Herard will take one final visit

Having completed four official visits, four-star center Schnider Herard is closing in on a final decision. Jayhawk Slant has the very latest on Herard, the No. 34 ranked player in the 2016 class.

On the hardwood, Schnider Herard is a wanted man. Throughout his recruitment, the 6-foot-10, 255-pound center from Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas, has received scholarship offers from the likes of California, Kansas, Mississippi State, Purdue, Texas Tech, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Baylor, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas State, Miami (FL), Missouri, Nebraska, North Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, TAMU Corpus-Christi, Wake Forest and others.

However, recently, Herard, the No. 34 ranked player in the 2016 class, narrowed his list of schools down to California, Kansas, Mississippi State, Purdue and Texas Tech.

This past weekend, Herard officially visited Kansas for Late Night in the Phog. Just moments ago, Jayhawk Slant spoke to his mentor, Derrick Shelby about the visit.

"Yes, it was a very good trip," Derrick Shelby told Jayhawk Slant on Tuesday morning. "I've never seen anything like the new dorms before. I've been on a lot of these trips and I've never seen anything like it before. I mean, the new dorms, I've never seen anything like them before -- ever.

"The halfcourt basketball and the barbershop floored me," he added. "Really, the barbershop is what got me. There is nothing really like that out there in the country. I've just never seen anything like the new dorms. I've been on a lot of trips, even to Kentucky, and I've never seen anything like it."

For Herard, coming off official visits to Mississippi State (9/11), Texas Tech (9/25), and Purdue (10/2), he was given the opportunity to get an up-close-and-personal look at the University of Kansas this past weekend. Not surprisingly, the four-star center wasn't disappointed.

From Late Night in the Phog to the new dorms to dinner at Coach Bill Self's house to spending quality time with the University of Kansas men's basketball team to hanging out with other elite prospects, including Harry Giles, De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, and Marques Bolden and others, the visit couldn't have gone any better for Schnider Herard.

"The coaching staff definitely let Schnider know that they want him at Kansas," said Shelby. "They let him know that he can have a big impact at Kansas and all of those things. I think they did a great job of letting Schnider know all of those things. I know that Kansas definitely wants him. We had breakfast with Coach Self and we also had dinner at his house.

"The dinner at his house was on Saturday night," he added. "All of the guys played pool and ping pong and the whole team was out at Coach Self's house for dinner. All of the families were at the dinner, too, which was really nice. The staff did a really great job of showing everybody some love and making it work. Kansas did a great job and we had a great visit."

With the early signing period approaching, Herard fully intends to, not only reach a final decision in November, but plans to make it official by signing a National Letter-of-Intent. However, at this time, he isn't sure where he'll sign to play just yet.

At one point, it looked like California would receive his fifth and final official visit, but those plans have changed, according to Shelby. Yes, Herard will take one final official visit before putting an end to his recruitment in November.

While a fifth and final official visit will take place, a decision on what school to visit has not yet been decided.

"Schnider still has one more official visit that he wants to take," said Shelby. "We're trying to figure out where that's going to be. The thing about Schnider, being where he's from (Port-au-Prince, Haiti), he's never had the opportunity to do this type of stuff, so he definitely wants to see it through. We are not going to visit California, but there will be one more visit.

"We've already done four, so there will be one more visit," he added. "We're going to see this thing through, and the plan is to take the final visit on the last weekend in October. After that, we'll sit-down and have the hard conversation. I know that he's going to commit and sign in November. We're a month away from the madness being over."