It's been a long road to basketball stardom for center Alexander "Sasha" Kaun. First Siberia, then Florida. Could Duke be his next stop?
"I liked [Duke] a lot," said the Tomsk, Russia, native in an interview with The Chronicle Sunday night. "I think everything went well."
Kaun is expected to decide between Duke and Kansas.
"I need a couple of days to think about it before I can make my final decision," the Siberian big man said. "It's going to be a hard decision for me to make."
Kaun took in Duke's many sights and sounds during his visit, including Duke's 56-7 football loss to Florida State, meetings with Duke's academic advisors, a computer science professor and even a math class that he attended with senior Nick Horvath.
"It was interesting," Kaun said of the math class. "It's a lot different from high school."
Kaun, an excellent student, has a 4.0 grade point average and plans to major in computer science in college.
During his visit, the talented big man mentioned spending a lot of time with the current Blue Devils and, of course, men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
"I stayed the first night with [Shavlik] Randolph and the second night with Luol [Deng]," mentioned Kaun. "I spent the most time talking with them."
"[Duke's coaching staff] mentioned what they have done and what they'll do for me," Kaun added. "[They gave me] some background because I don't know a lot about this business with basketball and college."
Kaun, who stands 6-foot-11 and weighs 250 pounds, is considered one of the top-five centers in the class of 2004 despite having only played three years of high school basketball.
He averaged 13 points, eight rebounds and two blocks per game for Florida Air Academy last year. At this time, only Kaun and stellar point guard Shaun Livingston are Duke's identified targets in the class of 2004.
Kaun mentioned that he would like to have a decision ready sometime this week. Last Thursday, coach Aubin Goporo told The Chronicle he would like to have Kaun's decision by Tuesday. However, Kaun could not name a favorite for his services.
"Right now they're all the same," the Siberian center said. "I can't really say which one I like better."
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