Kelsey Bone
Kelsey Bone says she'll have 10 finalists in April.
The one thing about being the No. 1 high-school player in the country is that everyone wants you to conform to their schedule, usually one more accelerated than yours. The other thing about being the No. 1 player in the country is the independent-minded required to be that good. And if the latter isn't yet clear, it's soon to become so because of Kelsey Bone, who is as possessive of her own mind as anyone.
The junior out of Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas, told HoopGurlz.com that she will cut her list of college finalists to about 10 sometime in April and that she remains determined to take five official visits in the fall before making a commitment.
Tough decisions ahead for Kelsey Bone.
Bone said she likely will make the cutdown after competing in the Boo Williams Invitational during the spring evaluation period with her new club team. The new team has not been announced, so Bone deferred comment, but said Skylar Diggins, the No. 4 player in the HoopGurlz Super Sixty for 2009 with whom Bone has become close, likely will be a teammate this summer. Bone said she will play a reduced summer schedule, which she hopes will include a berth on the USA Basketball U19 national team.
"She played way too much last summer," said Kim Williams, Bone's mother. "She just got worn down and it showed in all the injuries."
Bone also said an implication last month by a newspaper that regularly covers the University of Connecticut that she already has a list of favorites was exaggerated.
"The reporter read off a list of schools and asked if it was fair to say those were ones I was considering," said Bone, who led Dulles to the semifinals of the tough Texas 5A Region 3. "I said those were schools on my list, but I'm not ready to say anything about a new list. I want to at least talk to some coaches before I do. I'm going to wait until the college season is over to do that."
Bone also said the long list she provided HoopGurlz at the beginning of the high-school season still is in effect. That list includes Auburn, Cal, Connecticut, Duke, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon State, Rutgers, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, USC and Washington.
Kelsey Bone was rejuvenated after a
recruiting hiatus.
The 6-foot-5 post last month had to dispel a fairly wide-spread rumor that her commitment to an unspecified school "was a done deal."
The craziness of the recruiting process prompted Williams to impose a communications hiatus on college coaches from Nov. 28 to Dec. 19. Her daughter said she was grateful for the peace and quiet.
"It was really, really good for me," Bone said. "It helped me sit down and just be a kid, go to the movies, stuff like that. I understand the recruiting is about to get really serious and I wanted to focus on my high-school team.
"Things have really changed. Before this year, I'd watch a team on TV and said, 'I might like to go there.' Then it was just talk. Now I might watch a team on TV and after the game get an email from the coach. You know things are serious then."
Bone said plans to attend the NCAA Women's Final Four in Tampa next month to "see what the atmosphere is like." She giggled when asked if she were scouting the environment for future visits as a player.
