By JACOB POLACHECK & ADAM ZAGORIA
Scottie Lewis, the 6-foot-5 small forward from the Ranney (NJ) School, has cut his list to seven schools.
Lewis is down to Villanova, St. John’s, Kentucky, Duke, Florida, Harvard and Stanford.
He cut Seton Hall, Maryland, Kansas, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Colgate from his previous list of top-12 schools.
And then there was 7? pic.twitter.com/QJVu7dMItK
— Scottie Lewis (@Scott_lewis_23) June 8, 2018
He broke down each school for Rivals and PrepCircuit.com.
Villanova: “That is family, obviously. They are right in my backyard and having coach George [Halcovage] always calling and texting me, and coach Jay [Wright] always keeping in contact. They just got Justin Moore and another big guy, and I heard a couple of rumors of another few guys going over there, and if I was to go there, that class would be something to look at. If we stayed one or two years and kind of built that program back to where it was since they are obviously losing the three guys, next year they will still be tough and the next year even tougher, so that would be something that I would definitely like to be a part of.”
St. John’s: “That is where I am from. I am from New York and I grew up there and my dad, whenever he first got to meet coach [Chris] Mullin and the coaching staff, he was in love with them, and my mom loves them as well. She hasn’t thought a lot about me staying home as far as going to New York, but after sitting down and having those home visits, she would love the fact of me staying at home and me playing at the Garden.”
Duke: “That is big time right there. Me and Bryan [Antoine] always talk about schools that we could go to together and Duke is one of those schools. Their pitch and coaching staff, along with their culture there, one of the biggest things for me is what I could bring to the table as a freshman and doing something different that no other Duke player has done before, because obviously I am about creating something new as far as history goes.”
Florida: “They have been kind of helping me out as far as my head situation and getting me to have fun and just playing. They are always giving me pointers. They were in a conversation with me along with my coaches about this video that came out about me, and coach [Mike] White actually sent it to me about some of the pointers on some of the things that I need to work on. I like them so much that even if I were to not go there, I know I will always have them just as mentors and people that just genuinely want to help me out.”
Kentucky: “That is Kentucky. If I choose to be one of those players that is a one-and-done, basketball-only type of guy, Kentucky is definitely the school that I will be headed to. All of the schools we have talked about, they will hopefully be in that list of schools that I get down to once I make a cut list, but they are always texting me and giving me pointers about what I can do better.”
Stanford: “Bryce [Wills] is always chatting in my ear about them. A couple of my teammates are telling me about them, too. Hopefully, we are going to take an unofficial visit there sometime this summer.”
Harvard (via PrepCircuit): “Harvard and Stanford are kind of in the same boat as far as my academics and just how open I am to everything. I feel like Harvard is an environment academically and socially that I would thrive in. I would be one of the first top ten players to go there. With what we have done at The Ranney School, it’s very similar to what could happen at Harvard. We can start somewhere and just build it up from there.”
According to 247Sports, Lewis is ranked as the No. 10 overall player in the Class of 2019 and the No. 3 player from the state of New Jersey. Recently, Lewis participated in tryouts for the USA U-18 Team.
“I think that I have just been so worried about making the right play instead of just playing basketball and being myself,” he said. “We had this long break leading into USA Basketball so myself, Bryan Antoine, Mike Rice and the entire coaching staff just took me to the side and worked on every single part of my game and went over game film just so that they could show me my mistakes and try to help me get back to the player that I was.”
Despite talk of playing in college alongside best friend Antoine, Lewis remains a step or two behind his high school friend and travel teammate in his recruitment.
“I am hoping that we are going to take a couple unofficial visits once I get home; we aren’t sure where they are going to be to,” Lewis said. “There is a lot of things that come into play for me with the person that I am and the basketball player that I am. There are a lot of categories and things that go into my college decision, so I am just kind of waiting it out and seeing what school will be the best fit for me. I am taking a bit of a longer time because I am not totally sure what I want in regards to the area, what I want out of basketball and really, what I want to do with my life.”
Antoine currently has a top five of Florida, Kansas, Duke, Villanova, and Kentucky.
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