Kentucky coach John Calipari, Louisville coach Rick Pitino and Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell will be among the coaches on hand at the Primetime Shoot on Sunday night to watch 2019 stars Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine of the Ranney School.
The Ranney School is slated to meet Newark East Side at 8:30 p.m. at Roselle (N.J.) Catholic following the game between Kentucky-bound Nick Richards and The Patrick School and Archbishop Molloy, which features 2018 stars Moses Brown and Khalid Moore and 2019 point guard Cole Anthony.
“Some schools we’re both considering,” the 6-foot-5 Lewis told ZAGSBLOG last month. “Definitely Florida, Villanova, Kentucky, those are really the top three that we’re both considering going to.”
The 6-4 Antoine is ranked No. 8 in the 2019 ESPN 25, while the 6-5 Lewis is ranked No. 16. Bob Hurley, the Naismith Hall of Fame coach of St. Anthony’s compared the duo to former Tollentine stars Adrian Autry and Brian Reese.
“The young talent is extraordinary,” Hurley said. “I told [Ranney coach] Tahj [Holden] after the game, if they could just manage the daily process of getting better . . . and not fall victim to the talent they’re showing right now, boy they could be good, both of them. We can’t get hung up on them and then dismiss them two years down the road because we didn’t push them to get better. That’s Tahj’s job.”
Various schools are involved for the two players, including Maryland, St. John’s, Rutgers and Seton Hall. And there is no guarantee that the duo will head to college together.
But they do discuss the possibility.
“That’s definitely a lot of the talk,” said Lewis after scoring 12 points in the loss while Antoine received game MVP honors upon scoring 19.
“We have a lot of the same offers just because of our dual status,” Lewis added. “A lot of schools want us to come together so we can bring that to their program. It’s definitely something that’s on the table for some situations. Some schools he’s highly considering and some schools I’m not.”
Kentucky stays in regular touch.
“We just off the phone with Coach Cal the other day,” Lewis said of John Calipari. “He said get ready for this game because he’ll be watching. I think he was going to watch it on television, hopefully, we’ll see. He might call us tonight, he might not. He calls my coach from time to time. ”
Lewis hopes to visit Kentucky and Duke in the spring.
“I think we might do a lot of our visits during spring break just because we’ll have that time, that long stretch to do those things,” he said.”
Kentucky has a long track record under Calipari of grabbing Jersey’s top talent, from Dakari Johnson to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to Karl-Anthony Towns to Isaiah Briscoe.
“Briscoe didn’t have a lot of opportunities last year but this year he’s becoming a true point guard,” Lewis said. “He’s becoming stronger, he’s becoming smarter and those are the things I need in my game.”
Lewis also trains with trainer Bryce Stanhope, who trained Towns. Lewis sees Towns in the gym sometimes, and he’s in his ear about coming to Kentucky.
“Yeah, of course,” Lewis said. “He’s a really cool, down-to-earth person. He’s not really biased. He chose there because he can build his skillset, build his mentality and he said that Coach Calipari really did those things for him.”
Still, Kentucky has yet to offer Lewis or Antoine.
“No, not yet,” Lewis said. “They said they’re waiting on SAT scores and our grades and waiting for us to become killers.”
