Jayson Tatum is widely regarded as one of the most versatile and talented players in the country, regardless of class and is ranked No. 3 overall in the ESPN 100. He’s won two gold medals with USA Basketball (U17 and U19), won a state title and the Gatorade National Player of the Year for boys’ basketball. Tatum, a Duke signee, has agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a monthly blog.

What’s up y’all it’s Jay back to do another blog; we’ve got a lot of things to talk about so let’s get it started.

The weird thing right now is that I’d usually be playing on the EYBL so it’s different for me. I definitely don’t miss the traveling, but I do miss just being in the hotel with the guys hanging out then playing games twice a day. It all went by so fast!

I went to the EYBL session in New York and I definitely wanted to be out there.

School is almost over! Our last day is May 12. I go to Duke on May 16 and I fly back for graduation on May 22!

It’s basically here now.

I haven’t started getting ready to leave or anything like that because my mom gets a little emotional whenever we start talking about me leaving.

I’m looking forward to so many things at Duke; putting on the Duke jersey, playing for Coach K, being in the ACC, being a part of the Duke-UNC rivalry and hopefully making the NCAA Tournament…

So many things!

It’s crazy to think that I’m about to be a part of it all.

We’ve got a big target on our backs already, but when you sign up to come to Duke you already know that’s coming. The good thing about this group that we have coming in is that none of us have the “big head.” None of us have ever played a college game and we’re all ready to learn.

People talk about one-and-done and things like that, but I can honestly say that I don’t even think about that stuff. I’m only focused on college basketball and getting better and learning from Coach K.

Of course I’m rooming with my boy Harry (Giles) so that’ll be cool. We have the oversized, king size beds too because we’re so tall so that’s perfect.

Of course we’re not done getting players in our class; we still want Marques Bolden!

I’m feeling pretty confident that we’ll get him.

We talk to him a lot in group chats and we hang out with him a lot on the trips that we’ve been going to over the last few weeks so we’re feeling pretty confident. He’s a big piece for us!

For those who don’t know I was blessed to win the Gatorade National Player of the Year award for basketball and that was a dream of mine growing up. I watched Brad (Beal) receive that award seven years ago at my high school and to be able to accomplish that goal was big for me.

I’ll get to go to the ESPYS and everything like that too so I’m excited!

I know I’ve been blogging about winning the state title for years and I finally got it!

That’s probably the top of the list for accomplishments that I’ve had in high school because of all the things we had to go through to get it done. We came up short for three years and we got it done in the last year.

I had to beat my dad’s team to get to states so that made it even better. He always talks about the championship rings that he’s got and I’ve finally got mine now.

When that horn went off we couldn’t control ourselves. We were up by about nine with a few seconds left and I had the ball and bent over and started crying a little bit. Then when the horn went off I just threw the ball way up in the air and we just ran around jumping and screaming! I always said if I won states I was gonna throw the ball in the air as high as possible.

That was a great feeling!

OK, I know everybody is ready for Friday because we finally get Views From the 6! Drake put out the track listing yesterday and it’s got 20 songs so I know it’s gonna be crazy!

Other than that I’ve been listening to Yo Gotti, Future, Big Sean, 2 Chainz… Oh I saw Barbershop 3 last week and it was cool, but I don’t think it topped the first one.

But I’d say check it out.

OK guys once again this is Jay finishing up another blog. Hope you liked it and I’ll get with you guys again soon.

Don’t forget to follow Jayson Tatum

Twitter: @Im_That_Dude22

Instagram: @jaysontatum22