Last night, around 1AM Eastern, Neal Nieves of C2CRecruiting.com reported the following, via Twitter:
Following that report by Nieves, JohnnyJungle.com was the first to speak with Norvel Pelle directly early Thursday morning and he refuted the comment. Later he said this, again, via Twitter:
Pelle currently attends Price High School (CA), and the report by Nieves was the first mention of any academic problems that would force Pelle to take a prep year.
The 6’10” center was part of a high school squad this past season that finished 23-8 and he looks to be an integral part in head coach Steve Lavin’s rotation next season.
This is one of two possible recruiting problems being worked out by the Red Storm right now. Lenn Robbins of the New York Post is reporting that the status of swingman Maurice Harkless of South Kent (CT) is under review after his ties to the New York Gauchos AAU program and St. John’s director of basketball operations Moe Hicks.
Harkless played a few tournaments with the Gauchos, but played the majority of his AAU career with the New York Panthers. Additionally, Hicks was not in a coaching role with the Gauchos, prompting Robbins to report “the Red Storm are confident they will not have any difficulty getting final clearance” for Harkless.
“All high school student-athletes are finishing their spring semesters at this point in the calendar year,” Mark Fratto, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Communications at St. John’s, said in an official statement to JohnnyJungle.com. “At this time we are hopeful in anticipating that all of our incoming men’s basketball student-athletes will meet their NCAA eligibility requirements and join us on campus for classes later this summer.”
More details will be added as they become available.
[…] is a friend of St. John’s signee Norvel Pelle and they have already discussed some future […]