“I don’t think I’m anywhere near being the best player that I can be. My goal is to be the best basketball player that I can be.”

Trevon Duval is not finished yet -- he’s far from it. As a Junior, he has already distinguished himself as one of the top point-guards in the entire country, and colleges have started to take notice. Duval has offers from nearly every school a basketball player could ever dream of receiving, including Arizona, Kansas, and Louisville. With a plethora of offers, Duval makes sure to take his time with the recruiting process, taking each school into consideration, as Duval says, “I wouldn’t say there are any frontrunners. I’m just looking for a school that fits me as a person and as a player. I’m looking at campuses and then, basketball-wise, what team fits me as a player.”

 

While there are many ways to describe Duval’s style of play, most people would label him as a playmaker. Duval has a very high basketball IQ and has an innate ability to attack the basket and score with ease. Despite his strong playmaking ability, Duval is praised by his teammates for his skill in improving those around him. “Trevon doesn't get enough credit as a teammate as he does as a player.” said Duval’s teammate at Advanced Prep International (Dallas, TX), Elijah Elliot.

Duval’s ability to act as a leader has helped turn around API’s season, transforming an underachieving team with a 13-7 record to national championship contenders. When I spoke with Duval after API’s loss to Northfield Mount Hermon on December 29, he said, “For the rest of the season I’m just going to keep working my hardest, trying to win every game.”

Since then, API has done exactly that, winning 17 straight games and setting themselves in a position to make it to the Dick’s Sporting Goods High School National Championship.

 

It’s been a long journey for Duval to get to this point. Picking up the game around the age of four, Duval has been a tremendous athlete his whole life, but it’s not only basketball that Duval has thrived in: “I played lacrosse, ran cross country, and played tennis for a little bit in middle school,” Duval said, “It just taught me that all sports require the same determination to win, and I just want to be a better player.”

Trevon Duval’s unrivaled determination is what led him to API, joining Billy Preston (2017), Mark Vital (2016), and Terrance Ferguson (2016). While Preston, Vital, and Ferguson all transferred from Prime Prep to join API, Duval took a different route. Duval is originally from New Castle, Delaware, but attended high school at St. Benedict’s High School in Newark, NJ up until his Junior year. Since moving from New Jersey to Texas, Duval has thrived, saying, “I’m playing against some high-level competition and moving all the way down to Texas, so I think I’ve handled it pretty well.”

 

With a change of high school teams comes a change of AAU teams. When Duval played in New Jersey, he played AAU with NJ Playaz, but this past summer, he joined WE R1, joining fellow 2017 point guard, Quade Green. As Green said, “We had the best backcourt in the country last year, last summer.”.

Although many of Duval’s teammates at API play for the AAU team MWA Elite, he has greatly benefited from his play with WE R1 and should continue that success in the future as he nears his Senior year of high school.

 

API is on the verge of a national championship bid, largely due to the incredible playing of Trevon Duval. There is no doubt whatsoever that Duval is one of the best prospects in the Class of 2017 and one of the best point guards in the entire country. It will be interesting to see whether he can lead API to the Dick’s National Championship in their inaugural season. Championship or not, Trevon Duval is definitely determined to prove that he can compete with the best of them.