The Jalen Duren Blog: List Cut Coming, Winning GEICO Nationals, SI All-American, DMX and More

Duren was one of just five underclassmen to make the SI All-American team this season.

Jalen Duren is an SI All-American and one of the top overall players in the country, regardless of class, with schools like Kentucky, Arizona, Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Howard, Miami, Memphis, Michigan, UCLA, Maryland and Villanova, among many others, all giving chase. The 6-foot-10 forward led Montverde (Fla.) Academy to the GEICO Nationals . Now he’s agreed to give SI All-American exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a blog.

What’s good world, it’s Jalen Duren coming back to give you another one of my Sports Illustrated blogs!

If you hadn’t heard, we won the national title!

Just experiencing that was a feeling that I’ll never forget. That’s the highest honor you can receive in high school basketball and we worked really hard for it, so to finally achieve that felt great!

I’ve just been letting it all sink in and enjoying it, but, of course, we’re already thinking about getting it done again.

SIAA First Team | SIAA Second Team | SIAA Third Team

I know the guys that are returning will be ready; the reloading part is up to the coaches. I can tell you that will be the goal! We’re already back to work.

I was really honored to see that I made the SI All-American team too!

My coach was the first person to tell me about it and then I saw it and it just showed me that the hard work is really paying off.

I felt like I played pretty well this season. I’m my own worst critic, but I also look at the outcome.

We won and I did what needed to be done to win. That’s the bottom line for me; I’m all about the win.

Period.

I’ll be running with Team Final this summer and we’re looking pretty strong again!

I’m just looking forward to getting things back to normal, hopefully. I just want the normal experience with the whole atmosphere throughout the games. The fans just add an element that I’ve really missed over the last year. It just brings more and more excitement to the game and makes it more fun.

RELATED: Chet Holmgren is the SIAA Player of the Year

With my recruitment UCLA has really picked things up with me and I still have great relationships with schools like Michigan, Arizona, Kentucky and all of those schools.

I will be cutting my list down this weekend, so be on the lookout for that!

With school, things are going really well too!

When we got back all the teachers were really excited that we won. We have a lot of great support at Montverde!

I want to say rest in peace to DMX too!

That was so sad and he was a legend!

Musically, I’ve still been listening to my old school stuff like Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass, but I’m still listening to Lil Baby and NBA and those guys too.

OK, that’s about it for now guys; I appreciate you reading today, and I want you to check back soon for the next blog.

Take care and be safe!

Don’t forget to follow Jalen Duren:

Instagram: jalenduren