T.J. Gibbs, the 6-foot-2 2016 shooting guard from Seton Hall Prep and the Playaz Basketball Club, picked up an offer from St. John’s on Saturday during a visit to campus, and has upcoming visits set to Rutgers and Providence.
“[The visit] went well, I got to meet the whole coaching staff,” Gibbs said Monday by phone. “Coach [Steve] Lavin was up at my school last week, so I met him there. We got to talk at my school a little bit, and when I went up there we sat down and we had a discussion about what he sees me as and where he thinks I can be in the future and how I can contribute to the team.”
Gibbs added the St. John’s offer to recent ones from Georgia Tech and UAB. He also holds offers from USF, Temple, Miami, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Oklahoma, USC, Xavier, Auburn, Penn, Towson and Virginia Tech.
“It felt good, it felt like I was wanted,” he said. “It’s something different. Neither one of my brothers [Ashton and Sterling] were really heavily recruited by St. John’s.”
Gibbs, who helped the Playaz win the Peach Jam this summer, says St. John’s is now “at the top of his list.”
“They’re at the top,” he said. “I would definitely consider them. They’re far enough away from home but they’re still close enough where I could get back in one day. They’re definitely at the top.”
St. John’s is losing a slew of guards after this year and is recruiting both Gibbs in 2016 and his Playaz teammate Isaiah Briscoe for 2015. Briscoe just picked up a Kentucky offer on his visit there.
Could they join forces in Queens?
“That’s always a possibility,” Gibbs said. “Isaiah is one of my close friends. He was a teammate this year. We have great camaraderie and he’s someone that I really grew up with as a young kid. WE never really got to play together, I always played against him and this one year has really opened my eyes to the type of player he is and I think that we could both be successful on the same team.”
Asked how Kentucky might factor in for Briscoe, Gibbs said, “You never know with Isaiah. He’s a one-of-a-kind type of kid.”
Next up for Gibbs is a visit to Rutgers Saturday for the Michigan football game. He said he’s also supposed to go to Providence Oct. 17 for their Midnight Madness.
