TORONTO

UPDATE:

Orangeville's Athlete Institute has landed a huge catch.



Thon Maker, considered the top high school basketball prospect in North America, announced Friday that

he and younger brother, Matur, have enrolled at the program.



"Excited to announce that Thon Maker & Matur Maker will be attending Orangeville Prep at Athlete

Institute for the 2014-15 basketball season.," tweeted Athlete Institute head coach Larry Blunt.



Thon Maker is ranked No. 1 in the Class of 2016.



"We believe this is the best decision for Thon, Matur and my family," Ed Smith, Maker's guardian, told

ESPN.



Smith, who is a long-time friend of Blunt, will serve as an assistant head coach.



"The strength and condition program is tremendous and is the main factor of this decision. Playing with

high-level players such as Jamal Murray and Jalen Poyser, and playing an international schedule, as well

as many games back in the states makes the schedule strong. The academic component has everything

in place."



Maker, a 7-footer with impressive shooting and dribbling skills, needs to put on weight.

"It's definitely the right fit for me," Thon Maker told ESPN. "I came up here last year, but now I got a

chance to see both the academic and athletic side, and I was really impressed. It will certainly help me

attain one of my goals, and that is to change my body over time."

Blunt told the Sun Thursday that "it's just a partnership that makes a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons."

ORIGINAL STORY:

One of the world's top basketball prospects might be taking his talents to Orangeville.

Thon Maker, a 7-foot forward considered the top player in the class of 2016 by most scouting outlets and his younger brother, Matur, left their prep school in Carlisle, Va. and are debating between playing at the Athlete Institute in Orangeville, or Hopewell Academy in North Carolina.

Thon and Matur Maker left war-torn Sudan for Uganda when Thon was five, before being accepted as refugees in Australia. Thon later moved to the United States with legal guardian Edward Smith and played briefly at a New Orleans-area school, before heading to Virginia two years ago.

“After an excellent academic year and State Championship season at the Carlisle School, followed by a great AAU seasons on the Adidas circuit with Team Loaded VA, the common theme for Thon and Matur to optimize their potential has been core strength development with additional muscle gain,” Smith said in a statement.

Maker and his brother arrived in Orangeville on Monday and are still in town.

Since school started this week, a decision will need to be made soon.

“We are currently in the process of evaluating several exciting opportunities. We have visited Hopewell Academy of Cary, NC and are currently in Canada working out at Athlete Institute in Orangeville, Ontario,” Smith said in the statement.

“Hopewell Academy offers us access to EXOS performance facility in Cary, North Carolina. Athlete Institute has a world class training program where high level prep talent such as Jamal Murray, Jalen Poyser and Kyle Alexander currently train.”

Athlete Institute head coach Larry Blunt told the Sun Thursday night that he is hopeful that the Makers will stick around in Canada.

“I've known (Smith) for a long time. Through our relationship, through his relationship with CIA Bounce, Jamal and Thon's relationship, it's just a partnership that makes a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons,” Blunt said.

“We've been excited to have an opportunity to show them how incredible a strength and conditioning program we have, all the resources, academically we have. We're a very reputable school. We have a program full of kids who really do it the right way both on and off the court. We don't give any favours for being athletes. Our goal is to show them the wonderful things we believe and that we can offer.”

Murray, a Kitchener native, is considered the latest in the line of elite Canadian prospects and he and Thon Maker played at the recent Jordan Brand Classic. Murray tturned down numerous offers to play at top U.S. prep schools to stay close to home at Athlete Institute, “a basketball preparatory educational program that prepares post grad and high school student athletes for competition at the post-secondary level.”

It was founded in 2011 and the basketball team plays in games across North America (Blunt says he believes the team will have one of the best international schedules in the world this year) they and the players get specialized education programs aimed at helping them adjust once they go to university or college.

Maker and Murray both have two years of high school eligibility remaining, but could reclassify, making this upcoming season their last.

With the height of a centre and the shooting and ball-handling abilities of a high-scoring wing, Maker has been compared to the likes of Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant.

He was in Toronto last summer playing pickup hoops at the OVO Bounce Classic, a tournament run by Drake and the CIA Bounce AAU team. Murray plays his AAU ball for CIA Bounce and Blunt is a CIA Bounce assistant.