Catching up with Rashad Vaughn

Rashad Vaughn is heading into his senior season with a lot of questionmarks and not a whole lot of answers – yet. The 6-5, 200-pound shooting guard, one of the "Big Three" in-state recruits for 2014, still has some time to make decisions both on where he'll attend college, and also where he'll be finishing up his high school career. He's unlikely to lose much of the attention that surrounds the Playground Elite player now, no matter what he winds up doing, but Gophers fans are hoping that the road leads right back to his home state. I caught up with Vaughn at the local EYBL tournament over the weekend, where he averaged 20 points, 6.8 rebounds and three assists in five games.

When did you first hear from new Gophers coach Richard Pitino? I guess the day he got the job, he called me that night … He knows he's got to start recruiting us now cause he's new, so it made me feel good that he called on the first day.

You've been recruited by Minnesota all this time, and Tubby Smith, and now there's a total change of coaching staff. Is that weird for you? Yeah, kind of. But I talk to them a lot, I've got a good relationship with them and coach Kimani and when it was (during) open period he was at mostly every game, so I think they're doing good recruiting.

How is the new staff's recruiting style different than Smith's? He [Pitino] is young, so he knows how to relate. Tubby, I talked to him every now and then and I'd see him every now and then, but them, I see them a lot and I talk to them every other day.

I know you were close with Vince Taylor. Was it weird for him to leave the picture? I don't really talk to him no more, but he called me every now and then.

Is Minnesota one of the schools that's contacting you the most right now? Yeah, they're one of them.

What's the next step for you? Do you have any officials set up right now? No, none right now that I know of set up.

Do you want to take all five? Yeah.

I know you've done unofficials at North Carolina and Iowa State. There are rumors that you nearly committed to UNC when you were down there. Is that true? Na. I went and talked to my parents about it but we all decided to just wait until the time was right, so we didn't do it.

Hey, I get it. I'm from North Carolina. Tarheel fan, even though my Gophers readers hate me for it. It was a good atmosphere, I've got a good relationship with all the coaches.

Do you have an idea of when you want to make a decision? Sometime in my senior year.

Do you have a list of favorites right now? Nope, no favorites.

The word is that you're considering transferring for senior year, perhaps to Huntington Prep. Anything to that? Yeah, I thought about it, but I'm not sure about it right now.