St. John’s Commit Darrick Wood Leaves NIA Prep for Bridgton Academy

Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv is reporting that St. John’s commit Darrick Wood will transfer from Newark, New Jersey’s NIA Prep to Bridgton Academy in Maine.

The Washington D.C. native committed to the Red Storm two weeks ago, becoming the second player from the Class of 2012 to give his word to play for Steve Lavin and St. John’s.

NIA Prep has come under scrutiny recently after four graduating basketball players, including TCU commit Ryan Rhoomes and Towson-bound Kelvin Amayo, were ruled ineligible by the NCAA.

In an article by Matthew Stanmyre of The Star-Ledger, written in June, Stanmyre characterized the school as, “a little bigger than a one-bedroom apartment and is carved from bottom-floor office space at the Robert Treat Hotel” and school founder Alif Muhammad as a, “controversial basketball kingmaker.”

These rulings of ineligibility come five years after an NCAA investigation found NIA Prep to be a legitimate institution.

“I might have had one course denied, but never where all the class work was wiped out,” Alif Muhammad told Zach Braziller of the New York Post, following the NCAA ruling this August.

Wood leaves NIA for Bridgton Academy, a school that enrolls 188 students and sits on a 55-acre campus in North Bridgton, Maine.

Bridgton Academy is not unfamiliar to the Red Storm, as current junior point guard Malik Stith spent time there, as well as recent St. John’s graduates Paris Horne and Justin Burrell.

Along with Wood, Ricardo Gathers is committed to St. John’s from the Class of 2012, leaving one open scholarship. Top 5 overall prospect Kyle Anderson will be visiting St. John’s next Wednesday, September 7th, and is scheduled to make his decision September 20th.