"It's been chaos," said Jennings, referring to the three transfers. "It's just been a [family] living situation."
However, the 18-year-old said his last move was more about academics. He noted that Mount Zion's solid basketball tradition was just a bonus.
"It was an opportunity to get my grades up," said Jennings, who was dropped back into the 11th grade upon arrival at the prep school. "My academics were falling behind with all the moves."
Those moves didn't hurt his basketball game.
Jennings was one of Rbk U's top campers at Philadelphia University. He shot 71 percent from the field and averaged 15 points and eight rebounds in six games with team Al Jefferson. For his efforts, he was named to the Rbk U all-Finish team.
Jennings was one of five players named to the team. The others were junior forward Renardo Sidney (Lakewood, Calif.); forward Olek Cryz (Reno, Nev.); forward Quincy Acy (Mesquite, Texas); and forward Olu Ashaolu (Canada).
The players named to the all-Create team were guards Brandon Jennings (Temecula, Calif.); Malcolm Lee (Moreno Valley, Calif.); John Wall (Raleigh, N.C.); Willliam Buford Jr. (Toledo, Ohio); and Tyshawn Taylor (Jersey City, N.J.).
The Rivals.com recruiting service lists Jennings as the 17th-ranked player in the Class of 2008.
All that's extremely impressive, considering he is still new to the game.
"I didn't really start playing serious basketball until about two years ago," said Jennings, who has narrowed his college choices to the University of Maryland, Memphis and Washington. "I just really started to [learn] how to play the game."
Miller makes impression. Unlike Jennings, Dwight Miller had to participate in an Rbk U regional tryout just to get into the camp. The 6-8 forward from Houston sure didn't play like a borderline prospect. The senior averaged 9.8 points and seven rebounds en route to being the first Donte Anderson Memorial Award winner. The award, named after the late standout, goes to an unsung player who made the biggest impression at the camp.
A year ago, Anderson played in the Reebok ABCD camp only after qualifying at a regional qualifier. With the retirement of grassroots hoops guru Sonny Vaccaro earlier this year, the shoe company folded its ABCD camp in Teaneck, N.J., but restored the all-star invitational as Rbk U in Philadelphia.
Anderson, one of the top players in Florida, was killed in a car accident in his home state in May. He would have been a senior and was scheduled to participate at Rbk U.
Contact staff writer Keith Pompey at 610-313-8029 or kpompey@phillynews.com.
