Rutgers coach Fred Hill will be in Tallahassee, Fla., Wednesday night to check out Marvell Waithe and Waithe is set to decide soon between Rutgers and Arkansas.
“He’s fixing to take visits to Arkansas this weekend (Oct. 9) and Rutgers next weekend (Oct. 16),” Tallahassee Community College coach Eddie Barnes said by phone. “He has narrowed it down to those schools.”
Rutgers is hosting its “Tip-Off to Kick-Off” event at 6:15 Oct. 16 prior to the football game between the Scarlet Knights and Pittsburgh that will be shown on ESPN.
Waithe will have two years of eligibility wherever he ends up.
A 6-foot-8 combo forward out of Toronto Laurier Collegiate Institute, Waithe initially committed to Loyola Chicago in 2006, choosing that school over several others, including Rutgers.
Waithe never made it to Loyola because of NCAA Clearinghouse issues. His AAU coach, Ro Russell of Grassroots Canada, said that the NCAA adopted rules that impacted Canadian players and made it harder for them to qualify to play in the U.S.
“When they changed the rule for Canadian requirements, they changed the rules in December of Marvell’s senior year, (saying), ‘As of now, as of today, these are the new rules.’ It didn’t give guys like Marvell a chance to be qualified,” Russell said in 2007.
Still, Rutgers has remained interested in Waithe ever since and assistant coach Darren Savino recently went down to check on him. Arkansas head coach John Pelphrey has also been in.
Waithe was recently named a fourth-team Super Sophomores in the Sporting News’ JUCO Report.
He averaged 17.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game last season and was named first-team Coaches’ All-Panhandle Conference.
“He’s just a great perimeter shooter,” Barnes said. “Being at 6-9 he can just flat-out score the ball. As a freshman he led us in scoring at 19 points per game in the Panhandle, probably the toughest JUCO league in the country.
“He’s got size. He’s got athleticsm. He’s got that perimeter shot. This year he’s really working on trying to develop some more range to his game by being able to put the ball on the floor and doing some things defensively.”
(Photo courtesy Tallahassee College Athletics)
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter.
