Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUNLV target Joseph visits UConn when athlete slain
Findlay Prep top-10 prospect Cory Joseph wasn’t near dance where football player stabbed to death
Friday, Oct. 23, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
Findlay Prep point guard Cory Joseph runs drills during a practice at the Henderson International School.
Findlay College Prep star guard Cory Joseph, who is still considering UNLV, wasn’t anywhere near the slaying of a Connecticut football player early Sunday morning.
If a meeting at Huskies basketball coach Jim Calhoun’s home hadn’t gone long Saturday night, though, Joseph might have wound up outside a school-sponsored dance on the UConn campus, the scene of the tragedy, with some of its basketball players.
But Joseph had a Sunday morning flight back to Las Vegas, so he didn’t find out about the fatal stabbing of UConn cornerback Jasper Howard until he had returned to Nevada.
Howard will be buried Monday in his hometown of Miami.
“It’s unbelievable,” Joseph said before practice Thursday night at the Henderson International School, with which Findlay is affiliated. “Crazy. An unbelievable loss and tragedy. It must hurt.”
Joseph, considered the No. 7 prospect in the nation by the recruiting service Rivals.com, helped Findlay cap a 33-0 season by winning the inaugural ESPN national championship in April in Maryland.
He has made an official visit to Texas, to which Findlay teammate Tristan Thompson has given an oral commitment, and Joseph left for Philadelphia after Thursday’s practice to visit Villanova.
Next weekend, he will visit Minnesota, where his brother Devoe Joseph will be a sophomore guard this season.
After that, Cory Joseph will pick his final two official visits from Florida, Mississippi State and UNLV. He has taken several unofficial visits to the UNLV campus.
“I might be poppin’ in there,” he said of officially visiting UNLV. “I’ll sit down with my mom and coaches and talk about it. Official visits are different, because you can hang with the players and get to know their opinions.
“I’m just keeping in touch with the (Rebels) coaches. They’re great guys. Just keepin’ in touch.”
An aunt and uncle live in Connecticut, so Joseph has been to a few Huskies basketball games.
“It was a great trip,” Joseph said. “I got to meet the guys and I talked with (Calhoun). The guys are cool. It had a cool vibe to it. I went to Midnight Madness and it was a good atmosphere. Fans painted their bodies and were cheering. It was crazy.”
Unofficially, he has been to Villanova, too.
“Coach Jay Wright is a down-to-earth guy,” Joseph said. “And I like that staff. It should be good. I’ll get guys’ opinions on how it is. I’ll relax and chill with them and see what the real Villanova is like.”
Free Throws -- New Mexico coach Steve Alford, who is recruiting Pilots senior power forward Godwin Okonji, attended Thursday night’s practice.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Photos: Olivia Culpo, 20, of Rhode Island is crowned 2012 Miss USA at Planet Hollywood
- US Navy hopes stealth ship answers a rising China
- Photos: Derek Hough celebrates 27th birthday at Tabu Ultra Lounge
- Learning about Electric Daisy Carnival fans will help Las Vegas court them
- On the horizon: A quick look at projects poised to shape downtown
Everything Under the Sun
Blogs
The Kats Report
Joe Pesci remembers his own honeymoon in Vegas -- meeting the Rat Pack
Las Vegas Philharmonic says search for new music director to begin 'immediately' (1 Comment)
With Shenandoah project stalled, Wayne Newton hits back legally (7 Comments)
Where does a Playmate play when she turns 21? Vegas! (3 Comments)
Ice Ice Billy
The road to six-toed cats and Mayor Bubba
The Kats Report
David Itkin tells L.V. Philharmonic officials he's on his way out (14 Comments)
Diamond Dave sells it well as Van Halen pours out the power at MGM Grand (2 Comments)
- Locally owned and independent since 1950; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, best news website in the nation & DuPont Award for broadcast journalism
He will end up at UCONN on Minnesota.
sp *or
When would he make a decision? An awesome UNLV season might help our chances right?!
it might, snyder. Cory will basically make his decision when he is so moved. Texas has a big in, with former teammate Avery Bradley there, and Canadian pals Tristan Thompson (a Findlay teammate) and Myck Kabongo going to the Horns, too. Avery, by the way, will likely start for Rick Barnes. Keep a big eye on him this season. Anyway, Minnesota, with Cory's brother there, will be tough to beat, too. But Cory insists that, as of right now, UNLV still is in the fold. He is not in a hurry, so maybe a solid year by the Rebels would be a factor. He's a smart kid and will not rush into a decision.
Let's keep it real, this kid ain't going to UNLV.
Next...
Sounds good, thanks for a little optimism Rob :-)