On the same day that Eddie Jordan will be introduced as the new head coach at Rutgers, two players on the current roster will be taking steps out the door.
Sophomore guard Eli Carter will have an in-home visit with Florida coach Billy Donovan, and junior wing Mike Poole will visit Iona.
“Yes, Florida,” St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley told SNY.tv.
“I think with [former St. Anthony player and Florida assistant] Rashon Burno there and two guards leaving [Mike Rosario and Kenny Boynton], one guard signed, [Kasey] Hill is the only guard coming in, they can I think talk to him about playing time.
“When you transfer you have to go someplace where you’re gonna play. You can’t go someplace and play less than you did where you were before.”
Keep in mind that Rosario was another former St. Anthony standout who transferred to Florida from Rutgers after his sophomore season and ultimately thrived under Donovan, so there is a blueprint there for Carter.
Still, a number of teams are interested in the 6-foot-2 Carter, who averaged 14.9 points last season before a leg injury. Hurley mentioned Texas, Maryland and Duke, “because of his friendship with [former Duke star] Kyrie [Irving].”
But there are other schools as well.
“He’s wide open right now,” Hurley said.
Meantime, the 6-5 Poole is considering Iona, St. John’s, Liberty and Norfolk State, according to his mentor, Nate Blue.
He will visit Iona Tuesday.
Poole scored a career-best 18 points against Iona Dec. 9 at Madison Square Garden, and Blue said Poole likes coach Tim Cluess’s up-tempo style of play.
Meantime, Jordan is taking over a team with just five scholarship players at the moment.
In addition to Carter and Poole, Jerome Seagears, Malick Kone and Vincent Garrett are transferring, and onetime commits Shane Rector (Missouri) and Chris Griffin (Auburn) have found new homes. Seagears visited Auburn this past weekend and heads to Arkansas next weekend.
All the Rutgers transfers could ask for — and get — waivers to play immediately next season because of the extenuating circumstances surrounding Mike Rice’s departure. Sonny Vaccaro previously told SNY.tv that they should all get waivers.
Asked what the new coach should do going forward, Hurley, who previously told SNY.tv that his wife, Chris, and daughter, Melissa, pushed him to take the job after Rice was fired, had a few thoughts.
“You have to try to recruit the ones you have a chance of keeping there,” Hurley said.
“And it’s hard because everybody feels like they don’t want to be part of interview or they don’t want to be in a fishbowl next year. So there’s a lot of kids that would just prefer to just go someplace else and not have to deal with all of the drama. So he’s gotta work on that but I think he did a job by keeping Van Macon and David Cox. He kept the two people there that would help him keep a bridge to these kids.”
One of those kids is former St. Anthony and Paterson Catholic star Myles Mack, one of the five players who has not asked for a release.
“I think Myles, like everybody else, he’s happy there,” Hurley said. “You gotta balance the happiness with the scrutiny. I think he’d be comfortable with Eddie Jordan.I know he’s comfortable with the two assistant coaches. He love the University, his parents want to see every game.
“There’s probably a good chance he could stay, but again it’s such an unusual set of circumstances. I don’t know if anybody wants to just go through what next year is going to be all about. It’s going to be an awful lot of scrutiny.”
