One of the best small forwards in the country is getting closer to making his college decision as Indianapolis native Kris Wilkes announced on Twitter this weekend that he’s down to his final five schools.
The Class of 2017 wing is still considering Illinois, Indiana, UCLA, UConn and Xavier.
Regarded as the No. 17 overall prospect in the Rivals.com national Class of 2017 rankings, the 6-foot-7 Wilkes is a dynamic scorer who averaged 18.3 points per game over 15 games in the Under Armour Association this spring and summer. Wilkes can put the ball in the hoop in a variety of ways, but he’s going to need to improve his perimeter stroke for the college game, as he only shot 23 percent from three-point range and 48 percent from the free-throw line in UAA play this year. Wilkes also averaged 6.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game playing for the Indy Hoosiers.
This final five for Wilkes is intriguing because many of the schools are very similar to grassroots teammate and four-star point guard Paul Scruggs. The 6-foot-4 Scruggs has already been to Indiana and Xavier this month on visits while Illinois and UConn are expected to receive official visits in the next few weeks. Those four schools all match up with Wilkes. It’s worth noting that Scruggs is also supposed to check out Michigan State while UCLA is still uniquely in the mix for Wilkes.
It’s hard to say if Scruggs and Wilkes will opt to play with each other in college, but it’s definitely something to monitor as these two go through official visits.