Chaminade guard Brad Beal, now rated the No. 1 shooting guard in the country for 2011 by Scout.com, said today that he doesn’t have a favorite college in the battle for his services. But he told me he would like to commit before the start of his junior season.

Schools that have officially offered include Illinois, Missouri and St. Louis University along with Kansas, Florida, Minnesota, Purdue and Wake Forest. The head coaches of all except Minnesota and Wake have been to St. Louis at some point, he said.

I talked to him at length about his trip to Argentina with the U.S. under-16 team. But when I asked about recruiting his answers suddenly shortened and it seemed he wasn’t comfortable with the topic.

Beal did his best to downplay reports that he is leaning toward Kansas, saying “I’m just debating and seeing what comes next. I really don’t have a leader.”

But Chaminade coach Kelvin Lee said: “He really likes Bill Self. Kansas is Kansas.”

Beal is taking the politically correct approach as the summer tournament schedule approaches. The 6-3 guard will travel to the invitation-only LeBron James Skills Academy next week before playing for the St. Louis Eagles. He recently led the U.S. under-16 team to a gold medal in the FIBA Americas Championship in Argentina, scoring 26 points in the championship game.

Lee knows that if Beal doesn’t reduce his college choices relatively soon that things could be crazy in the fall.

“At one point it was like seven or eight schools really hammering him,” Lee said. “Then all of a sudden it was about 25 teams. But they’re smart enough to know we have to cut that down by the end of the summer.”