Paolo Banchero is ranked No. 4 overall in USA Today Sports’ Chosen 25 for 2021. He led O’Dea High School (Seattle) to its first state title since 2007 last season as a sophomore, won MVP of the NBPA Top 100 Camp this summer and won Underclassmen of the Year in the Nike EYBL. That has everyone from Duke to Washington to Kentucky to North Carolina and Kansas, among others, all in hot pursuit. Now, Banchero has agreed to give USA Today Sports 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 Paolo and I’m checking in with blog No. 2 so lets get it started!
Right now, we’re doing open gyms like everyone else and there have been a lot of college coaches coming through.
Duke, Kentucky, Georgetown, Tennessee and a couple others have all been through already and North Carolina, Gonzaga and Baylor will all come through this week.
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I picked up an offer from Michigan last week and I’m adding them to my final list.
It’s crazy to have these big time coaches coming to my school because I was the kid that followed stuff like this on social media when I was younger. I’d see Coach K and guys like that coming out to the top players’ practices and stuff and now I’m in that position.
It just feels crazy. It’s honestly pretty surreal.
Coach K was supposed to come out, but he wasn’t able to make it and said he’d be back soon. Coach Calipari came out and when he was in the parking lot all of the students were crowding around the door trying to see him. Coach Patrick Ewing walked right through the gym and that was big too!
I’ve definitely had a bunch of my friends asking to meet the coaches and stuff.
I’m excited about my officials coming up too!
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I’ll be at Kentucky for Big Blue Madness, I’ll be at North Carolina for Late Night with Roy and I’ll be at Duke for Countdown to Craziness.
I’ve been to Duke and North Carolina both twice because I have family there, but never for an official. I’m mostly looking forward to touring all of the campuses and getting a feel for what life would be like there. I really want to talk to the players about how much they like it there and stuff like that.
The other thing is that I’m feeling more and more confident going in to the season after playing together in open gym the last few weeks. We only lost two seniors and return everyone else, so we should be pretty good again.
The biggest tournament we’ll be in this year is the City of Palms before Christmas in Florida so that will be fun.
On the school side of things, I would say the hardest class I have is my Math class. I’m getting through it pretty well though; we’re working on complex inequalities. I’m really enjoying English and History though.
I’ve started off well grade-wise, so I want to keep that going!
RELATED: Chosen 25 Basketball Rankings 2021
OK, musically I’m listening to Larry June and Lil Tecca right now. Those are the two that are getting the most play for me right now.
I just finished season three of “Stranger Things” and I loved it. I never thought I’d get into that show, but my mom was watching it and I started watching it with her and got hooked.
I think my favorite character on the show would have to be 11!
I would definitely say you need to check that out if you haven’t already.
OK, guys I’ve gotta get going, but I appreciate you taking the time to read my new blog. I’ll be back soon to give you an update on how all of my visits went.
See you then.
Don’t forget to follow Paolo Banchero:
Twitter: @Pp_doesit
