Hinds Chooses WVU

Paint Morgantown in 914 signs.

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has scored another highly-decorated recruit from the 914 region's traditional basketball breeding house.

Jabarie Hinds, an electrifying lefty point guard hailing from Mount Vernon's rich basketball real estate (which has produced the likes of Ben Gordon and current Mountaineer forward/2011 NBA draft prospect Kevin Jones), has made WVU his future hardwood home.

Hinds will sign his letter of intent during a ceremony at Mount Vernon High School Nov.15, as was reported by The Journal News.

Mount Vernon has launched a bevy of highly-touted recruits, Gordon, Keith Benjamin (Pittsburgh), Jon Mitchell (Rutgers), Mike Colburn (Rutgers), and Jones, to name a few, to the Big East in recent memory.

Gordon helped lead UConn to a national championship in 2004 before ascending the scale of the NBA's most prolific scorers.

UConn had been in pursuit of Hinds early, heaping a scholarship offer on him during the beginning of his sophomore season.

Louisville had also been in active pursuit of Hinds. Rick Pitino was seated in the stands behind the Mount Vernon bench throughout the Knights' 77-67 loss to blood-rival New Rochelle on Feb.10.

Hinds averaged 22.4 points, 3.3 steals, and 2.8 dimes per last season, helping steer the Knights to a Section I/Class AA championship under longtime coach Bob Cimmino.

Hinds dropped 26 points in the championship game at the Westchester County Center (also known as The Barn That Ben Built, an obvious reference to the aforementioned professional and Mount Vernon legend Gordon) leading the no.4-seeded Knights to a 69-57 win over Poughkeepsie.

Hinds, he of the penchant for stepback jumpers, feline quickness, and prodigious vertical leap, reeled off a personal 7-0 scoring surge in the third quarter of Mount Vernon's 10th title game victory in 11 years.

The oil-smooth southpaw made a wrongfooted defender slip as he stepped back and drilled a three-pointer. Then, Hinds got free in transition and went to his right hand for an uncontested layup.

On the ensuing possession, Hinds misfired on a deep trey.

The Knights, who dominated the glass behind Mr. Clean's understudy in window-washing Brandon White (14 points, 20 rebounds), corralled the rebound and kicked it out to Hinds.

Hinds capitalized on the second-chance situation, draining a deep jumper to conclude the run.

Poughkeepsie bought into the strategy of collectively putting the clamps on Hinds, keying on him and forcing him out of the lane. It worked for those eight minutes as Poughkeepsie held him to a scoreless first quarter.

But Hinds quickly ripped out of the straightjacket, scoring 10 points as the Knights' momentum rolled during a 17-4 spurt to close out the half.

The 26 points in three quarters was the finest performance of Hinds' junior season, one in which 914's finest immediately became the leader of a young and callow unit.

The junior would follow up his best performance with his worst, however, as he was held to a season-low five points in a season-ending loss to Newburgh Free Academy at West Point.

It was the second straight year that Mount Vernon's season came to a screeching halt at the hands of Newburgh.

After being negated by Newburgh, Hinds earned a bit of self-redemption in the spring.

He was named MVP of the longtime CYP Tournament in Port Chester, wowing spectators who crammed into the shoebox-size gym with a surplus of stepbacks and a gravity-defying one-handed fast break sledgehammer.

Playing for Tom Sampogna's Team Frenji, Hinds was one of the few juniors on a star-spangled cast. That team included current Villanova freshman Jayvaughn Pinkston and Louisville freshman Russ Smith.

Hinds' stock soared following his sizzling summer of 2009.

After playing Robin to go-to-guy Sherrod Wright's (George Mason) Batman as a sophomore, Hinds opened up his jumper.

He developed a lethal medium range game and embraced the scorer within him, averaging 37 points per game during the Bob Gibbons tournament in North Carolina.

Hinds' relationship with Jones played a role in the 914 product's commitment to pen with West Virginia.

Hinds speaks highly of his former teammate and others who have gone on to author careers at the next level.

“I learned a lot [from the older guys]," said Hinds."

"I played behind Mike Colburnin high school, so I learned a lot from him. (Former Mount Vernon Knights now playing in the Big East or elsewhere) always come up to the gym, in the offseason we all work out. We play open gym. They teach me a lot of stuff, and you know, I teach them stuff too.”


Huggins has scoured the New York basketball landscape for talent and emerged happy-handed over the years. He's established a steady New York area pipeline while Mount Vernon remains a Big East breeding ground.

Huggins has reeled in guys like Brooklyn-bred Truck Bryant, Long Island City's Devin Ebanks, Staten Island's Danny Jennings and Jones, who's evolved into the face of the program.

And while Jones is likely to bolt and follow the long green paper trail to the NBA before Hinds arrives, the best player out of the 914 area since Gordon feels WVU is where he belongs.