Aaron Harrison comes back to Baltimore five or six times a year, but the Patterson grad’s homecoming next month will be particularly special. Harrison is set to bring his Houston Defenders AAU program here for the Nike Baltimore Elite Invitational Tournament, which is scheduled to run May 6-8 at CCBC-Catonsville. The Defenders’ 17-and-under team includes up to seven future high-major Division I players, including Harrison’s twin sons Andrew and Aaron — both consensus top 10 players in the country for the 2013 class. After starring for the Clippers’ basketball team and graduating from high school in 1987, Harrison joined the army and ended up in Texas. He met his wife in San Antonio, and the couple settled in Houston. He got involved with the Defenders seven years ago. Today, the Defenders are one of the top AAU programs in the country.

In addition to the Harrison twins, the Defenders also receive major contributions from center Shaquille Cleare, shooting guard Christian Sanders, forward Derrick Griffin, forward Clyde Santee, point guardEugene Wright, shooting guard Wesley Iwundu and point guard Ali Muhammad. Cleare, a 6-foot-10, 285-pound center originally from the Bahamas, came to Texas in ninth grade. With just three years of organized basketball under his belt, Cleare has already developed into one of the most highly recruited big men in the 2012 class. The Terps currently “stand at the top of his list.” “They’re definitely working on Shaquille very hard. I would say they’re the front-runners for Shaquille right now,” said Harrison, who also mentioned Texas, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Arizona as schools involved with Cleare. “He’s one of those guys that needs to lose weight. But just his size and his build, he’s a really good athlete [with] incredibly good hands [and] good feet. Great kid.”