Photo: Under Armour
Last week in My 2 Sense, I chronicled “signing day” in college football, and how it went down for Rutgers. Well kids, this week I am on more familiar ground, college basketball recruiting.
I had the pleasure of working for Greg Shemitz, founder and editor of Big East Briefs Newsletter, from 1993-2000. BEB was a one-stop shopping outlet for Big East basketball fans. We had interviews with coaches and players, game previews and wrap-ups, and most importantly, recruiting information. Here is where I came in. I would be given a list of high school prospects each season with whom to call and see what was up with their recruiting situation, and most notably, with regard to which if any Big East school/schools was making them a priority. I thoroughly enjoyed tracking down players, and/or their high school/AAU coaches, to find out the 411 for our most popular feature. All of which brings me to a current 5-star point guard and the Seton Hall Pirates.
Trevon Duval is a 6 foot 3 inch, 190 pound senior point guard from Wilmington, Delaware. He is playing this season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Duval is not just a point guard mind you, he is the consensus #1 ranked lead guard in the 2017 class! He can do anything you need him to on the court; handle the ball, run his team, get his own shot, make outside shots, finish above the rim, and lock down his counterpart. So, is it any wonder everyone in the USA was trying to secure his services?
Well, he has trimmed his list to 5 schools, and believe it or not, Kevin Willard’s Pirates are among the five still alive! That is the good news. The bad news is the other 4 in contention are Kansas (whom he visited last weekend), Arizona, Baylor, and Duke. Oh, is that all? When SHU takes the court at the Prudential Center Wednesday night against my Providence College Friars, their coaches and fans will do so knowing that Duval is in Durham, North Carolina, beginning his official visit in the home of Mike Krzyzewski and his Blue Devils. On Thursday, he will be treated like royalty by the Cameron Crazies AND have a front row seat for the greatest college basketball rivalry ever – Duke/Carolina! Now just how is a small school like Seton Hall supposed to recruit against that, or the other huge basketball factories they are butting heads with here? The answer is, it is extremely hard. But, as the old saying goes: “you’ve got to be in it to win it”, and they ARE in it. Working on their side perhaps is that some current Pirates know Duval, freshman guard, Myles Powell in particular, and they keep in touch with the McDonald’s All American all the time, trying to sway him to join them in South Orange.
Listen, there were not many who thought Seton Hall could land stud shooting guard, Isaiah Whitehead back in 2014, but they did. Can they do the same with Trevon Duval? If so, it will truly be a major Seton Haul!
And that is My 2 Sense for this week.
