Looks like Miami picked a good weekend to host several top basketball recruits.
Junior college big man Stephen Hurt and Chicago small forward Paul White were on hand for Miami’s 21-16 victory over No. 12 Florida at Sun Life Stadium.
Committed players Ja’Quan Newton and James Palmer were also there.
“It was really good, the atmosphere [at the football game] was crazy,” the 6-foot-11, 275-pound Hurt out of Northwest Florida State told SNY.tv by phone.
Hurt is also considering Kansas State, Wichita State and Indiana, but said he enjoyed the Miami trip.
“They showed me a good time,” he said. “I like the team, I really like the coaching staff. I have a pretty good relationship with Coach [Jim] Larranaga and Coach [Eric] Konkol. I had a good time on the visit. We had some good pickup games. I really like how the team plays.”
Hurt is a center who can also play some power forward.
“They said they would play me at the five and four and they give the post a lot of touches, so I could get good minutes,” Hurt said.
As for White, he shifted a visit from Arizona so he could visit Miami this weekend.
“He just said he really liked it but he was going to take the rest of his visits” Hurt said. “I think he had a good time, too. I was with him a lot of time on the visit.”
White is also slated to visit Georgetown (Sept. 12-16), UConn (Sept. 27-29), Minnesota (Oct. 4-6 ) and DePaul (Oct. 25-27).
Hurt, meantime, heads to Wichita State next weekend and then Indiana the weekend of Sept. 20.
Former Northwest Florida coach Steve Forbes is now an assistant at Wichita State.
Hurt also visited Kansas State last weekend.
“It was really nice,” the said. “The atmosphere was crazy. They love sports.”
Hurt hopes to decide sometime after the Indiana visit.
“I’m going to take all my visits before I do anything,” he said. “I will probably decide in early or mid-October.”
Meantime, Miami will also get a visit from Middletown (DE) St. Andrew’s forward Ben Bentil on Thursday, his AAU coach told SNY.tv.
Bentil visited Providence Saturday. For more on Bentil, read this.
