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Chicago Prospect Parker Names 10 College Choices

Basketball star Jabari Parker has named the 10 college programs he is considering with a year to go before he graduates from high school, and DePaul in his hometown of Chicago made the cut.

Parker tweeted his 10 schools on Wednesday night in no particular order: national champion Kentucky, Stanford, Michigan State, Kansas, Florida, Duke, BYU, Georgetown, DePaul and North Carolina.

Parker said he hopes to reduce his list to five by this fall, when he will start his senior year at Chicago's Simeon Career Academy, where he is an A student. He said geography would play a role in his eventual choice.

Last season, Parker averaged 19.5 points, 8.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 3.3 blocks and 1.4 steals in leading Simeon to its third consecutive Illinois state title.

He said this summer has been "kind of a setback in recruiting" because he hasn't been able to talk to many coaches since he was traveling overseas with the under-17 U.S. team.

Parker declined to talk about a major religious decision that awaits him when he turns 19 at the end of his freshman year in college. That's the age when Mormon men decide whether to go on a 2-year mission to spread the church's faith in the U.S. or overseas. Parker is part of a small segment of the U.S. population that is Mormon, and rarer still are the number of blacks like Parker who are Mormon.

Parker's inclusion of BYU among his college choices is clearly a nod to his faith.

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