Brunsons visits turn to Philadelphia

With one trip to Illinois in the books and another set this week at Villanova, five-star Stevenson (Ill.) High School point guard Jalen Brunson is in the midst of taking his five official visits before deciding where he will play college basketball.

Next week, the 6-foot-1 rising senior will be at Temple from Sept. 11-13, and he plans to round out his official visits at Michigan State (Sept. 19) and Purdue (Sept. 26).

Brunson's father, Rick, who played at Temple before embarking upon a nine-year career in the NBA and various assistant coaching stops at the college and pro level, explained that his son will be declining interview requests while he takes his official visits and focuses on making his college decision, but the elder Brunson spoke with OwlScoop.com Wednesday night to talk about his son's recruitment and his five finalists.

Brunson was set to join Fran Dunphy's staff as an assistant coach before he was indicted on charges of attempted criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual abuse, aggravated battery and domestic battery following a June arrest relating to an encounter with a massage therapist at a suburban Chicago fitness center. He has pled not guilty to all charges and his trial date has since been delayed to Dec. 8.

Although Brunson played at Temple, he said his history with the program does not mean he's going to tell his son that he has to follow in his footsteps, even though it looked as if Jalen would be joining him when he was going to be hired at Temple.

"He just turned 18 on Sunday and I would never tell my son 'This is where you're going to go to school,'" Brunson said. "You're going to go to Temple, you're going to go to Villanova - I'm not doing that. I'll tell him to make a decision and stick with it. It's just like when you raise your kid, you always say, 'Make your decision, stick with it and live it.' I say that because we put him in a position where we have five schools on our list and if he picked Illinois tomorrow, we're comfortable with it, and that's how the process works.

"It's up to him now. We're out of it. All we can do is say, 'We support you.' We've got the five schools and five coaches that we like.

"There's a misconception that he's listening to me. I went to Temple. My wife (Sandra, a former Owls volleyball player) went to Temple. We love Temple. But why would I put that on my son? He didn't go there. I did. I played for John Chaney and played there in the early 90s. Things are different now. Although we love and support Temple and I'd love nothing more than to have my son wear a Temple uniform, I couldn't live with myself if I said, 'You're going to Temple and that's it.' I couldn't live with myself."

Jalen Brunson had more than a dozen high-major scholarship offers, including ones from Kansas and defending national champion UConn, before paring his list down to five programs.

"I think the number one thing - and this is why we went through the process - is all five coaches are home runs," Rick Brunson said. "And the number two thing is all five schools need a point guard. So it's real simple. It's very, very simple. And I tell people if my son woke up tomorrow and said, 'This is where I want to go to school,' I'd say, 'OK, call these coaches and tell them why you're not coming to their school and then we can move on.'"

So what will matter most in the end for his son, Brunson was asked, when it's time to make a decision?

"From a basketball standpoint, he's looking for the type of coach and coaching staff where he can have a long-lasting relationship," said Brunson, a former McDonald's All-American who played at Temple from 1991-95. "This is not a four-year thing. This has got to be a 40-year, lifelong thing. And number two would be that he wants to play and he wants to win. He wants the ability to win. And number three obviously would be that he wants to be a part of somebody. He's not going to school to be a savior. He wants to be a part of a university, a part of a basketball organization or staff. And my wife and I feel like we've taught our son to be a very good student. If you look at his report card, his grades and his ACT scores, he's a very good student."

Brunson acknowledged that it can be hard for him to be completely objective about his alma mater when it comes to Jalen's recruitment, but he once again maintained that the final decision will come from his son.

"It is not easy because my love for Temple is big," Brunson said. "And even when I was going to be hired there, I think people were sadly mistaken. Even when I was going to be hired at Temple, the hardest part was going to be convincing my son to come there. And people will say, 'You're crazy.' But when you raise your kids the way me and my wife raised them, it's not crazy. We raised them to make their own decisions, to stand up if they believe in something.

"And let's say I send my son to Temple and I was coaching there and it didn't work out. For the rest of my life, I've got to look him in the eye and he's going to say, 'Why did you do that?' And I'd have to live with that for the rest of my life. So now, when he makes a decision, it's on him."

If Jalen Brunson does, in fact, choose Temple, his father said he would have peace of mind about it and believes his son would be in good hands with the Owls' staff, which now includes his close friend and former teammate, Aaron McKie, who was hired last month.

And Jalen Brunson would also be the centerpiece of what could potentially become Temple's best recruiting class in recent memory if all of the pieces fall into place. He would be joining Ewing High School wing forward Trey Lowe, who committed to Temple last month after a very good summer with his Team Final AAU program. The 6-6 Lowe is ranked by Rivals as the No. 119 player in the 2015 class.

The Owls are also hosting 3-star Archbishop Carroll center Ernest Aflakpui and 4-star Haverford School guard Levan Alston, whose father also played at Temple with Rick Brunson, this weekend. Aflakpui, who has Saint Joseph's, Rhode Island and VCU among his finalists, also had offers from Memphis and San Diego State. Alston, a teammate of Lowe's with Team Final, is considering the Owls along with VCU, Notre Dame, Marquette, Penn State and Penn.

"The number one thing is I have tremendous respect for Fran," Brunson said, "and I know he would take care of Jalen like he's his own. I know that. And they just hired a very close friend of mine in Aaron McKie, and I have a great relationship with (Temple assistant coach) Dwayne Killings. I can tell him about the school, about the program, but again, I don't want to mislead people. It will be Jalen Brunson's decision."

With an outstanding summer playing for his Mac Irvin Fire AAU team and earning a gold medal with USA Basketball in the under-18 FIBA Americas, Jalen Brunson enhanced his reputation as arguably the best point guard in the 2015 class. He capped off his summer run by collecting 16 points and handing out nine assists in USA Midwest's 119-106 win over China in the third-place game of the Nike Global Challenge.

Even the best players, Rick Brunson said, need some confidence and reassurance, and that's what the summer provided for Jalen.

"Jalen is a unique player. He grew up around the game," Brunson said. "He grew up watching me, Eddie (Jones) and Aaron as far as working out in the summer. He knows what it takes to be great, and I think him going and playing with other great players solidified to him like, 'Damn, I guess I am pretty good.' Because in his own mind, he's still a kid. You still have uncertainties, you're still not sure if you're that good.

"So I think it showed him that he is that good, and I think it also showed people that if you put Jalen around great players, he turns into who he really is - a point guard first who happens to score. In high school, he can score 50 points a game, but sometimes he had to do that for his high school team."

As for a timetable on Jalen's decision, there isn't necessarily a firm one.

"I made a deal with him," Rick Brunson said, "and I said, 'I really believe you need to take your visits.' But if he feels his own way where he says, 'This is where I want to be,' then don't waste people's time. Come home and say, 'This is where I'm going to go,' and we're going to support you - bottom line."

Whatever program does land Brunson will be getting a difference-making point guard with a dead-eye jumper and a tremendous feel for the game.

"I think he's really improved his shooting," Rick Brunson said of his son. "He's really been practicing to become a better shooter. He improved on decision making. I thought as a junior, he was careless sometimes. Even though he's a great player, I think he has so much more room for improvement. And I think he really wants to be great. You always want to be good, but he wants to be great and he lives that. I work him out during the day, but at night he goes out on his own and does more."

And as for keeping his son's head out of the clouds in the midst of some lofty accomplishments and rankings over the past several months, Rick Brunson said he is quick to remind his son that rankings and notoriety only mean so much at the end of the day.

"His sophomore year, two years ago, he wasn't ranked," Brunson said. "And in my opinion, he was one of the best guards in the country, and I've seen it all as a coach. And to me, the only way rankings matter is for all-star games. That's all they give weight to. I think he's handled it because he knows it's just somebody's opinion. That's all it is. It's not going to make or break him."

But it does, as always, leave room for some fun and healthy debate at home.

"You're not going to get a bigger piece of chicken at my house because you're the No. 1 point guard," Rick Brunson said with a laugh. "I'm the No. 1 point guard in this house."

OwlScoop.com editor John Di Carlo can be reached at jgdicarlo@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @OwlScoop_com or @jdicarlo.