Fresh off an in-home visit last week with St. John’s head coach Norm Roberts, Lance Stephenson is expected to visit St. John’s Thursday for the 2008 Red Storm Tip-Off, according to sources close to the situation. It is not an official visit.
The event will run from 5:45-8 at Taffner Field House and will serve as St. John’s Midnight Madness event. It is open to students and the media, but not the general public. There will be a free student BBQ and the men’s and women’s teams will be introduced. Both Roberts and women’s coach Kim Barnes-Arrico will speak to the fans, and both teams will then scrimmage.
Other recruits will also attend, as well as members of the current recruiting class, including South Kent standout Omari Lawrence.
As for the 6-5 Stephenson, ZAGSBLOG broke the news earlier this week that Roberts and assistant Fred Quartlebaum had an in-home with the Stephensons last Thursday. He won’t decide until the spring, but St. John’s appears to have as strong a shot as anybody.
Having already locked up a recruiting class of Malik Stith and Omari Lawrence, Roberts has one scholarship remaining for the Class of 2009.
St. John’s is focusing on Stephenson, James Padgett and Jordan Williams. If the Johnnies were to land commitments from two of these players, they would need someone to leave the team in order to free up a scholarship.
Coach Roberts had an in-home visit with the 6-foot-8 Williams on Wednesday and Williams had previously said St. John’s had shown the most interest in him. He recently had an in-home visit with Coach Gary Williams of Maryland, and plans to visit there officially.
“I can tell you that I am going to take an official visit there [Maryland],” Williams told TerrapinTimes.com. “I am thinking about coming down for their Maryland Madness, since it sounds like that is also Homecoming Weekend and a lot will be going on. Right now, that is the tentative plan, but it’s possible I could visit before then. This process is just beginning in terms of home and official visits, and I am not ready to say anyone is leading at this point. But Maryland is definitely going to be in the mix.”
As for the 6-7 Padgett, he had an in-home with Coach Roberts on Monday. The latest on him is that he will NOT take an official visit this weekend to Pitt, where Rice guard Durand Scott will be. Pitt just got a commitment from power forward J.J. Richardson of Pitt, meaning it could be out of the Padgett Sweepstakes.
Lincoln coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton said coaches from Maryland and Villanova visited Padgett at school Thursday, and Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State will come in next week.
HENRY TO SKIP KANSAS VISIT
Elsewhere, Xavier Henry will not attend tonight’s “Late Night in the Phog” event at Kansas, preferring instead to visit his brother, CJ Henry, at Memphis.
Elite prospects John Wall, Daniel Orton and Thomas Robinson will still visit Kansas.
For more, read Gary Bedore’s update on KUSports.com.
picodulce / September 19, 2008
Thanks for the update, the St. John’s fans appreciate it! FYI, Edmondson and Roberts are recruits for 2008. Omari Lawrence and Malik Stith are the two recruits to sign for 2009.
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Alessandro / September 22, 2008
Malik Stith has not signed any binding agreement.
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Adam Zagoria / September 22, 2008
He’s committed. Are you suggesting otherwise?
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Alessandro / September 23, 2008
I wasn’t suggesting anything other than Stith simply gave a verbal commitment.
Although St. John’s has been beset by transfers throughout the Norm Roberts era, as it currently stands, they only have one available scholarship that can be used for either the 2009 or 2010 season.
As you know, they have been aggressively recruiting the NJ/NYC area in both classes. Frankly, after a series of misses by Norm Roberts in the 2008 recruiting class, Stith was a late signee who did not garner any other high-major interest.
Although it might be viewed as unethical, it is not outside the realistic realm of possibilities that Roberts would take two of the players (that you write about daily) and, in as many words, ask the North Carolina native to find another program. It is an ugly practice, but it is not unprecedented.
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