Eric Paschall will be in the stands at Draddy Gymnasium Tuesday night when Fordham visits Manhattan in what should be an interesting non-conference affair between New York City programs.
But Rams head coach Tom Pecora probably wishes he could suit up the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Paschall to play against the Steve Masiello-coached Jaspers, who were picked to win the MAAC.
“He is an important piece to the process of our future success,” Pecora said when Paschall officially signed his Letter of Intent. “Eric will have an immediate impact on our program when he joins us next year.”
Pecora’s program already features the reigning New York State Mr. Basketball in freshman guard Jon Severe, who enters the Manhattan contest averaging 21.5 points per game.
Next year they will add Paschall to form a powerful dynamic duo.
“I think we will be pretty good next year,” Paschall told SNY.tv. “Jon likes to score and I know he’s a very good passer also. I think we will be a very good 1-2 punch next year.”
Just like Severe, Paschall had other options besides Fordham.
The 6-2 Severe, the former Christ the King star, also considered Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Wake Forest and Rutgers before selecting Fordham last April in order to play close to home.
Paschall, who averaged 26.0 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.1 blocks, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game as a junior at Dobbs Ferry High School, chose Fordham last April over VCU, Providence, George Mason and Iona, among others.
He probably could play for a BCS school if he had wanted to.
“I don’t think about that because the A-10 is a really good conference,” Paschall said. “And two of the schools I was thinking of were also in that conference, so I wasn’t really thinking about going higher. I just wanted to go somewhere where I could play.”
Paschall is now at St. Thomas More in Connecticut and scored 21 points in each of two games this past weekend at the National Prep Showcase, one a loss to Hargrave (Va.) Military and the other a win over Fork Union (Va.) Military.
“He’s a very talented kid, very nice kid,” St. Thomas More coach Jere Quinn told SNY.tv. “He’s young, he just turned 17 in November. His potential is really, really high.
“He scores in multiple ways. He scores with power, he scores by hitting 3’s, he scores taking it to the rim. He’s gotten in some foul trouble, which I think he’s going to learn how to handle, with silly reaches and things like that.”
Quinn said Paschall right now is a small forward who wants to be a shooting guard.
“He thinks he’s a two-guard offensively,” Quinn said. “But he’s gotta guard people. Everybody wants to be a two-man until you put him on a 6-2 little jet, so he’s working on that.”
Quinn credited Pecora and Fordham assistant David Duke with doing a nice job recruiting Paschall, and thus getting rewarded with his commitment.
“I don’t know if he’d play immediately at the higher level,” Quinn said. “At Fordham he’s going to have a chance to play right away which, of course maximizes his potential.”
And again, Pecora probably wishes Paschall could play right away, too. As in Tuesday night against Manhattan.
Photo: MSG Varsity
