Transferring Cincinnati forward Jermaine Lawrence is down to four New York-area schools and will visit Iona on Thursday (today) and St. John’s in the coming days.
The 6-foot-9 Queens native is now considering St. John’s, Manhattan, Hofstra and Iona, according to Zach Braziller of the New York Post.
We previously reported that Seton Hall would not attempt to recruit Lawrence.
Wherever he lands, Lawrence is expected to apply for a hardship waiver to play immediately in 2014-15. He said his father “is ill” and he “wanted to be closer to him.”
Lawrence visited Hofstra Wednesday.
Hofstra has a three-man recruiting class for 2014, including former Brooklyn Boys & Girls wing Malik Nichols, who signed an NLI this week.
Next up is Iona, which has reached two of the last three NCAA Tournaments under head coach Tim Cluess and associate head coach Jared Grasso thanks to an influx of transfers and junior college players who flourish in an uptempo system.
On Tuesday, Iona landed Longwood transfer Jeylani Dublin.
Lawrence is expected to hit St. John’s either this weekend or next weekend, a source told SNY.tv. The Johnnies were in the mix for Lawrence the first time around and is said to be intrigued by his talents, even if he underperformed in his one year at Cincinnati.
The Johnnies have added Christ the King big man Adonis Delarosa and Westchester Community College forward Keith Thomas, but still have frontcourt needs.
Manhattan remains in play and would love to add Lawrence to its frontcourt mix, but no visit is currently set.
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