Shaquille O'Neal will be stopping briefly in Syracuse this Friday when the Suns play Carmelo's Nuggets in the Dome but Syracuse may be close to getting a Shaq of its own. Via The D.O. Sports Blog, ZagsBlog (which surprisingly has nothing to with Gonzaga) is reporting that high school junior and highly-touted prospect Shaquille "Shaq" Thomas wants to commit to SU. First things first though, he's transfering high schools due to his uncle's concern over certain issues. That uncle is former Villanova star and current L.A. Clipper Tim Thomas.
Shaq is transfering from Paterson Cathlic in NJ to Montclair High School. Due to new rules based on Thomas not changing his address, he will have to sit out the year before playing again. Clearly, whatever the issues were that Uncle Tim saw, they were important. Shaw remains technically undecided but if it were up to him he would have already committed to SU:
As far as his college situation, Shaq Thomas attended an Elite Camp at Syracuse in August and ultimately decided he wanted to verbally commit to play for Jim Boeheim.
He called Syracuse associate head coach Mike Hopkins on Tuesday to say he wanted to commit, but Hopkins told Thomas he had to clear it first with Tim and Dorothy Thomas and his coaches.
"Shaq is going to make his own decision," Tim said. "I told Mike (Hopkins) I wanted Shaquille to at least get another year of getting his core classes together and take the SAT once or twice before. He could commit to whatever school he wants to at the end of the (2009) summer. I want him to concentrate on his schoolwork and taking the SAT at least once or twice so he can go to college. Once he does that he can commit to Syracuse or North Carolina or wherever he wants to go.
Baby Shaq has quite the family pedigree. Along with his uncle Tim, his half-sister is also a pro basketball player. That would be former Rutgers and current NY Liberty guard Essence Carson. Uncle Tim wants Shaq's focus on the books in the meantime but expect Hopkins to keep Shaq in his sights for the time being.