Landesberg on His Decision

Sylven Landesberg stayed up past midnight Tuesday meeting with his parents, Steve and Ingrid, as well as his AAU coach, Gary Charles, in order to make the most important decision of his life.

It was Wednesday morning before Landesberg, a 6-6, 200-pound shooting guard from Holy Cross High in Queens, ultimately settled on Virginia instead of Georgia Tech or local favorite St. John's.

"I felt that all three schools were able to offer the same thing, but I was the most comfortable at Virginia," Landesberg said Thursday during an elaborate press conference in the school's gym. "The group of guys that they had, I felt like I fit in really well with them. When they showed me the campus, I felt like that was my kind of lifestyle over there."

Landesberg, who averaged 25.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists, said he first called the coaches from Georgia Tech and St. John's on Thursday afternoon from the office of Holy Cross coach Paul Gilvary.

"The real tough thing was telling a great guy like (St. John's coach) Norm Roberts and his coaching staff, and the coaching staff at Georgia Tech that I won't be attending there," Landesberg said. "That was the hardest thing I had to do in my life."

Landesberg and Gilvary both emphasized that the recent incident on the St. John's campus in which a man with a rifle was arrested had nothing to do with his decision to turn down that school.

"The event that happened at St. John's, that didn't effect my decision at all," he said. "That could basically happen anywhere."

Added Gilvary: "If anything, St. John's came out looking good because they handled (the incident) so well, nobody got hurt. That had nothing to do with his decision. This was an academic and a basketball decision."

In fact, after Sylven, Steve and Charles met with former St. John's head coach Lou Carnesecca and other St. John's personnel on Tuesday, Ingrid said she thought her son would choose the Big East school.

"He was really blown away by that, so I thought that would've been the school," Ingrid, who wasn't at the meeting, said of St. John's.

Added Charles: "His mom didn't get a chance to hear that, but Louie was tremendous. After (the Landesbergs) left that meeting, they were seriously considering St. John's."

Instead, Landesberg will go to Virginia, where he hopes to turn that program into a perennial powerhouse.

"If I would've went to a powerhouse and we would've won, people would've been like, 'You're supposed to win. North Carolina, Duke, Florida, they're supposed to win.' But I feel that Virginia's on the rise. I can help them out a lot and if we do win, people are going to start looking at them different."

Landesberg will likely play the point at Virginia, as opposed to St. John's, where he would have been a combo guard, or Georgia Tech, where he was being recruited as a wing.

"I really like to have the ball in my hands, so I guess that played a role in it, too," Landesberg said.

Said Gilvary: "I think he's going to play wherever he goes. He's that kind of caliber of player. As to whether he's a point guard or a two guard, to me that's not all that important. If he goes out and plays well, they'll find time to play him."