NEW YORK — When Rutgers offered its coaching job to Rhode Island’s Dan Hurley, Cyril Langevine knew there was a chance he could lose his future coach.
A native of Guyana in South America, the 6-foot-8, 225-pound power forward out of St. Patrick’s High School committed to Hurley in September. But once again this spring there were rumblings that Hurley might leave for the state University in his home state of New Jersey.
Had Hurley taken the job, Langevine could theoretically have tried to follow him to Rutgers, but he never had to confront that scenario because Hurley turned the job down and the school ultimately hired Steve Pikiell.
“I was happy because [Hurley] told me that he was going to stay and he’s there to push me and there’s three more recruits that’s coming in with me and he didn’t want to disappoint us,” Langevine told SNY.tv last week at the Jordan Brand Classic Regional Game, where he went for 11 points and 2 rebounds as the East lost to Team New York, 148-128.
Although Rutgers offered Hurley significantly more money than he makes at Rhode Island, he opted to stay — in large part because he didn’t want to perform his third rebuilding job in seven years following rebuilds at Wagner and Rhode Island.
He’s also very close with returning players like E.C. Matthews and Hassan Martin, and the Rams should be a Top-25 team next season.
“Next year no doubt we should be in the Top 25 in my opinion,” Langevine said. “E.C., Hass, everybody’s returning so it’s going to be a good experience.”
Rhode Island also has a four-man recruiting class including Langevine, shooting guard Jeff Dowtin and bigs Mike Layssard and Michael Tertsea.
Hurley landed a pledge from Langevine just as other schools were starting to take notice. Then-Pitt coach Jamie Dixon was in the gym at St. Pat’s the day Langevine committed to Rhody.
“For sure for sure, I would’ve had Pittsburgh, Maryland, UConn but I felt that Rhode Island was the best fit for me,” he said.
He chose Rhode Island over offers from Fairleigh Dickinson, Duquesne, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, George Mason, St. Francis, St Bonaventure and Buffalo because of Hurley’s commitment.
“For sure, for sure, that’s one of the reasons why I went there, too,” he said.
Now with Hurley set as his coach, he’s ready to help the Rams win.
“Do anything that he wants me to do,” he said, “score, rebound, block shots, run the floor. Mostly everything.”
