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MEMPHIS PROSPECT FIELDS HIS OPTIONS

By Eric Bossi
eric_bossi@yahoo.com
January 9, 2002

Like many 18-year-olds trying to decide what to do about college, Karlon Fields, a 6-7 BF at Memphis (TN) Ridgeway, is struggling with his choices. He is receiving some attention from UT-Martin, East Carolina and others, but would like to see if there is more out there.

Fields, who didn’t start playing basketball until a later age, knows that at 6-7 he is a little bit of a tweener on the next level. Currently he is more comfortable and effective playing on the blocks, where he uses a strong upper body to overpower opponents while averaging 14 points and seven rebounds a game.

However, he knows that on the next level he would probably have to play the wing and is toying with the idea of going to prep school for a year to enhance his perimeter game.

"There’s not really a whole bunch of people going after me now, so I am looking into going to a prep school," Fields told PrepStars.com. "Basically, it could open up some more opportunities. I didn’t start playing until late so it will give me time to improve."

For Fields, the decision to go to prep school would be one based on the ability to improve his recruiting situation only. He is already a solid prospect in the classroom, who sports a 3.4 GPA and he has scored a 24 on the ACT, and the idea of prep school seems to be based, in part at least, on conversations he has had with some college coaches.

"I’ve been in contact with some coaches and everybody is interested in seeing me play more of a small forward than a power forward," said Fields. "I have also had a lot of D-II coaches get involved, but really I am not interested in playing Division-II ball."

For now, all Fields says that he can do is continue to play out the season with his teammates at Ridgeway as they chase after a state championship. Then he will sit down and see if those that have shown interest are still interested, if any new options have come up, or if he will head off to a prep school.

"I want to see how things develop with UT-Martin and ECU, and if I am comfortable with them I could do that," Fields explained. "If not, I would definitely want to go the prep school route."