Difficult as it might be not to, prize high school basketball recruit Marquis Teague said not to read too much Louisville’s hiring of his former high school assistant, Shabaka Lands, as influencing his college decision.

Teague, a lightning-quick junior point guard at Pike High School, said Friday that “it won’t affect where I’m going to go.”

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“That’s for him,” said Teague, ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 2 player nationally in the 2011 class. “That doesn’t have anything to do with me. I still need to find the place where I’m most comfortable.”

So where, exactly, is Teague most comfortable? He doesn’t know. Not yet, anyway. Teague’s friend and teammate, senior Khristian Smith, said he can’t get a read on it either.

“I want to be the first one to know, but I don’t know what he’s going to do,” Smith said. “I don’t think he knows.”

Teague said he’d like to have a decision made before the first game of the season at Pike, but he and his father, Shawn Teague, have pushed the deadline back a few times already. Teague said he’s still considering offers from Cincinnati, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio State Purdue and Wake Forest (though he added contact with Wake Forest has been waning recently).

It appears another school has been added to the list, though, as defending national champion North Carolina has begun recruiting Teague. He said he hopes to visit the Chapel Hill, N.C. campus “at some time” this fall.

“I’ve been talking to them a lot lately and they are starting to get in the mix,” said Teague, whose brother Jeff played at Wake Forest and will be a rookie with the Atlanta Hawks this season. “It makes it harder. I mean, it’s North Carolina. You have to talk to them.”

Teague has visits lined up this weekend to Louisville and Cincinnati on Sept. 26. He said he also plans to make trips to IU and Ohio State again. The past two weekends he’s been to Kentucky and Purdue and said he would like to also visit Kentucky once more.

“I like their school,” he said. “The facilities are great and I like (coach John Calipari). I got to play a little with the team and got to go against (highly regarded freshman) John Wall. He was just so fast. People think I’m fast, but man. I thought I did pretty good, though. I was scoring a little bit on him, but had a hard time keeping him out of the lane.”

Teague’s showing this summer did nothing to hurt his reputation. But while most of the reviews were glowing, Teague is kept humble at home. He has no choice.
“My dad’s my biggest critic,” Teague said. “He tells me everything that I do wrong. When we break down tape, he’ll find everything little thing. But it helps; I need it. He makes sure I get better every year by pushing me.”

It might seem like a lot of pressure for a teenager to have several of the most prestigious basketball programs awaiting your decision. Teague said he doesn’t worry about that, keeping focused on what’s going to be best for him.
“It’s my decision, in the end,” he said. “My parents don’t have to play, fans don’t have to play. I need to find what’s best for me.”

Teague said that decision could come any time – whenever he makes up his mind.
“My dad had wanted me to push it back a couple times to make sure,” he said. “But he said if I want to make (a decision), I can make it. But I’ve been talking to more schools so I want to wait because I just don’t know anymore.”