Hit the Video Player at right for my interview with Kimani Young, the former St. John’s assistant and current AD at New Heights Youth.
Kimani has been on both sides of the college recruiting game and knows it as well as anybody. He’s in a unique position to be able to advise young men on their futures because he’s worked at the college level and the AAU level.
In this interview, Kimani breaks down the recruitments of his Big 3 seniors: JayVaughn Pinkston, Devon Collier and Ashton Pankey.
Of the 6-foot-6 Pinkston out of Bishop Loughlin, he says: “I think that Villanova is probably the perfect scenario for a kid like JayVaughn and many other kids in New York City, a place where winning has been there. A great academic institution. The coaching…But his options are still open.”
Pinkston will visit St. John’s for Red Storm Tip-Off on Thursday, and then he will go to Villanova’s “hoops-mania” on Friday. Â Then he will probably go to Seton Hall the following weekend. He is also considering Tennessee and Marquette.
Kimani says Pinkston may wait until the late signing period.
On Devon Collier, the 6-8 lefty from St. Anthony, Kimani says, “He’s been to Oregon State, he’s been to Providence, so probably both of those schools have a lead now because he’s spent the most time there.” Collier will also visit St. John’s this weekend and Seton Hall next.
Ashton Pankey, a 6-8 big also at St. Anthony, will visit Maryland this coming weekend. He’s also looking at Rice, Houston, Hofstra and Drexel.
“If you want to play at the highest level, Maryland would probably be the leader right now,” Young says.
Stay tuned to ZAGSBLOG and SNY.tv for future news on these three players.
JONES TRIMS LIST
Five-star forward Terrence Jones of Portland, Ore., has trimmed his list to five and is no longer considering Arizona or Kansas.
Jones will choose from among Oklahoma, Washington, UCLA, Kentucky and Oregon, according to his mother, Linda Mashia-Jones.
“We will not be making an official visit to Kansas or Arizona,” she wrote in an email. “We are going to make our decision out of the five schools we currently have.”
Jones said that because Arizona received commitments from Rod Odom and Daniel Bejarano, “they have decided to go in a different direction.”
As for Kansas, she said, “I believe they are interested in Terrence but he is not a high priority for them. I wish both Arizona and Kansas the best of luck.”
“We still plan on taking our official visits to UCLA on Nov. 6 and Kentucky on Oct. 27 for their Blue and White game. We will also take an unofficial visit to Oregon Oct. 31.”
Jones has already visited Oklahoma and Washington.
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Avaricious / October 20, 2009
How does JayVaughn Pinkston, who has had numerous off court incidents and has been a notoriously weak student, fit perfectly with Villanova, which often likes to view itself as a regional, borderline academically challenging institution?
Granted nobody is looking for Corey Fisher or Dom Cheek to become a future neurosurgeon, but still it seems like a risk for their program. St. John’s would seem like a more realistic fit. As you noted, the former felon, Young, has some experience hustling with the New Heights program and being at the end of the bench for a year with Norm Roberts.
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JessieWildcat / October 20, 2009
Woody and Jhawk,
No love from Kansas for TJ.
TJ is a great player and Arizona missed out, for sure.
Note: West Virgina Recruiting Violation FIASCO
It appears, that after FOUR DAYS, West Virginia will NOT SELF REPORT the numerous recruiting violations.
Patrick has stated….NO VIOLATIONS have transpired.
Patrick will stand by his man- Bobbie H.
And the BIG EAST says I want NO part of it. This is your mess WV!
From Big East compliance office: Lady Jennifier….”We never mandate whether a school should report violations,”
The NCAA will have to do something MAJOR?
Imagine….all the Universities acting like West Virginia
http://blogs.dailymail.com/wvu/2009/10/17/a-night-when-wvu-tried-to-avoid-ncaa-violations/#
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jhawk4 / October 20, 2009
cant say im too terribly surprised by this. i have a feeling he will stay on the west coast somewhere. cant blame him, all the schools he still has on his lists are going to be a good fit for him.
Hoping to hear from Barnes and Lamb shortly after they finish there visits (which should be in around 2 weeks if im not mistaken)
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JessieWildcat / October 21, 2009
Yeah, TJ wants to play in the West Coast.
Arizona is looking to hear from one or two more recruits.
Probably 15 days away.
I hear that KU maybe planning a good welcome for A. Payne.
Similiar to WV….lol
Still waiting to hear from the NCAA before other school try to exact same thing.
Imagine if UK attempted something like this when A. Payne visits as well.
Not sure if anybody acceptance a plead of ignorance from the WV admin, Patrick, President. Someone needs to be accountable.
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blasphemy / October 21, 2009
How’s that former coach of D. Lamb doing in Zona? I hope he is doing good, wouldn’t want to tarnish that “special” image Zona has going on right now. I mean, with a former coach of a player at a college that is also recruiting that same player, I hope nobody would mistake that for something “suspicious”. Not like you would ever try to ensinuate anybody else’s program was a bit unclean. lol
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Big Ben / October 21, 2009
What ‘special’ image does Arizona have? They’ve always played loose with the rules and I doubt that’s changing now…
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JessieWildcat / October 21, 2009
AZ,
The weekend is coming and recruits are getting ready for official visits.
This time, FANS are also getting ready.
The BIG EAST conference allowed it and SEC ,Big12 and PAC fans are NOT sitting still. (referring to NCAA and West Virginia recruiting antics.)
The discussions center on : Thousand of Fans showing up with signs, Thousands of Fans cheering the recruit; Thousands of Fans with pictures of the Recruit…..It is going to be massive.
If it happens, the next few weeks are going to be WILD.
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blasphemy / October 21, 2009
The “special” I’m reffering to is from one of Jessie’s older posts when he said something “special” was happening there. This is nothing more than me taking a shot back after discovering that reading his posts lowers my IQ rating everytime. I personally associate it to dying on the inside just a tad during every read through his post.
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blasphemy / October 21, 2009
Wild as in, “Hi I’m Jessie and I would like to comment negatively on a school near you! (cept for my own UA wildcats)” wild? Or wild as in, “AZ AZ, don’t leave me AZ, I want you!” wild? Both sound like true desires from what I read.
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Big Ben / October 21, 2009
Besides signs being produced by a university or a booster, there is 0 problem with anything you’re crying about.
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blasphemy / October 21, 2009
Projection of crying, psychology can be so mean sometimes.
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Big Ben / October 22, 2009
Maybe in your native tongue that was a good insult… It loses a lot in translation.
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blasphemy / October 22, 2009
When you fail psychology, psychological jokes don’t seem very funny do they Big Ben?
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Big Ben / October 22, 2009
You’re right, academic smack from someone who attends KENTUCKY is far more funny.
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blasphemy / October 22, 2009
Yes, it’s “more funny” alright…………..ROFL. The previous post gave me a feeling that I was reading a 12 year old’s post. Am I mistaken?
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