Big East Schools Trying to Get Famous

NEWARK, N.J. — Seton Hall hopes their future big man was in the building for today’s 71-50 victory over Columbia at the Prudential Center.

Jarrid Famous, a 6-foot-11, 235-pound center from Westchester Community College, sat behind the Seton Hall bench and was greeted by chants of “We want Famous.”

“It was a good experience watching the Seton Hall Pirates play,” Famous, who sat with his younger sister and a friend, told me.

Famous plans to wait until the spring to announce his school, and UConn, West Virginia, Villanova, Louisville and Missouri are also involved.

“That’s my goal,” he said. “Wait to the spring, see how it goes.”

Now in his second year at WCC, the Bronx native was a preseason third-team junior college All-American. A year ago, he averaged 21.6 points and 10.9 rebounds en route to All-Region XV honors. He will have two years of Division I eligibility left.

Famous took his only official visit of the fall to Seton Hall and enjoyed it.

“It was a great visit,” he told me last month for a story on SNY.tv. “It showed me a lot about Seton Hall that I didn’t know.”

He already has a connection to Seton Hall because Pirates assistant Dermon Player coached Famous for a year with the MetroHawks AAU program.

“It’s close to home,” Famous said of Seton Hall. “It’s a Big East program. I don’t want to be too close to home, and I don’t want to be too far. My father likes the school. My father’s a big influence in my decision. He likes the school. That was our No. 1 school. You have to visit the No. 1 school first.”

Famous planned to take officials to UConn, West Virginia and Missouri in the spring, but now Villanova and Louisville have also entered the picture.

“Villanova just came into the mix,” Famous said. “They’re supposed to come Monday.”

Villanova hosts Fordham on Monday night, so the Nova coaches may go later in the week.

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino and assistant Steve Masiello are slated to come watch Famous work out at Westchester Community College on Nov. 25.

“We’ll see how that goes,” Famous said. “They’ll get a chance to evaluate me and if they like what they see.”

WCC is 1-1 on the season, its loss coming to No. 1-ranked Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College. Indian Hills just had two guards commit to Big East schools in guards Dwight Hardy (St. John’s) and Dwight Buycks (Marquette).

“The season started off good,” Famous said. “We’re 1-1 right now. We got a game Tuesday so we’re looking forward to getting the season started.”