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Harry Giles III talks Coach K, Coach Cal, Coach Williams, rankings and Moby Dick

Harry Giles III missed the entire 2013-14 season recovering from ACL, MCL and meniscus tears; since then he’s dominated the AAU scene and helped lead the USA U17 team to the gold medal in Dubai. Giles, who is ranked No. 3 in the ESPN 60, is widely regarded as one of the country’s top players, regardless of class, with college basketball heavyweights like North Carolina, Kentucky and Duke, among many others, all giving chase. Giles has agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a monthly blog.

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Aye, what’s up y’all, it’s your boy HG back with another blog so check me out!

We started the season off now and things are going great so far; we haven’t lost a game or anything but we’re learning every game that we have to go out and play hard every night because everybody wants to beat us.

We’re No. 2 in the USA Today rankings and that’s a great honor, but we’re all seeing that it definitely comes with a big bull’s-eye like we haven’t really had before. We love it though; we wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s just a different grind for us, but we’re out there going hard and leaving everything on the court, and I feel like we’re getting better with each game.

People come at us anyway because we’re the state champs but it’s even bigger now with us being No. 2. There are a lot of talented teams in the rankings and to be No. 2 is something that we take very seriously. We want to keep that ranking and get that No. 1 spot, but we know the only way to do that is to approach each game like it’s a championship game.

Almost the whole Duke staff was at my game last week; Coach K, Coach Capel, Coach Scheyer and Coach James, and then Coach Williams and Coach Davis from UNC were at the same game so that was fun to have them there. We didn’t play our best so that was the bad part.

You always want to put on a show when the big time coaches come to see you so I was a little disappointed that we didn’t play a great game, but I just use it as a learning experience so it doesn’t happen again.

I think, as a team, the biggest things we need to work on is playing better team defense and rebounding. I think those are the two key things and I think we’ve gotta work on attacking more on offense. We’ve definitely got a lot to work on and, like I said, we’re improving every game so that’s the good thing about it.

Coach Calipari came to my game a couple of weeks back too so that was big.

The fans here go crazier over Coach K and Coach Williams just because we’re in North Carolina, but any time Coach Cal is in the gym it’s big. I feel like we’ve got a great relationship.

We’ve got the City of Palms Classic coming up and we’re all excited about that of course because that’s the best of the best. We know that Montverde will be there and we know that they’re the No. 1 team, but we’re not going there focused on playing against them. What we talk about is that every team there is really good and you have to play every team like you would if you were playing against Montverde for the No. 1 spot. That’s the only way we’re gonna play our best is if we come into the game looking to dominate whoever is on the court.

We’ve just gotta go out there and hoop!

I haven’t really told y’all about the package deal that I mentioned before with myself, Dennis Smith and Jayson Tatum, but it’s definitely something that’s still on the table. We’re talking about it from time to time and we’re gonna start talking about it more and more from this point on to see where everybody’s at with it. I know we all want to play together so we’ll see how onboard everybody is soon.

I was definitely honored to win Jason’s Weekly Award for Poster of the Week! I love catching bodies so that was cool! Hopefully I can win that one and a few of the other ones soon!

I’m going hard in the classroom to y’all; your boy had that 3.0 last grading period so I’m trying to get that even higher. I’m working!

Right now we’re doing a project on Moby Dick and, I can’t lie, I’m not really feeling that story. It’s boring to me, but I’m gonna work hard to get that A!

Before I go I’ve gotta remind y’all to go get that J. Cole album on Dec. 9, it’s gonna be fire!

Aight, that’s another blog in the books for me; I appreciate everybody reading and following me through these blogs. Stay tuned because the season is about to get even more interesting; big things coming soon!

Follow Harry Giles III on Twitter: @TheReal_HG3

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