NEWARK — Fuquan Edwin recalls being 13 years old when the Paterson (N.J.) Police Dept. roared into his home in the Alabama projects and made Edwin and his entire family get down on the floor.
“They were looking for somebody, actually, and they came to my house,” Edwin told SNY.tv exclusively after he scored a career-high 28 points to go with nine rebounds as No. 24 Seton Hall crushed DePaul, 94-73, Tuesday night. “They were in full armor. They told everybody to get on the floor.” (more…)
NEWARK — Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard had just beaten defending NCAA champion UConn Tuesday night and that’s not even what made him the happiest.
“We had Victor Cruz in the locker room,” Willard said after the Pirates snapped an 11-game losing streak against UConn by downing the No. 8 Huskies, 75-63, at The Prudential Center.
“Everybody says, ‘You gotta be happy about this one,’ I just met Victor Cruz. I’m more happy about that than anything. Got my Giants back in the playoffs, I’m all excited.”
When Paterson (N.J.) Catholic closed its doors last June due to financial struggles, it set in motion a mad scramble for all the talented players on the school’s basketball team.
The team’s two best returning players, point guards Myles Mack and Kyle Anderson, landed at St. Anthony under Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley.
Two other young Paterson Catholic standouts, Reggie Cameron and Kavon Stewart, took their talents to St. Anthony’s crosstown rival, Hudson Catholic.
Now the former teammates will face off Friday in the North Non-Public B bracket if both teams win their preliminary games Wednesday. Hudson Catholic, the No. 7 seed, faces Montclair Immaculate, while No. 2 St. Anthony meets Morris Catholic.
Click here to read the full story at SBNation.com.
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**St. Anthony-St. Pat’s? Not so fast.
(Photo courtesy HudsonCountyVarsity.com)
Darryl “Mookie” Watkins hasn’t given up on his dream of playing in the NBA.
The 6-foot-11, 265-pound former Syracuse University and Paterson (N.J.) Catholic standout hopes his dream will finally materialize this year.
Watkins, 25, was invited to the New Orleans Hornets training camp later this month and hopes to make the roster.
“Yes,” he said in a phone interview from Houston where he now lives. “It’s so exciting. You get a chance to go to a camp and have the team invite you there.” (more…)
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Just a few short months ago, Marquis Webb was a history teacher and an assistant varsity basketball coach at Paterson Catholic, a perennial powerhouse ranked as high as No. 3 nationally last season.
Then all of a sudden he was neither.
He lost his teaching job and his coaching job when Paterson Catholic closed its doors in June after a long history of financial problems.
“It was tough in the sense that I’m a Paterson Catholic guy,” said the 6-foot-5 Webb, a former Paterson Catholic star who scored more than 1,000 points at Rutgers and played professionally in Hungary and New Zealand. “I’m a Patersonian. I grew up there. (more…)
St. Anthony junior guard Kyle Anderson visited a trio of schools this week — hitting Seton Hall, La Salle and Villanova.
Anderson is the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2012 and his father broke down the visits.
“All three visits went well for different reasons,” said Kyle Anderson Sr. via text. “La Salle’s visit went well because besides Coach [John] Giannini and the entire staff being hospitable on the tour of the campus and facilities, we met with the academic advisor [Christine Cahill] and she explained how she will help make Kyle a better student. She also spoke highly of [former Paterson CAtholic stars] Kimmani Barrett and the Williams twins. We could see the sincere concern in her face. It also helped that she had a Playaz football jersey hanging that Jerrell Williams gave her. (more…)
Jayon James’s long and winding road to college appears to have ended on a happy note.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound point guard from Paterson (N.J.) Catholic signed scholarship papers on Tuesday with Iona, where he will join a tremendous 2010 recruiting class.
“I signed today,” James, who goes to campus Aug. 23, said by phone. “It just felt like it was the perfect fit for me, the best situation at the moment.”
James becomes the second Paterson Catholic player to commit this week, and potentially the last ever from the storied program to go Division I. 6-9 forward Derrick Randall verbally committed to Rutgers Sunday. The program closed its doors in June.
James averaged 5.7 points, 4.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals on a team loaded with Division 1 talent.
Paterson Catholic coach Damon Wright said James, who can play the point-forward and point-guard spots, brings a high basketball IQ. (more…)
Maurice Harkless has trimmed his list to eight schools.
The 6-foot-8 Queens, N.Y. native wrote on Twitter he’s considering the following schools after spending next year at South Kent (Conn.): St. John’s, Maryland, Florida, N.C. State, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Arizona and Memphis.
I asked Harkless if that means UConn is definitely out and he said, “Yes.”
Harkless recently decommitted from UConn.Harkless was named the Most Outstanding Player at the Hoop Group Elite Camp in Reading, Pa., in early July. (more…)
Derrick Randall has pulled the trigger and it’s good news for Rutgers .
The 6-foot-8 1/2, 220-pound Randall committed to Mike Rice and his staff on Sunday and will join the Scarlet Knights in 2011.
“Yes, I was just thinking about it and I like the campus,” he said Sunday by phone. “I like the coach and the facilities. I like everything around Rutgers and it’s in the Big East and it’s close to home and to my family [in Brooklyn]. If they want to see me play, it’s not a hassle.”
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — The game of point guard musical chairs in the Garden State is moving at a dizzying pace.
Tyrone Johnson’s decision to leave Plainfield for Montrose Christian was just the latest in a flurry of high-profile point guards opting to either move from one New Jersey school to another or, in Johnson’s case, leave the state altogether.
Consider that:
**In May, St. Benedict’s point guard Myck Kabongo announced he was leaving for Findlay Prep, the two-time National High School Invitational champ.
**After it was announced that Paterson Catholic would close its doors, highly touted floor generals Kyle Anderson (a rising junior)and Myles Mack (rising senior) both opted to play for Hall of Famer Bob Hurley at St. Anthony. (more…)
“Adam Zagoria sees the story behind the daily happenings.”
~ St. Anthony Coach Bob Hurley
Zagoria covers the New York Knicks and Big East hoops for NBA.com and SNY.tv. He also appears as a Big East Basketball Insider on SNY and 1050 ESPN Radio.
He is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, SI and Basketball Times.
