Georgia Tech has featured two of the greatest New York City point guards in history in Kenny Anderson and Stephon Marbury.
Now Jose Alvarado is hoping to following in their footsteps.
Alvarado, the 5-foot-11-inch point guard from Middle Village (N.Y.) Christ the King High School, verbally committed to new coach Josh Pastner and Georgia Tech on Thursday at his school, spurning the two New Jersey schools who had hoped to add him to their backcourt in 2017.
“Me, my family and I thought it was the best fit for me,” he said Thursday. “It was a tough decision but I’m gonna be a Yellow Jacket.”
The reigning New York City Catholic High School Player of the Year, Alvarado is a tough, gritty point guard who helped Christ the King win a city title as a sophomore and helped lead the NY Rens to the Peach Jam quarterfinals this summer. He becomes the second high-profile New York City point guard to commit this week, following Isaiah Washington’s pledge on Sunday to Minnesota.
“He has an improved jump shot to go along with this motor and toughness,” CTK coach Joe Arbitello said of Alvarado. “He’s a winner.”
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“Jose is a winner,” Rens coach Andy Borman said. “He will be an impact starter as a freshman. He has won at every level and will continue to do so at the highest level.
“His motor is unmatched. I’ve never coached a more competitive player.”
Longtime New York City recruiting guru Tom Konchalski echoed the “winner” comments.
“He brings a tremendous heart,” he said. “He’d rather win than breathe. He plays the game to win. There are other guys who are more talented than him, but he’s about winning. His focus is on his team winning the game and I don’t think you can say that about everybody.”
Alvarado projects to be a four-year player at Georgia Tech.
“He doesn’t have a lot of size but people are going to say he’s not great, he’s not this, he’s not an All-American and he’s going to have to play against the Duke people,” Konchalski said. “But he’s going to do OK. He’s obviously a four-year player and he’s a winner. I d rather have him than some other guys who are more talented and more focused on themselves. He’s focused on the result.”
For Pastner, this is a huge get as he looks to turn around a program that went 21-15, 8-10 in the ACC a year ago.
Speaking generally, the Georgia Tech coach said he’s looking for winners.
“We’re hitting the reset button is what we’re doing, that’s why they hired me,” Pastner said. “We’re hitting the reset button, we’re starting all over. And so in order to do that we’ve got to do a great job coaching our current team, but recruiting-wise we’ve got to go out and recruit our tails off and do a great job evaluating as well, too.
“We’re trying to find the guys out there who are top winners, hard-nosed guys that are aligned to our core values and our standards of what we want to achieve.”
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