BY JASON GUERETTE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

If one goes back into the annals of Seton Hall’s most-successful recruiting years, one will find such names as Mark Bryant, Terry Dehere, Anthony Avent, and Jerry Walker among others. Each of those players came from the Hall’s backyard, the talent-rich New York City area, to post storied careers that were part of Seton Hall’s most-successful teams in the early 1990s.

The class that tops them all is Tommy Amaker’s 2000 recruiting class, consisting of the late Eddie Griffin, Andre Barrett and Marcus Toney-El. That class was ranked among the top five in the nation, with two McDonald’s All-Americans (Barrett and Griffin). Both Barrett (Rice High School) and Toney-El (Seton Hall Prep) also came from the NYC area. Pirates faithful have not seen such a highly-rated recruiting class since that year, a span of almost 13 years.

And the wait for such a class to again grace the court in South Orange may finally be over.

Lincoln High School standout Isaiah Whitehead announced on Thursday afternoon that he would play his college basketball at Seton Hall in a press conference held at the school in Brooklyn.

The talented 6’4” scoring guard, rated 35th in ESPN’s Top-100 recruiting rankings, picked Seton Hall over St. John’s, Indiana, Pittsburgh and Minnesota. He joins three other NYC-area players in the Pirates’ 2014 recruiting class- fellow ESPN-100 forward Angel Delgado, fellow Brooklyn-native Khadeen Carrington and Newark wing Ismael Sanogo.

Whitehead’s pledge also represents somewhat of a redemption moment for head coach Kevin Willard. Just two years ago, the Pirates were very, very close to landing another highly-rated local product, former St. Anthony’s and Paterson Catholic star Kyle Anderson. But Anderson headed out west to UCLA, leaving Pirate fans wondering what might have been as they finished second to the Bruins.

The commitment of Whitehead could have some repercussions both within the Hall’s staff and in the Big East as well. Earlier on Thursday, the New York Post reported that Lincoln head coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton would be hired by Seton Hall on their coaching staff, joining Fred Hill, Jr. and the recently-hired Oliver Antigua. NCAA rules forbid Morton from taking a lower-level position in this case because he would be coming with Whitehead, making for some possible re-arranging of titles in the future if Morton does indeed come to South Orange with his star guard.

Big East-wise, Whitehead’s commitment is a major plus for the “new” Big East, which has renovated itself as a basketball-centric league after splitting from what is now the American Athletic Conference. As a conference focused on basketball, the Big East getting players of Whitehead’s caliber is sure to draw interest as it tries to recapture the glory days of the 1980s.

Regardless of what happens now, however, one thing is certain- Seton Hall has a blockbuster recruiting class for the first time in over a decade, and one full of local flavor. They are once again digging in their backyard, and just like in the past, they may have struck gold.