NJCAA Player of the Year to visit South Florida this weekend
John A. Logan C.C. guard, and NJCAA Player of the Year, Sean East II narrowed his list of Division I schools to six on Friday and South Florida made the cut. Joining the Bulls were BYU, Clemson, Kentucky, Missouri and Oregon.
East, who played two seasons of NCAA Division I basketball (one each at UMass and Bradley), averaged 20.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 5.7 assists this season for Logan. East recorded three double-doubles and scored 20-plus points in 13 games and scored 30-plus points in six games this season. During John A. Logan's lone game at the National tournament, East scored a season-high 43 points.
East's successful season also earned him NJCAA First Team All-America recognition.
BullsInsider.com reached out to East ahead of his April 8-10 official visit to USF to get his pre-visit thoughts. However, when we caught up to East, he about to board a flight to Philadelphia, PA to visit his sister.
So we spoke with the high scoring guard’s father, Sean East I, to learn more about his son’s recruitment.
BI: Who all will be coming with Sean to Tampa?
It will be his mom, myself and him.
BI: What type of relationship do you and your son have with Brian Gregory and his coaching staff?
He’s talked extensively with Coach [Gregory]. Also, coach Dixon as it's been in contact with him a whole lot. They came to a couple of games. Also, coach Gregory, you know, last week he flew in to St. Louis and drove to see Sean and then took about another three hour hike to see us. So, that meant something. That really let us know that he's a priority for South Florida.
BI: When did they first get involved with Sean?
Oh, it was last year actually, you know, when he was at Bradley. But he didn't want to sit out. So, instead of chancing the waiver wouldn't go through, Sean came to me and said, ‘I'm gonna go to Logan. I've been talking to the Logan coach, and he's gonna let me play how I want to play, the style I want to play within the team concept. He's gonna put some put some more muscle on me and we're going to have a good season.’ I hadn’t been talking to him about Junior College and he came out of the blue and said it. But when he makes a decision, he gives me the reasoning behind it to let me know he has put some thought into it. So, once he told me that, I kind of looked at him, but I was like, okay you already have a plan. He showed me the goals and for the most part, outside of winning the championship, he's done everything that he set out to do.
BI: What has their main recruiting message been to you and your son?
They're making it a priority to let him know that the head coach/point guard relationship will be totally different than what he experienced at his first two Division I stops. I’s a family atmosphere, and they're trying to do something to change the program to get them over the top. And he would be a big part of that.
BI: Sean has already visited BYU and Missouri, he’ll have USF this coming weekend. What other visits have been scheduled?
I think he said so that Clemson and Oregon was going to try to set something up. I haven’t talked to him about that. He hasn’t told me to take off work or anything yet. He's in Philly now and he'll fly from Philly to Tampa and we'll meet him there on Friday.
BI: That leaves Kentucky.
He's been to the Kentucky campus, you know, on numerous occasions just because he used to go to Calipari’s camp as a kid. So, for two weeks he would be there. He’s been on that campus plenty. So, if anything it will be an unofficial.
BI: Has your son indicated a decision timeline to you?
A while back, he told me he wanted he wanted to make the decision before the end of April. That was about it. For a while he took a break [from recruiting] when they were preparing for a late season tournament and going to Hutch. He kind of just, you know, didn't talk about recruiting. So, now afterwards it's been like, bam, bam, bam, and then the dead period was there for a second. Now he’s just fielding calls, working out and fielding calls. He hadn’t seen his sister in forever so he asked if he could go see her. So, he's excited about that.
Sean East II Highlights