St. John's Gets Verbal Agreement From Top Forward Ricardo Gathers

St. John's head coach Steve Lavin hasn't let up in his quest to become the best college basketball recruiter in the nation.  Yesterday, Ricardo Gathers of Reserve, La., who was named 2011 Louisiana Mr. Basketball, gave a verbal commitment to play for the Red Storm.

Gathers, a 6-foot-7, 240 pound power forward whom his AAU coach, Scooter Owens,  called a cross between Charles Barkley and Karl Malone, chose the Red Storm over LSU, Baylor, Oregon, Kansas, Syracuse, California and Connecticut.

According to Rivals.com, the man-child Gathers is the 43rd top-rated player in his class and the 11th rated power forward.

The four-star recruit led his team, the Rebels, to their second straight Class A State Championship and has numerous videos on YouTube highlighting his thunderous slams.  Gathers has been called the most powerful dunker in high school.

Gathers is a man among boys.  He averaged 20.7 points, 16.2 rebounds and 3.9 blocked shots last season.

Lavin scored a big-time coup in getting the agreement from the highly-recruited Gathers.  The St. John's head coach, who is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer,  had the third-ranked recruiting class for the upcoming season.  Gathers is another major coup for Lavin in only his second year in New York.

"I picked St. John's because of the coaching staff," said Gathers. "I liked the way coach Lavin communicated with me throughout the process."

The senior broke a lot of hearts when he didn't pick local school LSU.

"I can't wait to play in New York," said Gathers.  "Watching the movie 'He Got Game' got me really excited about playing there."

Maybe Lavin should send videos of the Spike Lee to all future recruits.

The Angry Mailman

Karl Malone says that Jerry Sloan would never quit anything. I believe that because Sloan was a tough, old man. Malone said the only thing Sloan was tired of was the garbage that came with the job.

I was caught way off guard when I heard that Sloan was resigning. He had been in Utah for 23 years and showed no signs of quitting. He was tough and he was old school. I believe his old school ways clashed with his new school players, specifically point guard Deron Williams. Williams says he didn't run Sloan out of town, which I do believe. I also think his attitude might've grated on Sloan so much that he just flat out got tired of it.

Malone says he will honor Sloan's legacy by becoming a coach himself. For some reason I don't see Malone as the coaching type but you never know. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Isiah Thomas all coached at one point.