LJWorld.com

Brandon Knight, the No. 1-ranked high school basketball player in the recruiting Class of 2010, will be making his official campus visit to Kansas University today through Sunday morning.

Knight, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior point guard from Pine Crest High in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., already has visited Kentucky and Connecticut and also has Florida, Miami and Syracuse on his list.

“Brandon is not only an elite player, but above all else a complete player,” analyst Shay Wildeboor of Rivals.com said of Knight, who averaged 31.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists a game in leading Pine Crest to its second straight Florida Class 3A state title last March.

“It doesn’t matter if he is scoring 30 points or three points, he gets it done. He has the ability to shoot the basketball, has great vision and awareness and gets to the basket. He is just as impressive on the defensive end of the court,” Wildeboor added. “He’s considered, without question, an elite defender and plays with a lot of energy and passion. Not many players, if any, are as competitive as Knight.”

Knight last spring became just the third junior in history to be named Gatorade’s national boys basketball player of the year. The other two: LeBron James and Greg Oden.

“Brandon Knight might not be a freak athlete like the top point guards before him, but he possesses a complete game of an elite nature,” writes Jerry Meyer of Rivals.com. “His physical strength and tight ball-handling get him wherever he needs to be on the court. And his shooting skill and court vision allow him to consistently finish plays. On the other side of the ball, he is an elite defender who more than adequately rebounds his position. Top off all of this with high level of competitiveness, and you have the top prospect in the country.”

Knight had one of the best games in Florida state tournament history last March. He scored 52 points — 27 in the fourth quarter — in a 78-71 victory over Miami LaSalle in the regional finals. He had 27 points, nine rebounds and four assists in a 60-44 state title victory over Orlando’s Jones High.

“Brandon Knight doesn’t just play basketball. Brandon Knight competes in basketball and everything else he does,” Pine Crest High coach David Beckerman told the Miami Herald.

The Herald reports that Knight “has also made time to mentor youth at the New Ark Covenant Church in Hialeah and serve as a peer tutor at Pine Crest.”

Knight has already set some goals for his college career.

“Just be a leader, a guy who can run the team and try to be the coach on the floor,” he told Zagsblog.net.

As to when he’ll pick a school ... it could be in November or could be in April.

“If I find the right fit, then I'm going to go ahead and get it over with. I don’t want to hold up any of the schools. I want to be respectful to them if I’m not going to go there. Sometimes a no is as good as a yes, so they can do the recruiting they need to do,” Knight told Rivals.com.

Of the decision-making process, he said: “I want to go where the coaches respect the players and treat them right but also push them to get better.”

He knows a lot about KU’s program. “I enjoyed my in-home visit with coach (Bill) Self and I’m looking forward to taking a visit to Kansas,” he said.