Rachel Hollivay doesn’t have the date highlighted on her calendar.

The Heritage Academy girls basketball standout also hasn’t raided the local sporting goods stores for T-shirts, baseball caps, or other paraphernalia to make sure she’s ready for next month.

Hollivay hasn’t made any purchases because she hasn’t made her decision. And with Nov. 11, the date she has picked to announce her college choice, less than two weeks away, Hollivay knows she has plenty of work to do.

“It has been hectic,” Hollivay said. “Sometimes I am just like, ‘I don’t want to think about college. I just want to come in and play with these girls. I know Nov. 11 when I sign is right around the corner and I have to make a decision. I am making it now so I can be prepared when I get there.

“It has been hard. I texted my mom the other day and asked her, ‘What I am going to do?’ I was sitting in class thinking about it. She said going far away is up to you, staying around here is up to you. It is all up to you.”

Hollivay, a 6-foot-5 center, took official visits to the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Tennessee, and Rutgers University in the past two months. She said before she made the trips all of the schools were “on the same page,” and that she planned to make a decision in November in time for the early signing period.

Nothing has changed about those plans, Hollivay said. She said she still wants to go to a school where she can play with great players.

“The trips were really good,” Hollivay said. “I had fun on all of my visits, and after each one I was like, ‘I just want to go here, I just want to go here.’ ”

Hollivay, who transferred from New Hope High prior to her junior season, is ranked No. 11 in the country by Dan Olson’s Collegiate Girls Reports, a national scouting service, while ESPN HoopGurlz has Hollivay as the eighth-best player in the Class of 2012.

Hollivay said she knew players at MSU and it felt like “normal.” She said she didn’t know “all that fun” was at Ole Miss. She said it was “crazy” when she went to Tennessee and that she loved the atmosphere. She said she visited a haunted corn maze on her trip to Knoxville, Tenn., and didn’t know Tennessee practiced as long as it does.

“There was a lot of love (at Tennessee),” Hollivay said. “Every time you see a Lady Vol walking around they would be like, ‘There is a Lady Vol.’ ”

Hollivay admitted to thinking Oklahoma was too far away from home, but she said she enjoyed her time at the school, calling it “crazy”, too.

Hollivay said Rutgers was the most “family based” of the schools she visited. She said she also visited New York on her trip to Rutgers, which is in Piscataway, N.J.

Hollivay said she scrimmaged on her visits to Oklahoma, Rutgers, and Tennessee. She said she fit right in at all three places and that she will base her final decision on multiple factors, including distance from home (Rutgers is a 13-hour drive, Tennessee is a six-hour drive, Oklahoma is a two-hour drive), teammates, field of study, atmosphere at the school, and others.

“All my life whenever I have been playing basketball at the high school level I have been carrying a team on my back, and I don’t want to do that anymore,” Hollivay said. “I just want to be around great players so we can get it done. … I know all of these places have championships and championships, but I don’t care about that. I just want to go play basketball. I want to get to know the coach and to tell her, ‘I love her’ and ‘I want to work hard for her’ and that ‘I will run through a wall for her.’ ”

Heritage Academy coach Yolanda Moore, who played basketball at Ole Miss and went on to play professionally, said she is willing to lend any help she can to Hollivay and her family. She said she has tried not to pressure Hollivay because she knows so many people are asking her questions about which school she will pick.

“She has come back from her visits and said what she has enjoyed from each one of them,” Moore said. “I am sure she is going to take everything into consideration and make the best possible decision.”

Moore, who is preparing for her first season as coach at the school, said she has been most impressed by Hollivay’s willingness to learn and her desire to get better. She said she has encouraged Hollivay to look at the selection process from all angles and not just from a basketball point of view. She said Hollivay needs to pick a school where she feels she will be happy even if she isn’t playing basketball.

As for basketball, Moore said it is important for Hollivay to select a school where she feels she will be able to develop her skills to help her pursue a dream of playing professional basketball, if that is what she chooses to do.

“This decision is going to affect the rest of her life not just the next four years, so she needs to consider all factors,” Moore said. “College is where you grow up because you’re literally on your own for the first time having to make adult or mature decisions without mom or dad there telling you not to do this or not to do that. You can get yourself in situations real quick where it is real difficult to get out of. It is a major decision for any young person, going to college. For her, being the caliber of athlete she is and the potential she has, which she hasn’t reached, the potential she has is very important.

“Rachel knows what kind of person she is and what kind of environment best suits her, so she should definitely look at that, and that is something I would advise any young person going to college. Don’t just look at it from an athletic standpoint.”

Hollivay isn’t sure when she will sit down with her family members and make a final decision. She admits she has had some crazy thoughts, like sleeping with a T-shirt on either side of her and picking the one that she cuddles up to.

“I don’t know,” Hollivay said. “I just want to sit down with my mom and day and be like, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ I don’t know how I am going to do it. At first, I was like I am going to narrow it down to three or to two, or I am going to pick a hat and just put it on and sign, but I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.