fyi from a couple weeks ago-
BROOKLYN — Most undecided players at the Jordan Brand Classic say they don’t care if players at a prospective school are going to enter the NBA draft or not.
The standard line is, they’re not worried about competing, as if it wouldn’t affect one’s playing time if a future NBA draft choice at the same position decides to stay in school another year.
Tremont Waters is a little more direct. The biggest reason he’s waiting on his college choice is he needs to know where he’ll be needed.
“I know what I can do and pretty much any system I go into, I can perform to the best of my abilities and just make the team better,” said Waters, who, generously listed as 5-11, is the shortest player in the event but also one of the quickest. “I also want to see who’s going to what schools, as far as bigs and guards. That’s what I’m waiting to see.”
Waters, a point guard from Notre Dame (West Haven, Conn.), obtained his release from his National Letter of Intent to Georgetown before John Thompson III was fired. The Hoyas, under new coach Patrick Ewing, are back in the running. Waters said that Connecticut, Syracuse, Creighton and Kansas have contacted Waters or his father since his NLI release.
“Creighton is the only one of those who messaged me,” he said. “All the rest have contacted my dad. I have to sit down with my dad to see who’s saying what, but I do want to make the decision as soon as possible.”
Wherever he goes, he wants to make sure the situation is stable. That’s why he asked for his release from Georgetown.
“At the start of the season, I saw tweets in the media that Coach Thompson would be fired,” Waters said. “As the season went on, it just wasn’t looking good. Things didn’t go that way and more and more tweets started going that he would be fired. I didn’t want to go into that situation. I wanted to go into a situation where I didn’t have to worry about my coach.”
Of the schools pursuing him, there’s some question whether he would be allowed to play at Creighton, since like Georgetown, it is a Big East school, and the Big East doesn’t allow transfers, in the same sport, in men’s and women’s basketball and football, between conference teams.
However, one out for Waters would be that he never enrolled at Georgetown and the Big East policy, in place since 2005, states:
As noted in each section, the above-mentioned policy is applicable to all student-athletes who have ever enrolled full-time at a BIG EAST institution…
“I’m not sure how that plays out,” Waters said. “I never set foot on campus at Georgetown.”
