As Isaiah Whitehead weighed his options Wednesday night, picking between Seton Hall and St. John’s, the Lincoln High School star’s mind kept going back to his visit to South Orange.
In that trip last weekend, the Pirates coaching staff outlined its plans for him. The coaches wanted him to be the face of the program, to be the player to get them back in the NCAA Tournament after a seven-year hiatus, the subject of Seton Hall billboards. St. John’s, meanwhile, backed off this summer until recently re-entering the picture.
“It appealed to me greatly, that’s the reason I’m going there to tell you the truth,” the dynamic 6-foot-4 shooting guard said of Seton Hall. St. John’s, meanwhile, didn’t view him the same way until recently, he felt.
“I don’t understand why they would now,” Whitehead said.
The city’s highest-ranked player in five years picked Seton Hall at a press conference Thursday afternoon, a stunning commitment for a consensus five-star prospect who was courted by the likes of Syracuse, Louisville, Arizona and Indiana during a whirlwind recruitment. His high school coach, Dwayne “Tiny” Morton, is expected to join him at Seton Hall next year as an assistant coach, sources told The Post.
Neither Morton nor Whitehead would confirm such a move is in the works, though neither deny it, either. One of the country’s elite scorers, ranked 12th in the country by Scout.com, Whitehead said having Morton, who taught him in middle school, at Seton Hall with him “would make me even more comfortable.” An eight-time city champion as a coach at Lincoln, Morton said he would welcome a coaching opportunity at the next level.
“I expect to coach Lincoln until somebody offers me a job that’s appealing enough for me to leave,” Morton said with a smile.
If Whitehead is selected as a McDonald’s All-American — Scout.com national recruiting analyst Evan Daniels said the Coney Island phenom should be part of the game — he would be the first such player to pick Seton Hall since Andre Barrett and the late Eddie Griffin in 2000.
Griffin was the linchpin of the last great recruiting class at the Hall, ranked No. 2 overall. Willard has put together an impressive haul, bringing in top 50 forward Angel Delgado of the New York Lightning AAU program and Huntington Prep (West Va.), Brooklyn shooting guard Khadeen Carrington of Bishop Loughlin — a close friend of Whitehead’s — and Newark East Side wing Ismael Sanogo.
Those commitments convinced Whitehead Seton Hall could be a winner, but the school’s recruiting efforts truly sold him, he said. While Syracuse and Louisville opted to take other players at his position and other schools got involved late in the process, Seton Hall was steadfast in its support from the beginning of the spring.
“Isaiah went with the school that was truly committed to him,” his mother, Ericka Rambert, said.