St. John’s has two openings on its staff and rumors are rampant that Kimani Young of New Heights and/or Oswald Cross of the New York Panthers could get hired by the end of the month by Norm Roberts.
Cross coached current SJU player Justin Burrell at Our Saviour Lutheran in the Bronx.
“It’s Oz’s job to turn down,” a source told me.
Young is the director of a New Heights program that features talented juniors JayVaughn Pinkston of Bishop Loughlin and Devon Collier and Ashton Pankey of St. Anthony.
“Officially, there are no basketball staff changes at this time,” said a St. John’s spokesman.
A previous rumor had Lincoln coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton also in consideration, but Roberts told me that was not the case…Stay tuned.
***Mike Anthony of the Hartford Courant reports that UConn will travel to St. Thomas for the Paradise Jam, which also includes Southern Miss, Miami, La Salle, San Diego, Valparaiso, Iona and Wisconsin. The Huskies open Nov. 21 against La Salle and play three games in four days. The Huskies are also scheduled to play in the preseason NIT Tip-off in 2009. And in 2010, UConn travels back to the Maui Invitational, which they won in 2005. **
The Norwich Bulletin quotes Rice senior Durand Scott as saying he’s considering playing at UConn to join former teammate Kemba Walker. “Yeah, definitely (I feel good about UConn), just because of the people that came through here and I have a teammate that’s going here,” he said. “So of course, I’m going to give it a look, without a doubt. Even if they didn’t say anything to me, UConn would be in my mind. That’s the type of school they are.”
