Adam Zagoria, Connecticut Recruiting, DePaul Recruiting, Louisville Recruiting, McDonald's Game, Pittsburgh Recruiting, Rutgers Recruiting, Seton Hall Recruiting, St. John's Recruiting, Villanova Recruiting

ZAG’S HURLEY NIGHT RECRUITING NOTEBOOK

By ADAM ZAGORIA

A slew of Big East and other Division I coaches were in the gym at St. Peter’s College Thursday night for “Hurley Night,” a nationally televised doubleheader featuring Danny Hurley’s St. Benedict’s team and Bob Hurley’s St. Anthony team.

The Hurley family came out on top in both games on ESPN and father and son are now a combined 49-1 on the season.

St. Benedict’s handled North Carolina-bound Ed Davis and Benedictine (Va.), 58-44, in the first game, and Rutgers-bound Mike Rosario and St. Anthony knocked off Tyreke Evans and American Christian (Pa.), 64-53, in the second game.

Among the coaches on hand were Jay Wright and Pat Chambers from Villanova;
Darren Savino from Rutgers; Norm Roberts from St. John’s; Bobby Gonzalez,
Derm Player and Scott Adubato from Seton Hall; Rob Lanier from Florida; and
Chris Sparks from Penn.

Here’s our breakdown on many of the top players on hand.
–Tyreke Evans – The 6-5 American Christian junior started slow but came on strong in the second half and finished with 17 points on 7 of 21 shooting to
go with eight rebounds and four blocks.

Bob Hurley alternated putting 6-foot Pitt-bound Travon Woodall and 6-3
Marquette-bound Tyshawn Taylor on him.

“Ty offers one thing with him, he’s long,” Hurley said. “Tray is a little
closer to the dribble, so during the course of the game we didn’t think he
was going to wind up getting a lot of layups against us because I think both
of them were going to stay in front of him off the dribble. And he never
posts, so he doesn’t take advantage of his size so he’s basically always got
the ball facing the basket.”

Still, Evans shut down Dominic Cheek in the second half after Cheek had the
better of the play in the first. Evans and his brothers headed to Memphis
after the game for the Tennessee-Memphis game. He is expected to announce
his decision sometime after the McDonald’s All-American game March 26.
Memphis, Villanova, UConn, Texas and Seton Hall are left after Louisville pulled out of the sweepstakes.

–Dominic Cheek – The 6-5 St. Anthony junior was unstoppable in the first
half, scoring all 20 of his points as the Friars seized a 39-27 advantage.
He finished 7 of 16 from the floor and 3 of 6 from beyond the arc. Cheek
also grabbed seven rebounds. All of the aforementioned coaches would love to
land this kid, and the last two coaches we saw talking with Bob Hurley
before we left were Savino and Wright.

“We’re an equal opportunity team,” Bob Hurley said. “Dominic shot the ball
unbelievable in the first half, but he also got all over the offensive
boards, too. He had a couple steals and really was effective.”

As for his college choices, Cheek said: “I’m not really thinking about that
right now. I’m just trying to win a state championship.”

–Travon Woodall – The 6-foot Pitt-bound senior for St. Anthony played a remarkably efficient and effective game, finishing with 13 points on 5 of 11 shooting, five rebounds and three steals. He used his quickness and strength to score several key baskets down the stretch.

–Mike Rosario – The Rutgers-bound shooting guard didn’t have his best game of the season, but finished with 17 points on 7 of 15 shooting. HE scored 10 of his team’s final 23 as St. Anthony closed the game on a 25-13 run after trailing in the third period.

“It felt so good,” Rosario said of the win. “It felt like a state
championship game. We played all the way to the end. And it was just a good
experience for us to have a close game like that this year. And it just
showed how much character we have at the end of the game. And it showed how
much conditioning counted, too, at the end.”

The Scarlet Knights got a great deal of free national publicity this week
because of Rosario. First he was named to the McDonald’s All-American game
March 26 in Milwaukee, becoming the school’s first ever recruit to achieve
such recognition. Then the ESPN commentators calling the game gave repeated
shout outs to Rutgers head coach Fred Hill and his program for landing
Rosario.

–Samardo Samuels – The 6-9 Louisville bound big man from St. Benedict’s dominated in his final high school game, finishing with a game-high 19 points and six rebounds against Davis, his fellow McDonald’s All-American.

“Samardo’s done what senior leading men do, produced in every game for us
and he’s had a great year,” Danny Hurley said. “We’re very fortunate. Some
Big East schools don’t have two big guys as good as (Samuels and Greg
Echenique).”

–Greg Echenique – The 6-9 St. Benedict’s junior was efficient with 11
points, seven rebounds and four blocks. Villanova, Rutgers, Florida and Penn are all actively recruiting him, and Pitt, Miami and Maryland are also in the mix.

St. Ben’s assistant Scott Smith said he and Echenique will try to get to
some games at Pitt and Maryland in the coming weeks before Echenique’s folks visit from Venezuela March 14-24. The NCAA Tournament begins March 20 and Smith said he wasn’t certain how many other schools they would visit when
the family arrives.

Next year, Echenique will have to take over a much bigger role with Samuels
moving on.

“Greg’s been unselfish the whole year, doing a lot of the grunt work,”
Hurley said. “This year he had to be Robin. Next year he’s got to be a
Batman-type character. I can’t have him being as unselfish next year as he’s
been this year.”

–Tamir Jackson – The 6-1 St. Benedict’s junior scored 10 points in the game and drew praise from his coach for playing like a true “combo guard.”
Jackson has drawn serious interest from Arizona coach Kevin O’Neill, who
still wants to see him play. Others to offer include St. John’s, Virginia Tech, Alabama-Birmingham, Rhode Island, Miami, Houston and Harvard.

–Tristan Thompson – The 6-8 St. Ben’s sophomore had just two points and
three rebounds, but look for him to have a much bigger role next year, when
Samuels will be on campus. Villanova, Rutgers and Seton Hall are among those pursuing the phenomenally athletic Canadian sophomore.

–Jeremiah Kelly – Looked like American Christian’s second-best player in
shooting 5 of 12 and 4 of 9 from beyond the arc. When the Eagles opened the
second half on a 13-0 run, the DePaul commit was right in the middle of it, hitting a 3-pointer.

–Lamont “Momo” Jones – The one-time Louisville commit shot just 3 of 15 and finished with eight points. Earlier in the week, he announced he was de-committing (again) from Louisville, this after he appeared in Louisville wearing a Louisville sweatshirt.

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