Kimani Young Talks New Heights’ Big Three; Terrence Jones Cuts List to 5

Hit the Video Player at right for my interview with Kimani Young, the former St. John’s assistant and current AD at New Heights Youth.

Kimani has been on both sides of the college recruiting game and knows it as well as anybody. He’s in a unique position to be able to advise young men on their futures because he’s worked at the college level and the AAU level.

In this interview, Kimani breaks down the recruitments of his Big 3 seniors: JayVaughn Pinkston, Devon Collier and Ashton Pankey.

Of the 6-foot-6 Pinkston out of Bishop Loughlin, he says: “I think that Villanova is probably the perfect scenario for a kid like JayVaughn and many other kids in New York City, a place where winning has been there. A great academic institution. The coaching…But his options are still open.”

Pinkston will visit St. John’s for Red Storm Tip-Off on Thursday, and then he will go to Villanova’s “hoops-mania” on Friday.  Then he will probably go to Seton Hall the following weekend. He is also considering Tennessee and Marquette.

Kimani says Pinkston may wait until the late signing period.

On Devon Collier, the 6-8 lefty from St. Anthony, Kimani says, “He’s been to Oregon State, he’s been to Providence, so probably both of those schools have a lead now because he’s spent the most time there.” Collier will also visit St. John’s this weekend and Seton Hall next.

Ashton Pankey, a 6-8 big also at St. Anthony, will visit Maryland this coming weekend. He’s also looking at Rice, Houston, Hofstra and Drexel.

“If you want to play at the highest level, Maryland would probably be the leader right now,” Young says.

Stay tuned to ZAGSBLOG and SNY.tv for future news on these three players.

JONES TRIMS LIST

Five-star forward Terrence Jones of Portland, Ore., has trimmed his list to five and is no longer considering Arizona or Kansas.

Jones will choose from among Oklahoma, Washington, UCLA, Kentucky and Oregon, according to his mother, Linda Mashia-Jones.

“We will not be making an official visit to Kansas or Arizona,” she wrote in an email. “We are going to make our decision out of the five schools we currently have.”

Jones said that because Arizona received commitments from Rod Odom and Daniel Bejarano, “they have decided to go in a different direction.”

As for Kansas, she said, “I believe they are interested in Terrence but he is not a high priority for them. I wish both Arizona and Kansas the best of luck.”

“We still plan on taking our official visits to UCLA on Nov. 6 and Kentucky on Oct. 27 for their Blue and White game. We will also take an unofficial visit to Oregon Oct. 31.”

Jones has already visited Oklahoma and Washington.

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