N.C. State Basketball Recruiting: Julius Randle visiting Texas Longhorns

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The final two official visits that Julius Randle will take are to Big 12 schools in the Texas Longhorns and the Kansas Jayhawks, and he is currently on his official trip to Austin, Texas. Next week, Randle will visit Bill Self’s storied program in Lawrence, Kansas. The third-best recruit in the 2013 class behind Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker respectively, Randle said that the best official trip he took was the one to the North Carolina State Wolfpack in late January. That means N.C. State gave Randle a better official than two major hoops powers in the Kentucky Wildcats and the Florida Gators.

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Kansas, Texas, N.C. State, Florida, Kentucky, and the Oklahoma Sooners are the six finalists in Randle’s recruitment. Although the Sooners weren’t able to host Randle on an official visit, he did unofficially visit them in late October; a week after Randle took an unofficial trip to the Longhorns.

The in-state school has a great chance of landing the clear top-rated PF in the class and the clear top-rated recruit in the state of Texas. The standout from Plano is an incredible offensive weapon in the paint, and some say that he is even better than Duke Blue Devils commit Jabari Parker.

At this point in time, it is pretty much anyone’s game to land Randle. However, Florida, Texas, and now N.C. State seem to be the most talked-about teams in Randle’s recruitment right now. This official trip to Texas is huge in his recruitment, and we’ll keep a close eye on how things go for Randle in Austin. This has a chance to be a huge catch for the N.C. State Wolfpack, but they have to beat out a few elite programs to do it.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.