NEW YORK — Over the past several years, St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley has produced a number of high-major guards, from Dominic Cheek (Villanova) to Mike Rosario (Florida) to Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas).
Now comes 6-foot-8 junior Kyle Anderson, the Paterson Catholic transfer who is ranked No. 1 among point guards in the Class of 2012 by Rivals.com.
“Everybody’s kind of peaking around,” Hurley said Thursday as he was awarded the Joe Lapchick Character Award at Madison Square Garden. “He’s got a very long list of schools.”
Anderson and the Friars will compete in the SNY Invitational the weekend of Jan. 29, along with New York powers Rice, Boys & Girls and Mount Vernon.
After winning the MVP award in the IS8 league and leading the Playaz to the championship, Anderson recently took unofficials to Xavier (Nov. 5) and UCLA (Nov. 12). He will now shut down his visits with St. Anthony set to begin practice the day after Thanksgiving.
“The Xavier visit was excellent,” Kyle Anderson Sr. said by text. “Very organized and well put together. They treated it like an official visit as far as the information and sites they wanted us to see. I was really impressed with their power point presentation illustrating how Kyle could earn his degree in three years.
“We both left Xavier feeling like that is a place we could be comfortable with.”
As for UCLA, he said: “The visit went well. Campus is beautiful. We toured the campus and discussed how Kyle could fit into their system. He is going to focus on the season from here on out.”
Anderson will play in the backcourt this season alongside Rutgers signee Myles Mack, who also transferred from Paterson Catholic.
“Whoever happens to have the ball at that time is point guard,” Hurley said. “Those two will have the ball about 80 percent of the time.”
With the season set to begin Dec. 17, Hurley, who needs 16 wins for 1,000 for his career, is looking forward to seeing how Anderson’s recruitment unfolds over the next year.
“The thing with Kyle is, because he’s 6-foot-8, yet he has point guard skills, this will be an interesting recruiting because we’re going to figure out who’s looking at him for what position for what system,” Hurley said.
With two years left in high school, his upside is huge.
“Kyle just needs to get stronger, get fitter, work on his explosion and we’re doing all those things,” Hurley said. “Kyle has added 60 pounds on his bench press already. For a kid with his length and his arms, that’s really good. And that’s only the beginning.
“When he has all of this year and all of next year, by the time he’s of college age, he’ll be a physically finished project. And his skill for his size is the equal of any kid in the country of that size. He can do anything.”
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