Arsalan Kazemi knows where he will take his official visits. The question is, When will he take them?
Kazemi, a 6-foot-7 combo forward at The Patterson (N.C.) School originally from Iran, wants to visit Maryland, Seton Hall and Rice, but must have an SAT score before he can make any visits.
Kazemi took the SAT this past Saturday and doesn’t expect the test results until at least Oct. 18.
Maryland’s Midnight Madness is Oct. 17, meaning Kazemi couldn’t visit Maryland for that event if he doesn’t get his score back in time.
“I don’t know if we can make that because we won’t get the test back,” said Anthony Ibrahim, Kazemi’s adviser.
“They need some score so you can be on campus. If you don’t have a score, you can’t have an official visit. That’s been the hangup in trying to get these visits in.”
Ibrahim said Seton Hall really wants to host the first official visit, and Maryland really wants Kazemi to come to Midnight Madness, which will also host Plainfield guard Isaiah Epps.
“If (the SAT people) tell us we’re going to get it on the 18th, then Maryland would go first and Seton Hall goes second and Rice goes third,” Ibrahim said.
“If we don’t get it on the 18th, then we’re going to miss Midnight Madness. Then we’re going to go Seton Hall first on the 25th. Then the weekend after that, Nov 2., to Rice. Then Maryland after that Nov. 9.”
Ibrahim said Colorado, Stanford and Cincinnati were also very interested in Kazemi and would visit Patterson soon. Yet it seems impossible Kazemi could take five officials before the early National Signing period (Nov. 12-19) given the SAT time-frame.
“It’s going to push us so close to signing date,” Ibrahim said. “We can’t get five visits in in 10 days.”
Alessandro / October 6, 2008
While any player that attends Patterson should receive a high GPA (they have been Calipari’s farm team for a reason) and foreign nationals are given, for lack of a better phrase, lower barriers to entry, how can schools like Rice or Stanford express interest (if not offer) in Kazemi with no idea as to how he will perform on the standardized achievement test?
Is it, perhaps, premature?
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Adam Zagoria / October 7, 2008
Alessandro,
That’s an excellent question. I understand Kazemi is close to a 4.0 student, so perhaps they assume he will do well on the test.
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