A year ago at this time, D.J. Carton headed up to Madison, Wisconsin for the Badgers annual basketball camp hoping to walk away with his first major college offer.

The Bettendorf native did just that and followed it up with a magical month of July on the AAU circuit with his Quad City Elite team, earning several more high major offers and completely altering the trajectory of his college recruitment.

“It’s been a real blessing. I couldn’t ever imagine anything like this happening to me. I feel like I have put a lot of work and dedication into this game and it just paid off,” Carton said Friday afternoon at the annual Justin Sharp Shootout.

One year later, he’s having another life changing month of June.

Carton was invited to the USA Basketball U18 trials, survived the first cut to 18 players, and nearly made the roster of 12 players that represented our country in Canada. He was invited to the NBA Players Top 100 Camp in Virginia, where he again stood out as one of the top guards in the entire camp. And he’s likely headed to five star status when Rivals.com releases their next round of rankings shortly.

“This month has been full of great opportunities for me,” he said. “I’ve been able to play against some of the top competition in the country and I have enjoyed it. It’s been a once in a lifetime opportunity that I have been able to have this summer.”

After the high level competition, it’s almost relaxing for the dynamic point guard to be back home in the gym this week with his high school teammates. In many ways, he needed this break from the grind to be back with his friends and family before the July AAU grind begins in a few short weeks.

“These guys are some of my best friends, so I love having the chance to play with them again this weekend. It’s good to get back here and work on some skill development.”

What will be looming as well is the recruiting process. Carton is certainly not going to let it linger beyond this fall, when he plans to make his college choice. Initially it appeared that he could be on a faster track to picking a school, but after a jam packed June of travel and competition, he’s hitting tapping the brakes.

“Cutting my list really helped my stress level quite a bit,” Carton said. “It was getting to be too much. I was having a tough time focusing on academics, basketball, and I was missing out on activities with my family and friends.”

“Now I can focus more on the schools that I want to focus on and get to know the coaches and the programs that are on my list better and make my decision when I am comfortable.”

The recruiting process can take control of a prospect and in essence, Carton has taken the wheel back from the process and now he can make his upcoming visits and his decision according to his own timeline.

“I know sometimes fans get anxious and they want me to pick their school and they want it to happen tomorrow, but this is my future and I want to make the right choice.”

Carton laughed and smiled when asked if he gets asked about where he’s going to go to school when he’s out with family and friends back home.

“I get that a lot,” he said with a smile. “It ok. People are really nice about it and it shows that the people here really care about me and my future.”

His future is narrowed down to six schools, maybe.

The 6-foot-2 point guard has cut his list to Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, Marquette, and Xavier. He will make official visits to Michigan (June 27-28) and Indiana (June 29-30), with other visits to be scheduled in August and early September.

His goal on the next round of visits is to learn more about each school, their coaches, and most importantly, meet some of the players and get to know them as well.

“I’m really just looking to continue to develop the relationships with the coaches at both schools and just as important, getting to know the players at both schools. I really think the player side of things is really important because I want to be able to connect with them on and off the court.”

With the player component being important in his recruitment, one player who he has been spending quite a bit of time with this month is future Hawkeye Patrick McCaffery. They are both 2019 prospects and McCaffery would love to have him come to Iowa City a year from now and join the Iowa program.

They were both part of the USA Basketball trials in Colorado and ended up being roommates at the NBA Players Top 100 Camp in Virginia last week. According to Patrick McCaffery, his assigned roommate didn’t make it to the camp, so Carton decided to move in with him and the two spend most of their off court time together.

“We have known each other since we were in 4th grade,” Carton said. “We knew each other and would talk when we saw each other, but I wouldn’t say we were super close. But, we have gotten really close now and we communicate with each other basically every day now. I really consider him a close friend.”

The big “maybe” moving forward in Carton’s recruitment is will one of the blue blood programs in college basketball pull the trigger and offer him a scholarship?

Bill Self from Kansas was the head coach of the USA U18 team, so he’s very familiar with what Carton can do on the floor and they have remained in contact. While he hasn’t heard directly from Duke and North Carolina, both schools have reached out to parties close to him to gauge interest and to say they will likely be watching during the July evaluation period.

Carton has maintained that by cutting his list of schools to six, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be his final six schools. He’s remains open to other schools and that would include the elite programs in the country.

“I am going to approach it like I did everyone else. I’m open to them and I am going to take it slow,” he said. “I have to pay attention to them because I know they can help me get to what I hope will be my future. My approach right now is they aren’t any better than the schools that I am currently considering and I would need to get to know the coaches and the program, like I have done with the other schools.”