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Harris Likes Rutgers

After his stellar play at the recent King James Shooting Stars, Tobias Harris is picking up a lot of interest.

Harris, a 6-foot-7 sophomore shooting guard from Dix Hills (NY) Half Hollow Hills West, received interest from DePaul, Marquette, Ohio State, Virginia, Wake Forest and Baylor.

A slew of schools have already offered Harris, with Rutgers being the first. UConn, Maryland, Arizona, Virginia Tech and Indiana previously offered, according to Torrel Harris, Tobias's father and coach of his Unique All-Stars AAU club.

"He is just playing and keeping an open mind, but he really likes (Rutgers assistant) Craig Carter and Coach (Fred) Hill of Rutgers," Torrel said. "He believes they are very sincere and caring coaches beyond basketball."

Harris dropped in 52 points in a game this February and has more than 1,000 career points already.

Edmondson to St. John's

After not signing a single player during the early period, St. John's got its second commitment of the week.

TyShwan Edmondson, a 6-4, 175-pound playmaking guard from University Heights Academy in Hopkinsville, Ky, has signed a Letter of Intent to play for Norm Roberts' team.

"I am very excited to come to St. John's," said Edmondson. "This is a big step in my life, and I am ready to come in and work hard, to be the best that I can be."

Edmondson possesses the ability to score in transition, create his own shot, score off his defense and set up his teammates. He comes from the same high school program as former St. John's player Sergio Luyk (1991-95), who passed away recently in Spain.

Sofman Visits Monmouth

Former Rutgers guard Justin Sofman visited Monmouth on Friday and thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

"We spent a lot of time on campus and met all the players," said Steve Sofman, Justin's father. "We spent some great time with the coaches learning what's in store for the program and their future, and also got a full tour of the campus, which is a beautiful campus. Justin thorougly enjoyed the visit."

The 6-foot-4 Sofman previously visited Albany and plans to see Iona, Marist and Fairleigh Dickison next week.

A former Herald News All-Area pick from West Milford, Sofman decided to leave Rutgers after his freshman season and will have to sit out the 2008-09 season as per NCAA transfer regulations.

"We hope to have a decision by May 10," Steve Sofman said.

New York, New Jersey Dominate Hoop Group Jam Fest

Teams from New York and New Jersey dominated the action this past weekend at the Hoop Group Jam Fest in Providence, winning the Gold and Silver brackets in both the U-17 and U-16 events.

**Despite playing without superstar Lance Stephenson, the Juice All-Stars won the U-17 Gold bracket, 69-61, over the Bingo All-Stars. Vincent Council led Juice with 16 points. Two other Lincoln stars, Devon McMillan and James Padgett also play for Juice. Stephenson, who appeared Monday night at the Tribecca Film Festival premiere of Adam Yauch's new film, "Gunnin' For That #1 Spot," will make a guest appearance this weekend with Derrick Favors and the Atlantic Celtics when he visits Kansas for the Jayhawk Invitational.

**New Heights 2010, another New York program, won the U-17 Silver bracket despite playing up a year. That New Heights team features Bishop Loughlin star Jayvaughn Pinkston as well as the two players who recently transferred to Bob Hurley's legendary St. Anthony program in Jersey City: Devon Collier and Ashton Pankey. New Heights beat Team Underrated, 71-70, behind a game-high 21 points from Collier and 19 from Harold McBride. Pankey did not play in the final.

Beasley Ready for the Knicks?

Michael Beasley got a taste of life in New York City Monday night when he appeared at the premiere of a basketball film at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Now the question is, Is Beasley headed to the Knicks in the upcoming NBA Draft?

"I love it," the 6-foot-10 Beasley said of New York when asked if he would like to play for the Knicks. "New York is a great city."

When Bobbito Garcia, the famed announcer at Rucker Park in Harlem, added "If the check is right...," Beasley chimed in with, "I'm there."

Read the full story here.

Roberts to St. John's - Official

As first reported here last night, Quincy Roberts committed to St. John's and will sign a Letter of Intent.

"I'm very excited to be headed to St. John's," said Roberts, a 6-5, 190-pound combo guard from Harrisburg (Pa.) High. "The coaching staff made me feel very comfortable, and it is a great situation for me to play in New York City and the BIG EAST Conference."

"We're excited about Quincy joining our basketball family and our University," said head coach Norm Roberts, entering his fifth year at the helm of the Red Storm. "He comes from a culture of success, on and off the court, and his versatility will really help him contribute immediately to our backcourt. Quincy's personality and leadership qualities will enable him to mix well with our guys and our campus community."

Taylor To Kansas

Tyshawn Taylor is going from one national champion to another.

The 6-foot-3 guard who played for a St. Anthony High School team that went 32-0 and won a mythical high school national championship under head coach Bob Hurley has given an oral commitment to Kansas, which won the NCAA championship under head coach Bill Self.

"I think the visit was pretty much the deciding factor," Taylor said of his visit to campus last week. "The atmosphere as far as basketball was unbelievable. It was beautiful there. The campus was beautiful. The players are cool. Coach Self is a great coach. It was just unbelievable."

"When it comes down to it, it's a highly unusual situation when you play on a national championship team in high school and go to  a school that wins a national championship that year," Hurley added. "That's unique, I think."

A first-team All-State selection who averaged 10 points during the regular season and 15 in the Tournament of Champions, Taylor initially committted to Marquette but asked for his release when coach Tom Crean left for Indiana and was replaced by Buzz Williams.

Taylor Down to 2 Schools; Cheek Making List

St. Anthony senior Tyshawn Taylor is expected to announce today between Kansas and Georgia Tech.

"He's called a couple schools to say he's down to Georgia Tech and Kansas," St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley said.

Kansas head coach Bill Self and assistant Joe Dooley, a Jersey native, are both in the Garden State today to see Kansas commit Quintrell Thomas of St. Patrick of Elizabeth.

The 6-foot-3 Taylor visited Kansas last week and said he really enjoyed the visit.

"It was nice, I had a real good time," Taylor said Saturday by phone. "I met with all the coaches. I went to Coach Self's house to eat on Wednesday.

Devin Ebanks Update

Devin Ebanks continued his college visitation tour last weekend when he went to Texas, but the Ebanks camp is not making any public comments on the trip, according to Lawrence McGugins, Ebanks' AAU coach.

The 6-9 Ebanks has already been to West Virginia and will visit Rutgers this weekend and Memphis the weekend of May 9 before making his final decision.

Recent Memphis commit Tyreke Evans said he had been working hard on recruiting both Ebanks and Wesley Witherspoon to join him under John Calipari.

"After I announced I came up here and talked to Ebanks and he said he's going to think about it and sit on it and see where he wants to go," the 6-foot-5 Evans out of Aston (Pa.) American Christian said at the Jordan Brand Classic practices.

PV Earns Top Seed; Passaic Baseball Predictions

Passaic Valley will head into the Passaic County baseball tournament as the top seed for the second straight season. Coach John Mazzo hopes the end result is the same.

"I thought we deserved the top seed being the returning champs and having the best record," Mazzo told the Herald News after Monday night's seeding meeting at Passaic Tech.

"I think this County is so up in the air. Anybody can beat anybody this year. You have a lot of teams that have one good pitcher and the way the tournament is set up [one game a week through the semifinals], you can ride one kid for three games."

See below for the complete schedule and predictions...