Seton Hall's Hanner to Prep One More Year

Jamir Hanner, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward who verbally committed to Seton Hall in March, plans to spend another prep year at Newark (N.J.) Nia Prep and won’t enroll in college until the fall of 2011.

“Yes,” Hanner said Wednesday by phone. “[I want] to mature more under Coach Rudy [King], to learn and understand the game more.”

Hanner was recently named to the second-team at the iS8 Nike Spring Classic in Queens, but he and King feel another year of prep school will benefit him even more.

“I think you’ll see with another year it’s going to really help him on and off the court,” said King, the former Bishop Loughlin coach.

“We’re sending the kid into the situation more prepared, more confident about his ability to be able to compete in the classroom as well as on the court. It’s just going to benefit the kid.”

Meantime, Hanner continues to draw interest and offers from other schools.

Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Rice and Michigan have reached out, while Marshall and Arkansas offered him on the condition he would take a prop year, according to Alif Muhammad, head of NIA Prep.

Hanner said he didn’t accept those offers because “I don’t want to sit out for a year.”

Seton Hall currently has a three-man signed class of 6-5 Paterson Catholic wing Fuquan Edwin, 6-9 Czech forward Patrik Auda of the Canarias Basketball Academy and 6-8 Anali Okoloji, a Brooklyn native playing at Impact (Fla.) Academy.

Hanner plans to meet early next week with Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard to discuss his future. Seton Hall remains interested in Hanner, but he must first get a qualifying score on the SAT exam he plans to take June 5.

“Even if he gets the score he’s going to do another year with us,” Muhammad said.

Hanner, a Philadelphia native, initially committed to former Pirates coach Bobby Gonzalez and was stunned when he learned of Gonzalez’s firing March 17 from an Internet report.

“I was shocked,” he said. “I didn’t know who I’m going to play for next year.”

Now he does, hoping another year of prep school will benefit him in the long term.

FREE THROWS

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