Khadeen Carrington has kept his recruitment on the down low for much of the summer.
But the 6-foot-3 Bishop Loughlin combo guard ended the suspense Wednesday night when he committed to Seton Hall, becoming the second player from the New York Lightning AAU program to pledge to the Pirates in the last month.
Angel Delgado, a 6-9 rebounding machine who is Carrington’s AAU teammate, picked Seton Hall in mid-August.
“They got Angel so I thought it was a good place for me to go,” Carrington told SNY.tv by phone. “I played with him already so I already know him.”
He said he also considered Cincinnati, Providence and Texas A&M, among others.
“I got a good feel for the coaches,” said Carrington, who was on Seton Hall’s campus last Thursday. “It’s a good staff and it’s a good school with the academics. They’re like a family over there. I thought it was the best.”
Carrington is a combo guard who is very athletic and can get to the basket, though he is not the shooter his Loughlin teammate, Rutgers-bound guard Mike Williams, is.
Carrington says he can play both guard positions and Loughlin coach Ed Gonzalez, a former point guard, is working with him on his ball-handling skills.
“I’m working on him with that skillset,” the coach told SNY.tv last season. “He’s continually working on his shot which has gotten tremendous as you see. He’s got a great mid-range game. We are working on his point skills.”
Seton Hall has Jaren Sina and Sterling Gibbs in the backcourt, and now will add Carrington in 2014 to complement the backcourt.
“They said I will play a little bit more point guard in college,” he said. “I’ll still be able to score, break down people, get my own shot.”
Dana Dingle, a coach with the Lightning, said the Carrington-Delgado connection will help bring Seton Hall “to an elite level.”
“It’s tremendous,” Dingle told SNY.tv. “They got two kids who know each other, who are both battle-tested at the highest level playing against top competition. They played against the best competition in the country the entire year. Some of these kids [they played against] are going to Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Syracuse and all that stuff, you can’t ask for more than that.”
Dingle called Delgado and Carrington “arguably two of the best kids from the city.”
“It’s great to bring in two players to Seton Hall and it will help bring them back to an elite level,” Dingle said.
The verbal pledges of Delgado and Carrington are huge pluses for head coach Kevin Willard, who has relied on foreign players in recruiting over his first several years.
These commits show he can break into the fertile New York City area and land players.
Seton Hall hopes it’s not done, either.
Brooklyn Lincoln guard Isaiah Whitehead is due to visit campus on Saturday.
