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Isaiah Whitehead, No. 14 in Class of 2014, commits to Seton Hall

2013 Elite 24

Kelly Kline/Under Armour

Kelly Kline

After a wild recruitment that saw some fireworks down the stretch, the latest in a long line of Brooklyn-bred, Lincoln HS stars finally announced where he would be attending school on Thursday afternoon.

“I’d like to announce that I’ll be taking my talents to Seton Hall University,” Isaiah Whitehead, the No. 14 recruit in Rivals 2014 top 150 announced from a press conference at his high school. Lincoln has also produced the likes of Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair and Lance Stephenson.

Whitehead is a 6-foot-3 shooting guard and one of the most potent scorers in the Class of 2014. He’s got sone size and strength to him, and when he gets hot, he can knock down four or five jumpers in a row. He has a tendency to be a bit of a gunner, however, and is known to take some bad shots from time to time. One recruiting analyst called him “the best bad shot maker in the country”.

Whitehead joins a loaded recruiting class for Seton Hall, one that already includes top 100 recruits Angel Delgado Khadeen Carrington and Ismael Sanogo.

Whitehead’s recruitment was a roller coaster. He shocked a lot of people in the recruiting world when he announced this week that he would be making his decision on Thursday, a day after taking a visit to St. John’s. Popular sentiment had Whitehead going to St. John’s, but some movement behind the scenes on Wednesday night and Thursday morning changed things.

One factor that may have played a role in Whitehead’s decision? Dwayne “Tiny” Morton, the Lincoln HS coach and the founder of Whitehead’s AAU program, the Juice All-Stars, will reportedly become a member of Kevin Willard’s staff at Seton Hall. Morton had very publicly made a push to fill Mike Dunlap’s position at St. john’s after Dunlap went to the NBA last summer.

Hiring Morton as an assistant is a completely legal move by Willard, even if it does come across as a bit unsanitary. A few years back, the NCAA implemented a rule that eliminated package deals and job for third-parties connected to a recruit unless the job that was being filled was one of the three assistant coach positions on that staff. Morton would be an assistant coach for the Pirates.

To land a five-star recruit as talented as Whitehead at a place like Seton Hall, that’s a risk that’s worth taking for Willard. His program is in a bad spot right now. They went 3-15 in the Big East. Their second-leading scorer transferred out and their top two players are seniors this season. Willard had a good recruiting class already, but he had to get Whitehead.

And he did.

Whitehead was the first top 25 recruit from New York City since Stephenson and Durand Scott made their way out of Lincoln and Rice, respectively, in the Class of 2009. There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of high-level talent in the city in the Class of 2015 or 2016. Outside of Whitehead, New York has more-or-less become a dead zone for elite high school talent. Some of the players end up heading to prep schools outside the city. Other players buy into their hype too early, while some of the city’s best players are written off thanks to local kids that have been overhyped in the past.

But for one day, the insanity of an old school, no-holds-barred New York recruiting battle was on full display.

And it just felt right that the two schools left swinging at the end were St. John’s and Seton Hall.

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