By ADAM ZAGORIA
Bryan Antoine and Scottie Lewis, the two Class of 2019 stars from Team Rio and the Ranney (N.J.) School, will conduct home visits with several schools beginning Friday, a source close to the players said.
Their upcoming schedule of home visits looks like this:
Friday – Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski
Saturday – Kentucky coach John Calipari
Sunday – St. John’s coach Chris Mullin (Lewis only) & Memphis coach Penny Hardaway
Tuesday – Florida coach Mike White
Wednesday – Villanova coach Jay Wright
The immediate news here is the entrance of Hardaway and Memphis into the duo’s recruitment. Hardaway wants to share his vision of the program with several Team Rio players, including Lewis, Antoine, Jalen Gaffney and Aidan Igiehon, also Class of 2019 stars. The 6-foot-10 Igiehon has home visits with USC (Friday), St. John’s (Monday) and Stanford (4/18).
“We all know Coach Hardaway as a player and are interested to hear what he has as a vision for Memphis,” Lewis said.
Also of note. Lewis, Antoine and Brian Klatsky of Team Rio and Ranney will visit Seton Hall unofficially to hear more of coach Kevin Willard’s vision.
The 6-foot-4 Antoine is ranked No. 7 in the 2019 ESPN 60, while the 6-foot-5 Lewis is ranked No. 8.
Lewis currently lists St. John’s, Duke, Seton Hall, Maryland, Villanova, Stanford, Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Harvard, North Carolina and Colgate as his 12 schools, but said he planned to cut that list and add Notre Dame.
2019 @Scott_lewis_23 of @RanneyAthletics hitting the jumper at @usabasketball pic.twitter.com/JKztpXyOcc
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 31, 2018
“I’m hoping to cut it [again] to around six or seven in May,” Lewis said of his list in January. “I’m going to be adding Notre Dame back into my recruitment list after taking them out of my 12. So that’s one of the biggest things that recently just happened.”
Antoine does not have a list at this point.
“I’m keeping my options open,” he told me at the USA Basketball event in San Antonio on Saturday. “I still haven’t found that right school yet.”
Antoine plans to cut his list to about eight schools soon.
“I think I’m going to cut my list before the first [live] session in April,” he said.
St. John’s expected to have home visits with 2019 studs @Scott_lewis_23 and @BryanAntoine_ the weekend of April 14, per source. Other dates reported are incorrect. Duke and Villanova also in the mix for home visits. pic.twitter.com/0YYMNpvOAo
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) April 4, 2018
Villanova and Duke — both of which have had great success recruiting New Jersey guards and wings — are among the schools working hardest for Antoine.
As for Villanova, he said their message is, “I can be a leader on the team. I can be the guy that scores the ball.”
As for Duke, he said, “They offered another shooting guard but they’re trying to mold the class around me. They’re trying to get the pieces for me to be there if I end up going there.”