Point guard wears bull’s-eye

Long before he arrived in Las Vegas, Willie Warren established himself as one of the nation's top high school basketball players. So how he performs this week is not too important.

What really matters is his list -- how he ranks the college programs trying to recruit him. The 6-foot-4-inch point guard for Team Texas said he is asked about his list every day.

"If it's not recruiting services or coaches, then it's players or kids who look up to me," Warren said. "It's basically an everyday thing."

Warren was squarely in the middle of that recruiting insanity on Monday, when he scored 23 points to lead Team Texas to a 69-67 victory over the Missouri Titans in the Main Event tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

A small crowd of big-time coaches gathered, including Kansas' Bill Self and Kentucky's Billy Gillispie.

"Some will say he's the best player in the country. Everybody has him in the top five," Main Event coordinator Hal Pastner said of Warren, ranked as a top-15 senior by Rivals.com.

Surrounded by video cameras and tape recorders, Warren was asked again to recite his list. He put Oklahoma at the top, followed in order by Texas, Kansas, Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, Kentucky and Arizona.

Warren said he wants to play in a guard-friendly offense "so I can go to the league." By that, he means the NBA.

"I want to go somewhere where they run and gun. I can run a set offense, but I feel run-and-gun will help me get to the league," he said.

Warren was asked how a program such as Kentucky, currently seventh in his ever-changing rankings, could move up.

"Just don't slack," he said. "Even though they see they're hanging off the bottom, that means just come harder. I know some schools at the top of my list are going to try to slack off because they think they got me, and they can easily be replaced by anybody else.

"From talking to some programs, they don't come at me because they don't feel like they have a chance to get me. ... Anybody can come at me and I'll consider them."

Unlike some prospects, Warren said he does not want to be coddled by college coaches. He wants criticism, too.

Warren, who will attend Oak Hill Academy in Virginia this fall, has exceptional one-on-one scoring skills. But, as is often the case in summer basketball, he coasted through most of Monday's game and only played hard in short bursts.

"I know I'm good, so I want to hear everything I need to work on to get to the league," Warren said. "I don't want to hear, 'You're a very good scorer and you can jump.' I want to hear you criticizing my game.

"(A college coach) is not going to be all nice to me once I go there, so I don't want to hear the good stuff."

Warren is not a recruiting target for UNLV, but Houston Hoops guard Elijah Johnson is on the Rebels' radar.

Johnson, who said he will return to Cheyenne High School for his junior year, was not on the floor for his team's two victories Monday because of a sprained right foot.

Houston Hoops, led by 6-8, 280-pound junior Keith "Tiny" Gallon, should contend for the tourney title even without Johnson. Gallon is set to join Warren at Oak Hill this season.

Johnson said the recruiting process is getting "hectic, crazy" and that UNLV is "definitely" in the picture.

"A lot of schools are jumping on and I'm getting a whole lot of offers right now," Johnson said. "I'm looking at UNLV hard. I want to stay home."