NEW YORK — While the coaching and roster situations at UNLV remain unresolved, one former Runnin’ Rebels commit is moving forward.
St. Thomas More’s Christian Vital, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard from Queens Village, has cut his list to three schools, Louisville, UConn and Iowa.
A source told SNY.tv that Vital will take official visits to the Huskies on Monday and the Cardinals on Friday. Those will be his third and fourth officials, respectively, after visiting UNLV and Dayton earlier in the recruiting process.
Those three schools remaining means he has cut Alabama and Marquette from consideration.
“A lot of things, as we know, happened down at Louisville, and I am aware of that and thinking about that,” Vital said after scoring 13 points to go along with seven assists for Team New York in a 148-128 win over Team East in the Regional Game at the Jordan Brand Classic. “Whatever did happen over there, no one’s perfect. They definitely took the steps to get ahead of their sanctions by no postseason last year.”
When it comes to UConn, there are very obvious, profound connections to Vital that could end up working in the Huskies’ favor.
“A player from my AAU program, Terry Larrier, is there,” Vital said. “I know Jalen Adams very well from playing in New England. Steve Enoch was my teammate last year, that’s my best friend. I actually just spoke to him the other day, he told me to get ready for my visit.
“Coach [Kevin] Ollie is a great guy, too. You can see how genuine he is and how much he cares about his players. That’s why he shows so much emotion on the sideline.”
Vital originally committed to four years in Las Vegas in September, but de-committed on March 16 with the coaching staff in flux. Dave Rice was fired three games into the Mountain West schedule and was replaced by Todd Simon, who has since taken the head coaching job at Southern Utah.
On March 27, Chris Beard was hired by UNLV, but in a crazy series of events, took the Texas Tech job on Friday.
“I don’t blame the guy,” Vital said. “I saw they only have five official visits left or something like that, and he has only one returning scholarship player in Jalen Poyser, and everyone is either declared for the draft or transferred. I don’t really blame him, that’s a tough program to be a part of.”
Vital never signed a National Letter of Intent, instead signing a scholarship agreement, giving him more freedom once he decided he did not want to attend UNLV. With no Rice, no Simon, and with the roster crumbling, Vital was free to explore his options, as opposed to being locked in by an LOI.
“I think signing the scholarship paper, it puts the ball in your corner,” Vital said. “I think all players should really do that. The Letter of Intent, I don’t want to say it’s negative, I don’t want to put that out there that it’s a negative thing to do, I just feel that signing the scholarship paper gives you more of an ability to predict your future if things don’t work out.”
Vital was one of six members of the PSA Cardinals AAU program competing in the Jordan Brand Classic. He, Bryce Aiken (Harvard), Ty Jerome (Virginia), Travis Atson (Tulsa) and Unique McLean (UMass) were invited to the Regional Game, while Omari Spellman (Villanova) played in the National Game. (Jerome is injured and didn’t play.)
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