Quincy McKnight, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound sophomore guard from Sacred Heart, officially signed a grant-in-aid offer to transfer to Seton Hall, the school announced Monday.
McKnight, who committed June 3, will sit out the 2017-18 season per NCAA regulations, and he will have two years of eligibility remaining, beginning with 2018-19.
“We’re very excited to welcome Quincy into the Seton Hall Basketball family,” head coach Kevin Willard said. “He is a very talented basketball player with a great ability to score. During his sit-out year, he will continue to develop his game on both ends of the floor, and he will be instrumental in helping his teammates improve in practice.”
McKnight averaged 18.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists and was named first-team All-NEC, first-team NABC All-District 18 and third-team All-Met Writers. He led the Pioneers in scoring, assists and steals (52), shot 43 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free throw line and averaged 32.5 minutes a game. Among his NEC peers, he finished second in the conference in scoring and fourth in steals. A three-time NEC Player of the Week as well as a USBWA and Met Writers Player of the Week, McKnight’s marquee performance of the season was a 44-point outburst in a three-overtime win over Bryant; he was 16-for-26 from the field, 4-for-6 from three-point range and 8-for-12 from the free throw line and also contributed nine rebounds, six assists and four steals.
As a freshman in 2015-16, McKnight was an NEC All-Rookie and five-time NEC Rookie of the Week selection after averaging 11.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 27 games. He was second on the Pioneers in scoring, assists and steals and was third in rebounding.
In total, McKnight has tallied 914 career points in just two seasons and has career averages of 15.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists.
McKnight played his high school basketball at two schools, first attending St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, Conn., where he helped the Cadets to back-to-back state championships. He then transferred to the Phelps School in Malvern, Pa., where his team captured the 2015 PAISSA state championship. As a senior at Phelps, McKnight averaged 15.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists and then was selected to play in the 2015 Jordan Brand Classic Regional Game.
McKnight joins a class that includes Myles Cale (Middletown, Del.), forward Sandro Mamukelashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia), guard Jordan Walker (Port Washington, N.Y.), center Romaro Gill (St. Thomas, Jamaica) and forward Darnell Brodie (Newark, N.J.). The class of newcomers joins an already potent Pirates squad that is an early consensus top-25 program. The Pirates, who have won 21 or more games and reached the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons, return seven letterwinners that account for 90.5 percent of the team’s scoring and 90.0 percent of the team’s rebounding from 2016-17.
“Quincy McKnight will present himself as an extremely coachable student-athlete,” said McKnight’s former coach with the PSA Cardinals, Munch Williams. “He will position himself to do whatever is needed from the coaching [staff] with the single goal of winning. He will fit in great with the other talented young men at Seton Hall and showcase his ability to be a great teammate.”
