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Hoop Summit: Ferguson has focus

Terrance Ferguson
Terrance Ferguson


Portland, Ore. -- The pressure is starting to build for five-star shooting guard Terrance Ferguson. He's running out of time to make a college decision and wants to fully investigate his options, but he's also trying to focus on winning this weekend's Hoop Summit with USA Basketball.

Ranked No. 12 nationally in the 2016 Rivals150, the 6-foot-6 senior from Dallas (Texas) API did allow himself some time to have fun with his decision last weekend. On April Fools Day, Ferguson tweeted that he would be announcing his decision before later tweeting that he was joking.

For the most part, fans and coaches took the joke well.

"The April Fools Day joke I pulled was just about having fun because the process will get you stressed out and I’m trying not to fall into it. Right now I’m with the USA team at Hoops Summit and just having fun. Most of the responses were fun, but there were some that got out of line.

“I tricked one coach and that was a coach at Baylor. Baylor called and I was like coach, 'April Fools joke.' I got (assistant) coach Tang bad. Even (assistant) coach Mills texted me that I got coach Tang bad and they were laughing."

This week, though, Ferguson is all about business as he prepares to hit the floor for Team USA. He's been a part of gold medal winning USA Basketball teams each of the last three summers and he wants to add a Hoop Summit win.

He says that the coaches recruiting him have respected that.

“They all hit me up before I came here," said Ferguson. "But they know that we’ve had some losses the last few years and so they want me to be really focused and forget about the process and be focused. Getting a win this year is really important. This group of talented guys right here is looking to get a win and get things going again.”

After his most recent trip to Arizona, Ferguson is hoping to lock in on a decision after he finishes in Portland. The Wildcats along with Baylor and Kansas are out ahead of the pack but he's got his eyes on some others and one school in particular is trying to get him out for a visit before he decides.

“I’ve already taken unofficial visits to Kansas and Baylor so I probably don’t need to visit them. But North Carolina has really been trying to get in the mix and hitting me hard this last week so I am considering a visit to them and I've put them in my final six. I've also got Maryland who I visited unofficially and N.C. State too."

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