St. Benedict’s coach Dan Hurley said he agrees with Tamir Jackson’s decision to decommit from the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
“I disagreed with the decision initially,” Hurley said Tuesday by phone. “I think there’s a much better fit for him as a student-athlete.”
Jackson, a 6-foot-2 senior shooting guard from Paterson, N.J. native, says he’s now considering Miami, Penn, Harvard, Virginia Tech, Rice, Davidson and Arizona. UAB is still an option.
“Word’s going to start to circulate and over the course of the next 10 days to two weeks, we’ll put some things together for him,” Hurley said.
St. Benedict’s is also picking up a 6-11, 210-pound rising junior center named Blaise Mbargorba from Cameroon. He will play AAU ball with the New Jersey Roadrunners under Sandy Pyonin.
“He’s been trying to get over to the U.S. for the past year and has finally gotten here,” Hurley said. “He’ll be a very highly recruited kid.
“He’s going to be a major contributor. With (Myck) Kabongo, Tamir, Tristan (Thompson), (Lamar) Patterson, Aaron Brown, Mike Poole, Tavon Sledge and a couple of other kids, we should be pretty good. Last year we won ugly. This year we’ll have a lot more depth and talent than I’ve had in the last year or two.”
A year ago, St. Benedict’s finished 24-1 and ranked No. 2 in most major national polls. St. Anthony of Jersey City, coached by Bob Hurley, Dan’s father, was No. 1.
