Kyle Anderson and Kareem Canty played AAU ball together for several years with the Long Island Lightning, and could team up again in college.
“They can play together because ‘Nunu’ [Canty] is a combo guard and Kyle is basically a point forward,” said Dana Dingle of the Lightning, who is helping to advise Canty on his college choice. “Kyle is more of a distributor than a scorer and ‘Nunu’ is more of scorer than a distributor. But in Vegas he was working on his distributing.”
“I believe they both can play together because they have.”
Dingle added that the top college teams often have multiple quality point guards who can run the show. UConn, for example, featured Kemba Walker and Shabazz Napier en route to the 2011 NCAA title.
“A lot of teams play with two point guards,” Dingle said. “A lot of teams that made the deep runs. It’s easier to expose the mismatches, especially ifthey both can score and make plays.”
Seton Hall is the primary school recruiting both players, although UCLA is also on the 6-foot-8 Anderson’s list and has been linked to the 6-2 Canty, who is expected to attend Westwind (Az.) Prep this season.
Anderson, the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2012 out of St. Anthony, is clearly the higher priority for both schools. St. John’s, Florida and Georgetown are also on the list for Anderson, who helped the Playaz Basketball Club win the Desert Duel championship Thursday night over the Mac Irvin Fire.
Still, Dingle believes both could coexist at Seton Hall.
“Ideally they both play with the ball in their hands but they both play different positions,” he said. “I think they [Seton Hall] would probably still take both.”
He added: “I”m assuming they’re not saying to ‘Nunu,’ ‘We’re only going to take you if Kyle doesn’t come.’ And it’s not like if ‘Nunu’ commits, they’re going to stop taking Kyle.”
Canty recently tweeted that Seton Hall was now his leader. Head coach Kevin Willard and his staff have been simultaneously pursuing Canty and Anderson.
“[Lightning coach Abdu Torrence] said that they [Seton Hall] were the most visible at all his games in Vegas,” Dingle said of Canty. “The head coach came to see him play the most out in Vegas.”
Anderson and Canty played together on and off with the Lightning when they were younger. The Lightning 2012 team won a national championship at 12U and 14U.
Seton Hall has also offered power forward Daniel Dingle, Dana’s younger brother, and Dana said he could imagine two or three of them playing together in college.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if two of them wind up playing togehter at the same school,” he said.
“I know Myles Davis was trying to get Kareem to go to Xavier with him.” Xavier later backed off Canty after landing Semaj Christon.
Dingle also said Miami is recruiting Canty, Daniel Dingle and 6-8 power forward Kamari Murphy, who will spend next year at IMG Academy.
“They offered all three of them,” he said. “Temple also offered Kamari and Daniel.”
Dingle said both UConn and Missouri had also recently offered Murphy, who projects as more of a natural power forward, as opposed to Dingle, who’s more of a three.
Dingle said both Daniel and Canty would sit down and evaluate their options after playing this weekend at the Washington, D.C. Big Shots event.
“They’re all going to wait until next week and sit down and put together some stuff and tally the head coaches that have been following them since the 22nd,” Dingle said.
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