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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Saturday / November 23.

2013 Elite 24NEW YORK — When Isaiah Whitehead committed to Seton Hall on Thursday afternoon, he automatically became the highest-ranked player in the Class of 2014 committed to a Big East school, according to the Scout.com rankings.

In fact, Seton Hall now has the two highest-rated incoming recruits, with Whitehead at No. 12 and forward Angel Delgado at No. 42. (See chart below.)

Remember that Syracuse, Louisville and UConn are among those no longer in the Big East, so other top commits who would have played in the Big East are now headed to other conferences.

For example, Syracuse pledge Chris McCullough of New York is No. 15, UConn pledge Daniel Hamilton is No. 19 and Louisville commit Shaqquan Aaron is No. 32.

SANDERS,-COREY_6_25_150

By JACK LeGWIN

Special to ZAGSBLOG

Over the past several days, Central Florida coach Donnie Jones has reeled in two top Florida players from the class of 2015.

On Tuesday, Corey Sanders, a 6-foot-1 point guard out of IMG Bradenton (Fla.) Academy committed to the Knights, and was followed a day later by Alex Owens, a 6-8, 245-pound power forward out of Orlando Oak Ridge (Fla.).

Sanders, ranked No. 76 in the country by Rivals.com, chose the Knights over Memphis, Murray State, Tennessee, and Marquette, while Owens, ranked No. 71, picked UCF over Cincinnati, Louisville, Florida, Florida State, Maryland, Georgia, Miami (Fla.), Missouri, N.C. State, Providence and USF.

Owens told SNY.tv that the decision came pretty naturally.

One of the top shooting guards in the nation will come off the board today.

Robert Johnson, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound combo guard from Chesterfield (Va.) Benedictine School, will announce at 3:30 between Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida State.

Carolina is perceived to be the leader but is recruiting Johnson as a two guard because they have point guard Joel Berry already committed. The other schools perceive Johnson as more of a combo guard.

“[North Carolina] said they’re looking to add a shooter so that’s somewhere I think I could play,” Johnson told SNY.tv this summer.

NEW YORK — Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard has already hired one assistant coach with ties to a highly-touted 2014 recruit.

Is Willard on the brink of hiring a second?

“Coach Willard is a guy who’s hungry,” Brooklyn Lincoln coach Tiny Morton said shortly after his star guard, 6-foot-4 likely McDonald’s All-American Isaiah Whitehead, chose Seton Hall over St. John’s and others Thursday afternoon. “He didn’t win any championships so he’s going to probably do what he’s gotta do to make sure everybody is successful.”

About a month after 6-9 rebounding machine Angel Delgado committed to Seton Hall in August, Seton Hall officially hired one of Delgado’s mentors, former Manhattan and St. Raymond’s coach Oliver Antigua.

There had been rumblings all summer on the recruiting circuit about a potential Antigua/Delgado package, and Seton Hall ultimately made it come to fruition.

NEW YORK — Seton Hall’s recruiting momentum has been building steam for several weeks, and the freight train is now humming at full speed.

On Thursday afternoon at Lincoln High School, likely McDonald’s All-American Isaiah Whitehead announced he would play for Seton Hall, joining a recruiting class that already includes Angel Delgado, Khadeen Carrington and Ismael Sanogo.

“I’ll be taking my talents to Seton Hall University,” he said as he held up a blue Pirates T-shirt.

Seton Hall pitched that Whitehead could be the face of the program going forward.

“It appealed to me greatly, that’s the reason I’m going there to tell you the truth. I picked Seton Hall to try to bring the program back to where it should be,” he added.

Whitehead joins his friend Carrington, along with Delgado and Sanogo in a really strong class.

“It would certainly be a breakthrough recruiting class for Seton Hall, with the guys they have,” longtime New York recruiting expert Tom Konchalski told SNY.tv.

With Brooklyn Lincoln guard Isaiah Whitehead set to commit somewhere other than Syracuse on Thursday, Orange head coach Jim Boeheim spent Wednesday afternoon at Pope John XXIII in Sparta, N.J.

Boeheim and assistant Adrian Autry watched 2015 center Moustapha Diagne, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound prospect ranked No. 26 in the class by Rivals.

“He’s seen him several times,” Pope John coach Jason Hasson told SNY.tv. “He just wanted to come down and watch him work out a little bit. He watched him lift after school and then watched him in the open gym.

photo-22Raven Owen Jr. is a 2014 point guard at St. Joe’s-Metuchen who plays alongside Kentucky-bound big man Karl Towns Jr. and Vanderbilt-bound guard Wade Baldwin.  He will be contributing to ZAGSBLOG periodically. Here’s his first entry.

I’m really looking forward to a great senior year both academically and athletically. Transferring from Xaverian High School in Brooklyn to St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen, New Jersey, at the start of my junior year has worked out better than I expected.

My transfer was related to a change in my father’s job status. While I have nothing but love for my former teachers, coaches, teammates and classmates at Xaverian, my experience so far at St. Joe’s has been phenomenal.

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