SOUTH KENT, Conn. — While Ricky Ledo and Chris Thomas figure to be the stars of this year’s South Kent (Conn.) team, Kelvin Jefferson’s club is loaded with strong role players, too.
Two of those players were placed at the prep school by the Kansas State staff, and may end up with the Wildcats.
Zedric Sadler is a 6-foot-2 postgraduate combo guard from Detroit (pictured at left), and Laimonas Chatkevicius is a 7-foot junior from Klaipeda, Lithuania. Both are 2012.
“I really didn’t know about this school [South Kent] until the end of the year,” Sadler told SNY.tv Wednesday after an open gym. “Then Kansas State said they didn’t have a scholarship so just come here. And then they’ll have a scholarship in the spring.”
Sadler is also drawing interest from Cleveland State — head coach Gary Waters and assistant Larry DeSimpelare were there Wednesday — and Duquesne, but said Kansas State “is in the lead right now.”
“Zedric has a great body,” said New York recruiting expert Tom Konchalski, who watched the workout. “He can handle the ball but is more of a two. He really wasn’t in the flow of the game early, didn’t do very much in the scrimmage early.
“And then he made his first three perimeter shots and started feeling some confidence. And he made a lot of shots. But he has a great body, he’s strong. He showed more of a predilection for shooting from the perimeter now.”
Sadler said he is going through the NCAA Clearinghouse now and will then likely visit Kansas State.
“That’s probably where I’m going to visit first,” he said. “Like next month.”
Chatkevicius has a similar story.
“Kansas State put him here but he’s not committed,” South Kent coach Kelvin Jefferson said. “If things work out for Kansas State, he is going to Kansas State. They’re the top of the list.”
Still, he added, “It’s not written in stone. I don’t want to close the door.”
Konchalski had these thoughts on the 7-footer who averaged just 1 point and 1.7 rebounds for Lithuania in the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Men.
“He has a big frame,” he said. “He’s gotta get in better shape. He’s gotta be able to change ends of the floor on a more consistent basis. He has good hands. He’s a good passer out of the post. When he catches the ball in the post, he looks really to pass out rather than to score. He steps out and shoots the 3 away from the basket. And he doesn’t have a quick reaction to the ball, and he doesn’t have great rebounding radius. Because of that and doesn’t get on the boards as much as someone with that size and that strength should be able to.
“But he looks like he could be a good player depending on how hard he’s willing to work.”
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