College Basketball Recruiting: Tony Parker Lists UGA As Finalist

Most of the state's top basketball talent signed during the early period with Southwest Dekalb's Shaq Goodwin heading to Memphis and Shiloh High's Robert Carter staying home at Georgia Tech. However, the biggest prospect in the state, Miller Grove's Tony Parker, hasn't made his choice yet and his final list includes a surprise school in Mark Fox's Bulldogs.

It is not often you see the Bulldogs listed among Duke, Kansas and UCLA when it comes to basketball but credit Mark Fox for his resiliency here. Fox has a couple of advantages working in his favor. One are two former Miller Grove teammates already on the Bulldogs roster in Donte Williams and fellow recruit Brandon Morris. Plus the UGA campus is located only 45 minutes from Parker's home.

When he didn't take an official visit to Georgia, many wrote the Bulldogs off as having no chance but the reality was Parker has taken several unofficial visits to the school.

"My thought on that is that I think I will be successful wherever I go," Parker said. "I think for my family, UGA would be great. I think for the people at my school and for the people that support Miller Grove basketball, it would be great. You know, they would all only have to drive 45 minutes to see me play.

It would be great for a Georgia Basketball program that slipped back to mediocrity this season after the loss of Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie to the NBA. Georgia signed its first McDonalds All-American since 1992 last season in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. If Fox can land Parker, then he will have added two in back-to-back seasons which could signal the rest of the college basketball world that something terribly different is going on down in Athens.

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