NEW YORK — St. John’s only had eight players suited up for Midnight Madness Friday night, but four committed recruits sat in the front row of Taffner Field House.
Amir Garrett, Norvel Pelle, Darrick Wood and Ricardo Gathers probably wished they could have suited up and joined the festivities.
“We all had a conversation,” Wood, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from New Jersey, texted after the event. “Everyone seemed excited about playing together.”
While Wood and Gathers, a 6-8 power forward from Louisiana, are both committed for 2012, Garrett and Pelle could join the team as early as December.
They were both ruled academically ineligible last month by the NCAA and are now at prep schools — the 6-7 Garrett at Bridgton (Maine) Academy and the 6-10 Pelle at The Phelps (Pa.) School.
Phelps School coach Brian Shanahan told SNY.tv it was “too early to tell” whether Pelle would be ready to suit up in December, or would have to wait until 2012.
“It’s too early to tell,” he said. “A lot of it will be on Norvel. I just know that our plan is in place to get him academically by, the sooner, the better, but it’s going to be on him.”
Despite a report that Pelle had decommitted, Shanahan said, “He’s firm in his commitment.”
Shanahan said Pelle was doing well on and off the court at Phelps.
“He’s doing great,” he said. “He’s really doing well academically. He’s buying into what he he has to do. I think he’s going to mature greatly from this experience, and he’s going to become a better basketball player, and definitely better academically, so when he gets into college he’s already ready to go.”
Bridgton coach Whit Lesure previously told SNY.tv he believes Garrett may be eligible in December, too.
“If it goes the way Amir currently wants it to, I think he’ll get there for the second semester,” Lesure said.
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