**[See the documentary on Cheek, “A Star Emerges from City Streets.”]
The Dominic Cheek Sweepstakes is about to end.
Ben Gamble, the associate head coach at St. Anthony in Jersey City, said the 6-foot-5 Cheek will make his announcement on Friday at 6 o’clock at the school gym.
“Dom will announce at St. Anthony on Dec. 12,” Gamble said.
Television coverage is still being worked out.
Cheek is down to Kansas, Memphis, Villanova, PIttsburgh and Rutgers and has taken official visits to all five schools.
“All the schools are still in there. Dom will make a decision this week,” Gamble said by phone Saturday. “It will be this week.”
Gamble said Cheek would consult with St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley, Gamble, his family and some former St. Anthony players.
“It’s pretty much Dominic himself,” Gamble said. “He’s gotten advice from myself and Coach Hurley and some other people who have gone through the recruiting process. Once in a while he’ll run into a former St. Anthony player who has been through the recruiting process.”
Cheek has former St. Anthony teammates at Kansas (Tyshawn Taylor), Pittsburgh (Travon Woodall) and Rutgers (Mike Rosario).
Kansas and Memphis played for the national championship last season and both teams need wing players. Villanova has long been a Cheek favorite and he is close with incoming freshman Maalik Wayns of Philly. Pitt also features assistant coach Brandin Knight, a New Jersey native from Seton Hall Prep. Rutgers is the local school and would enable him to play in front of friends and family.
“I think all the schools provide tremendous support for him. Development [will be a factor],” Gamble said. “Wherever he feels comfortable and we feel he has the chance to develop into a pretty good college player.”
Cheek did not sign in the early signing period last month and will wait until April to sign.
By committing soon, he will avoid having to answer questions through his senior season, as St. Anthony seeks to defend its Tournament of Champions title. The Friars open their season Dec. 19 against CREATE Charter.
“It’s best that he does it before the season starts,” Gamble said.
“Whenever’s the right time, that’s when I’ll decide,” Cheek told me recently.
“I guess a lot of people will be asking a lot of questions, but whenever is the right time it will happen.”
derza222 / December 7, 2008
Any word on where he might be leaning?
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Adam Zagoria / December 7, 2008
Nope, sorry.
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sports2012 / December 7, 2008
any word on exactly what day/time he’ll be announcing? will it be in front of a press conference? i’ve heard a rumor about it possibly being before the villanova/texas game on tuesday.
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Sam / December 7, 2008
I’m pretty sure Zags knows where he’s going…he’s known for a while, as have a few people who are pretty close to the situation. Dom just wanted to do things the right way, as he should…take all his visits, confer with his coach, stuff like that, but in the end, this suspense was more or less created so people would read the blog (and quite frankly, I don’t really blame Adam one bit b/c he does a great job with this site)
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Ed Nova / December 7, 2008
Letterman Top Ten Reasons Mr. Cheek should pick Nova:
#10: Fisher & Wayns feeding him the rock …
#9: Nova got a top big man (Yarou).
#8 Great school, great fans
#7 Part of Nova Basketball Family
#6: Jay Wright was GQ’s best dressed coach (not to mention a great guard coach).
#5: We don’t have Corey Feldman and Corey Haim but we have Corey Stokes and Corey Fisher.
#4. Playing with an upper-echelon, pass-first point guard like Wayns makes everybody look that much better – Cheek’ll put up great numbers and get more ink than a squid
#3 Jay has a history of developing players and getting them to the league.
#2 he will become part of the number one recruiting class in the country
#1 Villanova has wanted you to be a part of the team the whole way through.
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CBaller13 / December 8, 2008
Adam, do you know when the decision will be made?
Obviously if it is on Tuesday before the Villanova Texas game it’s going to be Villanova.
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Adam Zagoria / December 8, 2008
I don’t believe that determination’s been made. I hope to have an update soon.
Thanks
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shupirates35 / December 8, 2008
I do not really care where he goes as long as its not RU!!!
Go Pirates!!!
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RockChalk / December 9, 2008
So where is this kid playing ball next year Zags? Any chance Bill and coach Hurley convince him to suit up for the Jayhawks next year? I speak for the Kansas Nation when I say we would all love to watch Dom grow and develop into one of the top players in the country under Bill Self. If he can get over the distance factor, KU is where he should be. He would round out the 09 class perfectly. Dominic Cheek come on down.
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SweedishHamma / December 9, 2008
The only thing ‘Nova can really offer Cheek is the ability to stay close enough to home on a tournament team. If Cheek follows the teams that are recruiting him, he can see that KU has a need for a wing scorer and he has a great chance to play early. Jay Wright is a great coach for getting Nova to the tournament, but the differences between Jay and Bill Self are as wide as the Mississippi. If Cheek takes a closer look at the two perceived teams at the top of his list (KU and Nova), he will see that Nova has a busy backcourt with veteran players ahead of him. Then, Cheek might just look at the NBA where coach Self developed two guards and had them ready for the NBA. Maybe he takes a look at the KU roster even further and sees that his friend Tyshawn Taylor was just named Big XII freshman of the week. Taylor has improved leaps and bounds from HS as referenced by Cheek himself. Taylor is starting at KU, and Cheek is a more talented player from the same pedigree of program and coach. The only thing I can come up with for Cheek going to ‘Nova is distance. Also, as a side note: The “top 10” list above made me laugh. It was cute.
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LS / December 9, 2008
He’s going to Pitt. It’s a done deal.
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derza222 / December 10, 2008
There’s a writeup on nj.com that says Cheek said he was down to Kansas and Villanova yesterday at the St. Anthony’s scrimmage. Is this true?
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