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After three seasons of recruiting struggles, Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard landed his biggest commitment to date in Brooklyn's Isaiah Whitehead.
(Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)
It was at a meeting in the family apartment of high school hoops star Isaiah Whitehead that Seton Hall men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard decided to push everything to the center of the table. Whitehead, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from famed Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, was one of the top unsigned recruits in the 2014 class and the Pirates needed a star at the top of their list.
Seton Hall pitched its family atmosphere, its improving facilities and the Big East Conference’s new national television deal. It was making an impact, but it didn’t feel like enough. Willard then pulled out an ace.
He offered one of the vacancies on his staff to Whitehead’s high school coach, Dwayne "Tiny" Morton, to show just how serious he was. According to two people familiar with the contents of that meeting who asked to remain anonymous because they don’t speak on the interests of Whitehead, Morton or Seton Hall — that was a major selling point. Whitehead’s mother, Ericka Rambert, had heard all she needed to.
All of that culminated Thursday afternoon in Whitehead — rated by Rivals.com at the No. 14 recruit nationally for 2014 and by Scout.com as the No. 1 shooting guard in the country — pulling up a Seton Hall shirt and announcing he would be coming to South Orange for the 2014-15 season. It punctuated the end of a major recruiting haul for Willard and his staff and a major coup for the Pirates program, which has not had a recruit rated this high since 2000.
That, famously, was the same year when Seton Hall had the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, consisting of top-prospect Eddie Griffin, Andre Barrett and Marcus Toney-El.
"I just picked Seton Hall to bring the program back to where they used to be," Whitehead said during a televised news conference inside the gym at Lincoln.
Willard and his staff at Seton Hall can’t publicly comment on a recruit until Whitehead signs his National Letter of Intent in November.
"It’s the biggest pickup of the Kevin Willard era," Evan Daniels, national recruiting analyst for FoxSports.com and Scout.com, said.
The waiting game for Seton Hall Thursday, however, was torturous.
As Whitehead admitted during his news conference, after the announcement, he kept his options and final choices within his inner circle. However, the consensus was that following the summer and its recruiting period — when Seton Hall pushed hard on Whitehead and those close to him — the decision would come down to the Pirates and Big East rival St. John’s.
Even though reports earlier in the day had Whitehead committing to Seton Hall, those with knowledge of his decision had heard no such thing. The Pirates coaching staff found out like everyone else in the afternoon: gathered around a laptop in the basketball offices in Walsh Gym, waiting to see if the hard work had paid off.
"He’s the best shooting guard in the country and arguably the best pure scorer in his class," Daniels said. "This gives Seton Hall an immediate go-to guy."
As for what helped get Whitehead to South Orange? The addition of Morton to Seton Hall’s staff likely won’t take place until next season, two people with knowledge of the situation said.
There is likely to be some shuffling of positions on Willard’s staff, given that he has brought in two heavyweight recruiting assistants during the offseason in Fred Hill and Oliver Antigua. Per NCAA regulations, a high school coach is allowed to follow a player to a school but only as an assistant coach, not a lower-level staff position. Those are plans for another day.
Right now, Seton Hall — for the first time in Willard’s three-plus years — is focusing on recruiting success. Along with Whitehead, the Pirates already netted a four-start power forward (Angel Delgado), and two three-star players (SG Khadeen Carrington and SF Ismael Sanogo) for next season. In fact, once Whitehead officially committed, Seton Hall shot up the overall recruiting rankings on 247sports.com. Previously, the Pirates were No. 15.
Thursday afternoon, they were No. 4 ... in the country.
All thanks to a power play by Willard.
"It appealed to me greatly," Whitehead said at his news conference. "Just to help bring the program back up."