The recent spate of transfers to hit the Northwestern men’s basketball team hasn’t soured the Wildcats’ two recruited players for next season.
Guards Jitim Young and Ed McCants both said Wednesday that their desire to play at NU is still strong and that coach Kevin O’Neill has been frank about the four players who have left his program in the past six months.
“He’s been straight up with me about everything,” said McCants, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Marion, Ohio, who made a verbal commitment Tuesday. “I figure that, if anything, it gives me and Jitim a better chance to play.”
McCants visited Evanston Monday and met with O’Neill. He said the coach had been recruiting him for the past six months and he chose NU over Ohio State, Kentucky and Notre Dame.
He has been described by reporters as a slasher and three-point specialist.
To cap his high school career, McCants was named the Division IV Player of the Year in Ohio. He averaged 30.4 points per game for Marion Catholic High School and shot an astounding 46 percent from three-point range.
And McCants’ accomplishments are made even more impressive because he missed his entire junior season with a broken kneecap.
“I just worked on my jumper in that off time and built some upper-body strength,” McCants said. “I might have lost a year of experience, but I look at it as a positive rather than a negative.”
Young too is extremely optimistic about next season, despite the transfers. The 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Gordon Tech believes NU’s current problems are just “bumps in the road.”
Young said he hasn’t spoken to the NU players about the current situation, but plans to contact them once he gets back from the Reebok Capital Classic, a high school All-Star game taking place at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., on April 11.
“Nothing’s going to change my mind,” said Young, who averaged 19 points and six rebounds as a junior. “If I’m committed to something, I’m going to stick with it. Things may look gloomy right now, but there will be some sunshine ahead.”
The MVP of Five Star Camps, Young led Gordon Tech to the Class AA State Tournament, where it lost to West Aurora in the quarterfinals.
Young said he chose Northwestern because of the players and O’Neill’s intense style, which is similar to the style of his high school coach, Scott Bogumil. Sophomore forward Tavaras Hardy and freshman guard Ben Johnson were the main players that drew Young to NU.
“(NU) is going to be good regardless,” Young said. “After we get a chemistry together, I know there are going to be bright days ahead. I hope everybody stays together and I don’t want anybody else leaving.”
