“I want to thank Marshall University but they didn’t have an athletic scholarship for me and that wasn’t the deal we made,” Amayo told SNY.tv.

Amayo was not on scholarship but was under the impression he would receive one.

Marshall has had 13 players on scholarship since the fall, sources told SNY.tv. Sources said Amayo did not show up for practice Monday and still hadn’t informed head coach Tom Herrion of his decision as of Monday night.

“He’s leaving,” Marshall assistant Dino Presley said. “We sat dwon with our compliance department. He was leaving to get clsoer to get home.”

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Amayo has about eight schools on his potential transfer list, including Rutgers, Seton Hall, South Carolina, Towson, Hofstra and Oregon State, he said.

Amayo committed to Towson on SNY.tv in May 2011, but in August of that year he was declared ineligible by the NCAA out of Newark NIA Prep because of a lack of core classes. His appeal for a waiver was denied in September 2011.

He then committed to Marshall in November and enrolled there in January 2012. He then sat out the fall semester while getting his academics in order before playing a few minutes in the Dec. 22 loss to Kentucky.

Marshall freshman point guard Kareem Canty of New York was declared ineligible by the NCAA prior to the season.

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The 6-foot-5, 210-pound combo guard is headed to Marshall, where if all works out he would become eligible after the first semester of the 2012-13 season.

“Yes, that’s right,” he told SNY.tv by phone. “December next year I’ll be able to play.”

Amayo said Dayton, FIU and St. Peter’s had all expressed interest in him but he chose Marshall because head coach Tom Herrion — who is able to take props — called him directly.

“Marshall is the only school where the head coach said he wanted me,” Amayo said.

Amayo initially committed to Towson but was one of four NIA Prep players ruled academically ineligible. He was then denied an NCAA waiver earlier this year.

Amayo had been opposed to going the JUCO route, but now he’s found a new home, assuming all the paperwork can be done.

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Kareem Canty

The 6-foot-1 Bronx native announced it on his Twitter page Saturday, choosing Marshall over Seton Hall.

“He is a very strong leader,” Long Island Lightning coach Darryl Washington told SNY.tv. “He is a point guard who has the ability to make others better.

“When it is needed he can score at will. I think he has the potential to be an incredible college player.”

The No. 25 point guard in the Class of 2012 per Rivals, Canty is now at Westwind (Ariz.) Prep.

He can step in for Tom Herrion’s program and take over for senior point guard Damier Pitts.

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“Yes,” Martin said by text.

A sharpshooting guard originally from Washington, D.C., Martin is the third St. Patrick senior to go Division 1, following Michael Gilchrist (Kentucky) and Derrick Gordon (Western Kentucky).

He also considered VCU and UAB, among others.

Martin joins Dennis Tinnon, a 6-8 JUCO All-American at Kansas City College; Devince Boykins, a 6-3 two guard from Forest City, N.C.;  and Jamir Hanner, a 6-7 forward from Fitchburg (Mass.) Notre Dame Prep in Herrion’s 2011 recruiting class.

Marshall also has two non-qualifiers sitting out in former St. Benedict’s big man J.P. Kambola and former Louisville signee Justin Coleman. They will be freshmen after redshirting this past season.

Former Iona commit Isaiah Williams, a 6-7 wing, will also likely attend Marshall attend as a non-qualifier.

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Sacramento Kings center Hassan Whiteside, who has ties to Newark East Side High School and Greenburgh, N.Y., was sent to the Reno Bighorns on Monday.

Whiteside, the No. 33 pick in this year’s draft, is the ninth NBA player on assignment to the D-League this season, joining 2009 first-round picks Terrence Williams and Christian Eyenga; 2010 first-round picks Cole Aldrich, Patrick Patterson and Ed Davis; and 2010 second-round picks Dexter Pittman, Solomon Alabi and Gani Lawal.

The 7-foot, 235-pound Whiteside has appeared in one regular season game and one preseason game for the Kings this year.  He started all six games for Sacramento in the 2010 NBA Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 6.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and a team-high 2.3 blocks.

In one year at Marshall, Whiteside led the nation with 5.4 blocks per game, and also averaged 13.1 points and 8.9 rebounds in 34 games.  He was named the Conference USA Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year, and was an AP All-American Honorable Mention selection.

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“I think it’s an exciting opportunity and a great challenge,” Herrion said Wednesday at the conference’s media day in Manhattan.

“There’s a lot of guys in this league that can coach and have won a lot of games,” he added. “So we all consider it a vastly underrated conference and I think we’ve added some terrific coaches. There’s momentum building for this conference and hopefully it’s the ability for all of us to take it to another level.”

Herrion is one of five new coaches in the league, along with Jeff Lebo (East Carolina), James Dickey (Houston), (Marshall), Ed Conroy (Tulane) and Tim Floyd (UTEP). Additionally, Donnie Jones takes over at UCF after three seasons at Marshall.

All 12 coaches enter the season with head coaching experience and more than 2,200 combined career wins. Rice’s Ben Braun leads the way with 570 career victories. The conference also features former AP Coach of the Year recipients in SMU’s Matt Doherty and Larry Eustachy at Southern Miss. UAB’s Mike Davis just reached the 200-win plateau and Tulsa’s Doug Wojcik compiled 104 in just five seasons with the Golden Hurricane. Memphis’ Josh Pastner led the Tigers to the postseason in his first year at the helm, and secured one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.

Though Conference USA is spread out geographically and crosses three time zones, it has also produced the last two NBA Rookies of the Year in Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans, both of whom played for John Calipari at Memphis.

“They still consider it not one of the BCS-level conferences, but we’ve had more draft picks in the last five or six years from this conference than some of the so-called higher profile conferences,” Herrion said. “I think people are finding out across the country that the talent and the coaching in this league can compete with any conference in America.”

The Thundering Herd lost two starters from last year’s team, including Hassan Whiteside, now with the Sacramento Kings.

They return three starters in Dago Pena, the reigning C-USA Sixth Man of the Year, Shaquille Johnson and Damier Pitts.

Marshall also adds four newcomers, including USF transfer Eladio Espinosa and onetime Seton Hall commit DeAndre Kane.

“Tirrell Baines is a senior that if we keep him healthy I think can have a terrific season for us,” Herrion said. “He’s a little undersized but he’s a warrior. Dago Pena is a very talented perimeter wing player. He’s got a chance to step his game up.

“My backcourt, Damier Pitts and Shaquille Johnson, have played a lot of minutes over two years and we’ll add some talented guys, especially in DeAndre Kane, a guy that sat out last year as a partial qualifier. We think he’s got a chance to make a big impact for us.”

Herrion always recruited the Northeast well at Pitt and continues to do so at Marshall.

Marshall has three commits for 2011, including 6-8 forward Jamir Hanner, a former Seton Hall commit who may soon enroll at Notre Dame Prep, and combo guard Devince Boykins (Forest City, N.C.).

The Thundering Herd on Monday also got a pledge from Dennis Tinnon, a 6-7, 215-pound forward for Kansas City (Kan.) Community College.

“That’s a very good get for Marshall,” Mike Mitchell of Midwest Scouting Service told the Charleston Daily Mail. “I saw him at the Tulsa Top 120 and he was for sure among the top 10 or 15 players in the event.”

Herrion said he plans to continue to recruit the Northeast “because that’s where a lot of my roots are.”

“I think it’s great for the conference to come to New York, to the metropolitan area,” he said. “We’ve got to continue to be creative in helping brand our conference and market our conference. For us at Marshall, we’re going to recruit this area and any opportunity we have to get here and get exposure, I think it’s invaluable.”

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