Sports

Terrence Samuel Diary No. 1: Point guard ready to impress

Over the next month, The Post will bring you into the world of South Shore/New Heights point guard Terrence Samuels as he travels from Indiana to Reading, Pa., to Philadelphia, Las Vegas and back to Reading during the live recruiting period. This is entry No. 1 of 5, as told to The Post’s Zach Braziller, that will appear over the next four weeks. The rest are slated for July 11, July 16, July 26 and August 1.

Hi, I’m Terrence Samuel, I play basketball for South Shore and AAU for New Heights. This week we’re in Indiana, it’s the live recruiting period. I’m trying to come out of this week with another school interested in me or an offer to get to college.

We arrived in Indiana for the Adidas Invitational about 4 o’clock p.m. on Tuesday. We went to the Golden Corral, a buffet restaurant, and we’ve been hanging out in the hotel tonight. Indiana is similar to Long Island, it has a lot of different food stores and it’s hot.

The live period is important for me. It’s an opportunity for college coaches to come watch you play. It makes your future, depending on how you play. It tells you whether you get to go to college with a scholarship. I just want to play hard and give it my fall. It’s a crucial time in my life – go hard or go home.

Last year helped me learn you can’t do the wrong thing in front of college coaches. If you do the wrong thing, they put you down as someone not to recruit. You always have to carry yourself the right way. They’re watching your every movement. It’s not just basketball.

I want to show them I’m a leader and I’m vocal, that I can run the team. I want to show what I can do.

I have a lot of schools recruiting me. Indiana, Cincinnati and Iowa Sate offered me. Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Temple, Villanova and Penn State.

Last year we were better than every team, we just didn’t know how to finish games. This year we’re more mature, we’re better, we know how to finish games. On Monday I went to my friend Mike Bourke’s house. He had a little barbecue in his backyard, but were still shooting and preparing. We took like 800 shots.

I feel I’m ready to lead my team to a big month, win a few titles and show coaches what I can do.