Amir Garrett is still considering Oregon and St. John’s as his top two schools, but said he may wait until the spring to sign.

“Yes,” the 6-foot-7 Garrett said Tuesday night by phone. “I’m not sure yet. I don’t think I’m going to sign in November. Not too soon. I’m not too sure yet.”

Said Findlay Prep assistant coach Todd Simon: “Amir’s going to be thorough and he’ll know when it feels right. He’s improving on the court by the day.”

Garrett took an official to Oregon last weekend and said he enjoyed talking with head coach Dana Altman about his potential future there. (more…)

Siena leads for St. Benedict’s Prep guard Vaughn Gray, but new players are involved in his recruitment.

After taking an official to Siena last weekend, the 6-foot-5 Gray will get a special visitor today at the Newark school.

“Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek called St. Ben’s Coach Roshown McLeod last week inquiring about Vaughn and he is flying into town on Tuesday  to watch Vaughn and the team work out,” said St. Ben’s assistant coach Billy Diamond, who is coordinating Gray’s recruitment. (more…)

Tim Cluess is the new Iona head coach and will be introduced Friday at a press conference.

The presser is tentatively set for 11 a.m., but could be moved back to the afternoon.

Cluess will also bring in Jared Grasso as his top assistant. Grasso, the former Fordham interim head coach, is a tremendous recruiter with deep ties to Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony and Paterson (N.J.) Catholic.

Fran Fraschilla was originally thought to be the favorite for the head job once former coach Kevin Willard took the Seton Hall position.

But Fraschilla opted to remain at ESPN instead.

Louisville assistant Steve Masiello was also heavily considered but Iona athletic director Pat Lyons ultimately opted for Cluess, who built CW Post into a Division II power and played college ball at St. John’s and Hofstra.

In four seasons at the Long Island school, he went 19-11, 26-5, 30-1 and 23-6. This past year he won 19 of his final 21 games. He is 98-23 overall at the school.

(more…)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Siena’s Fran McCaffery will be the next coach at Iowa.

“It’s done. It’s going to be Iowa,” a source with knowledge said Sunday morning in breaking the news exclusively to ZAGSBLOG.com.

Iowa has set a noon press conference for Monday.

“On behalf of the Siena community I would like to congratulate Fran on being named the head coach at Iowa,” Siena AD John D’Argenio said in a statement. (more…)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- As I reported on Twitter late Friday night, St. John’s is now looking at Siena coach Fran McCaffery and will interview him next.

The New York Post, citing multiple sources, said St. John’s would meet Saturday with McCaffery, who is also a leading candidate for the Seton Hall job.

McCaffery has let the Saints to three straight NCAA tournament appearances and is 112-51 at Siena.

St. John’s AD Chris Monasch met Friday in New York with Boston College coach Al Skinner, but a source said Skinner is part of the “next tier” of candidates after Florida’s Billy Donovan and Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt both turned the job down.

Another potential candidate, Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, agreed Friday to a two-year extension at that school.

Skinner told The Boston Globe “the talks were ongoing.’

Former St. John’s coach Norm Roberts was fired last week after six seasons. (more…)

NEW YORK – Seton Hall remains alive in the Big East tournament and alive for an NCAA tournament berth.

But they didn’t make it easy on themselves.

The No. 10 Pirates blew a 29-point second-half lead and advanced to the second round of the Big East with a 109-106 victory over No. 15 Providence after Friars freshman Duke Mondy missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Read the full story here.

**Brendan Prunty has a good story about Seton Hall guard Keon Lawrence and how his off-the-court issues contributed to a disappointing season.

**Lance Stephenson hit the game-winning foul shot to lift Cincinnati to a 69-68 victory over Rutgers, which faces an uncertain future.

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

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NEW YORK – Midway through the fourth quarter in the PSAL championship game at Madison Square Garden, Leroy Isler approached his teammate Michael Taylor during a timeout.

“Yo, work hard to get open. You’re not working to get open,” Isler told him.

Before Taylor could utter a single word of protest, Isler added: “We need you to get open.”

A 6-foot-6 junior guard, Taylor took Isler’s words to heart. He scored 11 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter, including a critical game-tying 3-pointer and two go-ahead foul shots, to lift Boys & Girls to a 55-50 victory over Cardozo before 3,658.

Read the full story here.

(photo courtesy Ravi Rozier)

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Here are a couple of quick, but interesting recruiting notes for Tuesday morning…

**Louisville Coach Rick Pitino was on hand Monday night to watch Mount Vernon junior point guard Jabarie Hinds in his team’s final regular season game. Hinds dropped 13 points in a 77-67 loss.

The top six schools showing interest in Hinds are Louisville, Virginia, Wake Forest, St. John’s, UNLV and Seton Hall, coach Bob Cimmino said.

As I wrote Monday, Cimmino and Hinds will meet in July to cut the list and focus on certain schools. (more…)

Terrence Jones and his mother will meet this week to discuss his college options and he may wait until the late signing period in the spring.

“It’s kind of 50-50 [whether he will sign early or late],” Linda Mashia-Jones said of her son’s plans. “He’s just undecided.”

A 6-foot-8 forward from Portland (Ore.) Jefferson, Jones and his mother visited UCLA this past weekend. He is considering the Bruins, along with Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington and Kentucky.

The early signing period runs Nov. 11-18.

“Hopefully [we will meet] by Wednesday,” Linda said.

Asked if there was a favorite, she said: “They’re all equal at this point.” (more…)

Like most people who tuned in to the Le Moyne-Syracuse exhibition game Monday night on SNY, I figured I’d be watching a 20- or 30-point Orange blowout.

Le Moyne College?

Never heard of it. Turns out it’s a Division 2 school also in Syracuse.

Well, a whole lot of people will know about Le Moyne now after the Dolphins — yes, that’s their nickname — downed the No. 25 Orange 82-79 thanks  to sophomore guard Chris Johnson’s sixth 3-pointer of the night with 8.3 seconds left. (Johnson is pictured courtesy the Le Moyne website.)

Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson, who had hit a 3 from the left wing to put Syracuse up 79-78 with 22 seconds left, misfired on a 3-point attempt the other way. Can Ozkaner of Le Moyne then made 1-of-2 foul shots to send the Lemoyne fans into a celebration worthy of winning the national championship. (more…)