Prep school looked like the best option for Tyrone Nash last week. That was before he got a call and a full-scholarship offer from Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith to join the Cats for the 2006-07 season.

Sidney Nash, father of the 6-foot-7 small forward from Queens, N.Y., said last night that Tyrone was impressed with Lexington and UK during a three-day official visit that started Wednesday but he was not ready to make a final commitment.

The relatively unknown player’s high school coach, Jeff Weiss, said Smith offered the scholarship last week, and Nash’s interest in UK was strong. Nash could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Weiss said Nash got scholarship offers from Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John’s, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, but he signed with Northfield Mount Hermon, a prep school in Massachusetts.

His age (17) was the biggest factor in choosing the prep school, Weiss said. Nash graduated from Lawrence Woodmere Academy in Long Island with a 3.9 GPA. Nash’s decision to attend Northfield Mount Hermon was “very solid,” Weiss said, until he got the offer from UK.

Nash, who averaged 17 points and 14 rebounds as a high school senior, is not well-known on the national recruiting scene. His name does not appear on the Rivals 150 list on Rivals.com.

Recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons said Nash doesn’t make his top-100 list, but that doesn’t mean Nash doesn’t have talent.

“He looks like a borderline major prospect,” Gibbons said. “But when you look at who is available, you can remove that borderline.”

His coach describes Nash as “a late bloomer.”

“He is a very versatile player, but very young,” Weiss said. “He has a lot of room to grow.”

The timing of the recruiting effort is not surprising, Gibbons said, as Smith is known for finding “late sleepers.”

A knee injury in Nash’s sophomore season limited him to two games. He also missed the crucial AAU season the next summer — possibly the reason he is not on many recruiting lists. Weiss said the injury no longer affects Nash’s game.

Reports surfaced in recent weeks that Nash was expected to sign with Seton Hall after going on an unofficial visit, but Weiss said that information was false.

If he signs with Kentucky, Nash will join a recruiting class that includes guards Derrick Jasper of Paso Robles, Calif., Jodie Meeks of Norcross, Ga., and Michael Porter of Modesto, Calif., plus forward Perry Stevenson of Lafayette, La.

Source: www.kentucky.com

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Friday, June 30, 2006 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Scholarship. Tags: Scholarship, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.