The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

SAMMY Hunter has narrowed his NCAA decision down to his final three schools as he heads into his final season of prep basketball.

Hunter announced via social media that he will decide between the Kansas State Wildcats, Ole Miss Running Rebels and the latest addition to his recruitment list, the Oklahoma Sooners.

For much of the summer, it was a relatively slow recruitment process for Hunter, but he quickly picked up five NCAA Division I offers in just under two weeks.

"The recruiting process has been a learning experience. The schools that have recruited me want to know who you are as a person, what you plan to do in school, what you do off the court, about your family. It's about you as a person and not just as a basketball player," Hunter said.

"It got crazy in 10-day span. Before I wasn't getting recruited from big schools and power 5 conferences, but it began happening and I thank God for it. His summer recruitment continued to accelerate following his performances against elite Division I competition at the Bahamas Basketball Federation's Summer of Thunder. He finished with 19 points and eight rebounds against Notre Dame and followed with 18 points and five rebounds against North Carolina.

Currently at BC Prep in British Colombia, Canada, prep school in Canada was not the original choice, but an opportunity he discovered after the US was no longer a possibility.

"It took some convincing. My Visa got denied for the US so Canada was the next best thing. I had a friend that went to BC, I liked what the coaches had to offer in terms of getting me ready so I thank God for that. I didn't know anything about Canada, my mind was just set on the US for basketball the last few years, but I discovered another route," Hunter said. "The prep school experience, it feels like you're in college already. You have to send out your school work while on trips, we play 40-plus games, we travel a lot so you find a way to fit in with time management."

This summer, he also made his senior men's national team debut in July at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Hunter was also a member of the 2016 CBC Under-16 Championship team when he averaged 12 points and 5.5 rebounds per game and the 2017 Centrobasket U-17 Championship team when he averaged 14.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. It was then that he first drew the interest of NCAA programmes who approached him following the tournaments.