Chemistry Lesson

JOHN LUCAS , the former NBA guard and coach, says putting together a good basketball team is simple: "If you've got a point guard and a power guy, you've got a chance to win." That's why Lucas has advocated that his son Jai and Jai's friend Patrick Patterson team up to choose a college. The seniors—the only two McDonald's All Americans who have yet to decide on a college—first played together at the NBA Players Association camp in Richmond last June. The 5'10," 150-pound Lucas , who averaged 25.0 points and 7.5 assists this year at Bellaire ( Texas ) High, supplies speed, and the 6'8", 230-pound Patterson , of Huntington (W.Va.) High, brings brawn. "Pat's a great big man," Jai says. Patterson , who averaged 18.8 points and 16.0 rebounds, says the elder Lucas 's pitch has been persuasive: "He says Jai makes me a better player, and that's true."

If they go as a package, it could be good news for Kentucky , the only college that both have publicly acknowledged as a possibility—Lucas's list includes Maryland , Oklahoma , Oklahoma State and Minnesota , while Patterson is considering Duke, Florida , Virginia , Wake Forest and West Virginia . But John Lucas says that Jai may have "one or two other schools" in play, and each player wants to see whom Kentucky hires to replace departed coach Tubby Smith .

Patterson , who has a 3.5 GPA and may study computer engineering in college, hopes to choose by mid-April. "I weigh out my decisions," he says. Jai has no timetable but is following his father's request to give suitors a long look. "Everybody can put on a good dog-and-pony show, but I want to catch you with your bedroom dirty," says John Lucas , who was an All-America in basketball and tennis at Maryland .

At the McDonald's game in Louisville on March 28, each received come-ons from the other players. Duke recruit Taylor King says that he and the two other future Blue Devils there, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler , strategized on how to edge out Nick Calathes, of competing school Florida , for Patterson 's attention: "One person ties up Nick, and we go get [ Patterson ]," King said with a laugh—proving John Lucas 's point about the value of players who can work together.