The Jalen Duren Blog: It's Been Fun Ride...
Jalen Duren is an SI All-American and one of the top overall players in the country, regardless of class, and recently committed to Memphis and reclassified up to 2021. The 6-foot-10 forward led Montverde (Fla.) Academy to the GEICO Nationals title this past season, averaging 17 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks a game. He followed that up with dominant summer, which culminated in winning a Peach Jam title in July.
What’s up world, it’s Jalen Duren coming back to give you guys my final blog of my high school career!
As most of you know by now, I’m headed to Memphis, and I reclassified to 2021!
This has been something that my mom and I have been discussing for a while and really weighing out heavily. The bottom line is that we just felt like this would be the best thing for me to develop and to continue to grow as a player.
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I’ll say one of the biggest things that made it tough was missing out on the senior year stuff like McDonald’s All American and Jordan Brand Classic games. Of course everyone wants to be able to participate in those games, but after winning a GEICO Nationals title, a Peach Jam title and winning a gold medal, I had accomplished all of the things I wanted to accomplish in high school.
I’m proud to be able to say that.
Even with that it’s a tough decision to make.
I had to just think about the bigger picture and go ahead and make the move. I feel like another year of high school wouldn’t be bad, but I would just get so much more and grow so much more moving on to the next level.
I know a lot of people thought I was gonna go pro, but I always said in my blog that I favored college. Even without the NIL, I probably still would’ve gone to college. I’ve always said that it’s never been about the money with me, it’s about where I would develop and grow the most.
College is just the biggest stage! Who doesn’t watch March Madness!
Jalen Duren picked Memphis over Kentucky and Miami.
Jon Lopez/Nike
I just wanted to be a part of that.
I know that my decision will impact other players, but at the end of the day I went this route because it was the right move for me.
My advice would always be to do what’s best for you and go hard with it!
Picking a college was tough, but it really just came down to comfortability.
Kentucky has a great program and Miami is like family, but Memphis was just the best fit for me in the end.
When I called Coach Penny, it was him and Larry Brown on the phone and they were both just saying that they were at a loss for words. It was pretty exciting.
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I go down to Memphis at the end of the month and I’m definitely excited about it!
I think we’ll have a chance to be really good. They had a great team coming back even without me. I feel like we can make it to the tournament and go even further.
I just feel like we have a group of guys that are all locked in on getting better every day and that’s gonna pay off.
When I look back on my high school career, I would have to say the biggest highlights would be winning a Philadelphia Catholic League championship (That’s big where I’m from!), winning the gold medal with USA Basketball, winning the GEICO Nationals title and winning Peach Jam!
It was a great ride for me. I had a lot of fun and was fortunate to be able to accomplish a lot with hard work, great coaches and teammates.
Thanks again for reading and I’ll see you next season at Memphis!
Don’t forget to follow Jalen Duren:
Instagram: jalenduren