BASKETBALL
Albuquerque鈥檚 Brandon Mason Jr. picks Xavier
The 6-foot-7 shooting guard says he wants to prove that New Mexico players can compete on the big stage
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Albuquerque native Brandon Mason Jr., a nationally ranked 6-foot-7 shooting guard entering his senior year of high school, announced Sunday he will play in college for the Xavier Musketeers.
He is the son of Brandon Mason Sr., a former New Mexico State Aggie player and former UNM Lobos assistant coach.
The younger Mason announced his college decision on a live broadcast of the 近距离内射合集.
鈥淎fter a long talk with me and my family, and just a lot of nights of praying with God, I decided to take my talents to Xavier University,鈥� Mason Jr. said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where I'll be going.鈥�
Mason Jr., currently ranked by 247Sports as the seventh best shooting guard in the country, said he wanted the decision to be made before his senior season so he could focus on playing. The past three seasons, he was at Albuquerque Prep and played for the ABC Spotlight travel team, and will play his upcoming senior season at highly regarded Link Academy in Missouri.
While Mason Jr. held dozens of scholarship offers, he recently narrowed his list down to five suitors, based on a lot of factors, including relationships made with the coaching staffs. The final schools on his list were Xavier, Grand Canyon, Boise State, Ohio and UNM, where he was once a ball boy in the Pit when his dad was a coach.
He went on just two official recruiting visits in the past year 鈥� Xavier and Boise State 鈥� and also had unofficial visits at UNM, BYU and UNLV.
The Mason family just this past week was in Cincinnati on an official recruiting visit to Xavier. Relationships built with former UNM coach Richard Pitino and former UNM assistant Isaac Chew 鈥� both now at the Big East school in those same roles 鈥� ended up winning out.
鈥淛ust on the visit, I mean, from landing at the airport, it just felt like home,鈥� Mason Jr. said. 鈥淲e had breakfast at the coach鈥檚 house, and every conversation I had with everybody just felt like a normal flow. There wasn鈥檛 any tension or anything wrong with just having conversations with everybody there.鈥�
Asked what fans can expect of his game, Mason Jr. said it starts with work ethic 鈥� an ethic that comes from his New Mexico DNA.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e about to get a really hardworking kid from New Mexico,鈥� Mason Jr. said. 鈥淚鈥檓 ready to prove a lot of people wrong about New Mexico and just show what I'm really about. And they鈥檙e gonna get a really good shooting guard that can shoot the ball really well and very versatile 鈥� block shots, got really good (basketball) IQ.鈥�
Geoff Grammer is the Sports Editor of the Journal and covers UNM Lobos basketball, among other things. Reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) .
