His junior basketball season at Moss Point High School completed, Devin Booker will now delve deep into the recruiting process for the next few weeks.
Booker and his father, Melvin, will travel to ACC country this weekend for unofficial visits to North Carolina and Duke. The Tar Heels host North Carolina State on Saturday, while the Blue Devils entertain Boston College on Sunday.
On March 2, the Bookers will visit Florida when the Gators take on Alabama. The following week, they'll travel to Michigan State to see the Spartans host Wisconsin on March 7 and Michigan to see the Wolverines battle Indiana March 10.
Booker, regarded as one of the top prospects in the country for the class of 2014, said he's looking to see first-hand what he's only seen on TV or heard from recruiters or his father -- Moss Point native Melvin Booker was Big 8 Player of the Year at Missouri in 1994 -- about some of college basketball's top programs.
"I've been talking to the coaches about the schools, and they can tell you everything, but some things you want to see for yourself," Booker said. "You always hear about Duke and North Carolina and the atmosphere, and getting the chance to see it in-person is going to be great."
Booker grew up in his mother's home state of Michigan, but moved to Moss Point to live with his father prior to his 10th-grade year. He took Mississippi high school basketball by storm, averaging 22.8 points per game for the Tigers as a sophomore, then followed it up by scoring at a 29.7-point-per-game clip this past season.
After eclipsing the 30-point mark five times as a sophomore, he did so 16 times as a junior -- including in his last five games. He posted a season-best 49 points against Brewbaker Tech of Alabama on Dec. 22, and also had 48 against Ocean Springs on Dec. 4 (his career-high of 54 came against Northeast Jones his sophomore year).
Numerous college coaches watched the 6-foot-5 shooting guard play at various stops throughout the year, including trips to the Poplar Bluff (Mo.) Shootout in late December and the MLK Classic in Jackson in mid-January. Head coaches Rick Ray of Mississippi State, Johnny Jones of LSU and John Beilein of Michigan have all been spotted at Moss Point games in the last year, while assistants from those schools plus Michigan State, Duke and North Carolina -- among others -- have also seen Booker in action.
Despite Booker's heroics, the Tigers did not achieve overwhelming team success. They finished 12-16 this past season, ending with a 54-51, double overtime loss to Gautier in the first round of the Division 7-5A tournament.
"Obviously, I wanted to go farther in the playoffs," Booker said. "But this gives me more time to get ready for (travel basketball) and to visit the colleges I wanted to."
Booker spent last summer on the recruiting camp circuit, traveling to events such as the the Elite 100 camp in St. Louis, the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in Dallas, the LeBron James King's Academy Camp in Las Vegas and the Kevin Durant Nike Skills Camp in Chicago. He's picked up countless scholarship offers, and has also taken unofficial visits to Mississippi State, Alabama, Michigan, Michigan State and Missouri.
Booker can sign with a four-year school beginning in November, but said he's in no hurry to make a decision. He said that his trips in the coming weeks are only part of the process, which continues when he begins play with his Alabama-based AAU team next month.
"This go-round will be unofficial visits," Booker said. "I'll see which ones I like and then at the end of the summer, I'll start cutting them down and see what my official visits will be."