Seton Hall transfer Jaren Sina will take an official visit to South Carolina beginning Friday, he told SNY.tv.
“[The] biggest thing is that they know I’ve played at a high level and played significant minutes,” Sina said. “I can bring a certain leadership to their program. They also need a shooter, someone who can run the point position but also come off different types of screens for shots and create for my teammates.”
South Carolina head coach Frank Martin recently had a home-visit with the 6-foot-2 sophomore guard. The Gamecocks have also signed Chris Silva, a forward from newly-minted New Jersey Tournament of Champions winner Roselle Catholic.
Sina is also considering Michigan, Stanford, Boston College, Rhode Island, George Washington and Binghamton, among others. He recently took an official to Binghamton, where his sister is a freshman point guard.
“Jaren will take his time on this decision,” Mergin Sina recently told SNY.tv. “There are so many transfers and coaches leaving. Making a rash decision for Jaren is not good. He needs to find a place that will fit his style of play. Academics are important and will play a big role in where he decides to go.”
Sina will have to sit a year per NCAA transfer regulations unless he obtains a waiver.
HOWLAND AND STAFF MEETING WITH MALIK NEWMAN, RAY KASONGO
New Mississippi State coach Ben Howland is wasting no time going after some uncommitted players in 2015.
Howland and his staff are meeting Thursday evening with Calloway (MS) guard Malik Newman and his father, Horatio Webster, a former Mississippi State star, a source confirmed to SNY.tv.
Howland assistant Korey McCray has previously recruited Newman.
“He’s recruited Malik since ninth grade,” Webster told the Clarion-Ledger this week. “He has a good relationship with him. They talk from time to time and I have a pretty good relationship with him, too. When he left LSU, the recruitment [of Malik] stopped.”
The 6-foot-4 Newman was being recruited by Mississippi State under former coach Rick Ray and is also considering Kentucky, Kansas, N.C. State, LSU and Ole Miss among others.
He is expected to commit sometime in the spring, perhaps after the NBA early entry deadline April 26.
Meantime, Howland and McCray will travel to Toronto this weekend to meet with 6-10 College of Southern Idaho forward Ray Kasongo.
“Yeah, they are both coming to my house on Saturday,” Kasongo told SNY.tv.
A onetime Oregon pledge, Kasongo has attracted attention from numerous schools during the late signing period, including LSU, Kansas State, Seton Hall, UNLV and Ole Miss, among others.
Meantime, Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy will trip to CSI on Tuesday to see Kasongo, sources said.
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