Whitehead Selected for McDonald's All-American Game
1/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2014
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Seton Hall men's basketball signee Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y./Abraham Lincoln) was one of 24 high school players selected to play in the 2014 McDonald's All American Game. The 37th annual event is scheduled for April 2 at the United Center in Chicago airing on ESPN.
Whitehead, who is currently the #2 shooting guard in the ESPN Top-100 rankings, is the first Pirate signee to be selected to play in the prestigious event since both Andre Barrett and the late Eddie Griffin were named to the team in 2000. Shaheen Holloway, now a member of The Hall's coaching staff, was the game's Most Valuable Player in 1996, while Luther Wright was the first Pirate to garner McDonald's All American status in 1990. Whitehead also becomes the first New York City player to be named to the team since 2010, and he is the only selection that is currently signed to a BIG EAST school.
A senior star for Lincoln High School, which has produced the likes of Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair, and Lance Stephenson, Whitehead has powered the Railsplitters to No. 19 national ranking in the latest USA Today poll.
As a junior, Whitehead led Lincoln to the pinnacle of the Big Apple hoops scene as the school won its 12th city championship under head coach Dwayne (Tiny) Morton. At the AAU level, Whitehead has been an All-City performer for the Juice All-Stars Program every year since he was a freshman at Lincoln.
Whitehead's success during his senior season was preceded by a stellar summer during which the 6-foot-4 guard earned co-MVP honors at the Under Armour Elite 24 event during the summer and led the New York Team to the title at the Nike Tournament of Champions. For Lincoln, his final campaign has thus far been highlighted by an MVP selection at the City of Palms Classic in Florida. Over three games at the event, Whitehead totaled 82 points; including a 22-point, 13-rebound, six-assist effort that helped lift the Railsplitters to a 60-55 victory over Philadelphia powerhouse Neumann Goretti in the finale.
He joins a high-profile recruiting class that is in the top-10 among major online recruiting services such as CBSSports.com, ESPN.com, Rivals.com and Scout.com, while CBS, ESPN and Rivals have named it the top-rated class in the conference. The class also includes Khadeen Carrington (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Loughlin), Angel Delgado (Bronx, N.Y./Huntington Prep), and Ismael Sanogo (Newark, N.J./East Side High School).
