully, you’ll check out my new one coming out soon. I’ll be updating, probably, every week here at USA Today!
Stay tuned.
Don’t forget to follow Rawle Alkins
Twitter: @Iam_RawleAlkins
Instagram: @kingrawle
