When current St John’s head coach Steve Lavin left ESPN to be the Red Storm’s new head man prior to last season, he hit the ground running on the recruiting front, securing the#3 rated recruiting class in the country heading into next season.
In flexing his recruiting muscle, Lavin has secured an impressive 9 man class led by SF’s Dom Pointer and Maurice Harkless, made up of six Top 100 rated players plus two of the nation’s very best JUCO prospects in big man God’s Gift Achiuwa and Nurideen Lindsey to run the point. Lavin has also recently gotten a jump start on the 2012 season by landing elite level PF Ricardo Gathers over Texas, Arizona, and Syracuse at the Nike EYBL this Summer.
But the Johnnies received some bad news early this Summer when the NCAA suddenly announced that the 6’8 and 200lb Harkless was ineligible as the NCAA Clearinghouse further examines his association with current St John’s Director of Basketball Operations Moe Hicks, who was once the director of Harkless’ AAU team, the NY Gauchos.
The NCAA has made it a point to crack down on the IAWP rule, otherwise described as an “individual associated with a prospect” edict. They are essentially looking into a number of top prospects who have seen their father, coach, or other relatives become a member of their newly committed to collegiate program’s coaching family, giving some an unfair advantage in the recruiting game.
Harkless, the #38th ranked player in 2011, is one of the most athletic small forwards in the nation in addition to being a highlight reel finisher. He excels in the transition game and needs to further develop his jumper to match his extreme athleticism but has the talent and potential to be a game-changer in the always tough Big East Conference.
Some controversy has surrounded the highly touted Queens, NY native as he was once a UConn commit prior to switching high schools before his senior season. He left Forest Hills HS in NY to play out his final year at South Kent School in CT, in addition to switching AAU squads as well. Last Summer, he de-committed from UConn in June and committed to play for Lavin at St John’s in August.
This past week, the NCAA has cleared Harkless to enroll at St John’s as a freshman in the fall, ruling that he had only limited contact with Hicks. Hicks also coached former Arizona PG Momo Jones when at NY’s Rice High School. Jones was denied a transfer to St John’s after last season because of the same rule in question, and has since landed at Iona.
Check out Maurice Harkless’ Senior Season Mixtape:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
