Seton Hall basketball

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Seton Hall's incoming recruiting class, which already includes a pair of transfers who likely will not be eligible to play this season, has become even thinner with the revelation that 6-3 guard Jamel Jackson has been ruled academically ineligible to play this season.

Seton Hall has appealed the ruling, but Jackson did not enroll at the South Orange school and, in fact, re-enrolled at Technical Career Institutes, the junior college in Manhattan he attended last year.

His coach there, Pernell Hosier, said the issue is a C-minus Jackson got during summer school. Jackson, who had been qualified to play coming out of high school, needed to transfer 24 credits to Seton Hall in order to be eligible to play this season, and he took two summer courses that brought him to 27 credits.

Herb Pope, the 6-8 power forward from New Mexico State who visited Seton Hall two weekends ago, spent Tuesday on the South Orange campus trying to register for classes, according to a person who saw him there. Classes for the 2008-09 school year begin Wednesday.

Pope, a sophomore, averaged 11.1 points and 6.8 rebounds in 16 games for the Aggies last season. He missed the first half of the season because the NCAA declared him a non-qualifier because of an online course he took in high school.

Ivan Pierre Aguirre/US PRESSWIREThe Pirates are hoping New Mexico State transfer forward Herb Pope is doing plenty of this for them in the near future.

Seton Hall is in the running to land a former high school All-American post player who is considering transferring from a Western Athletic Conference school, The Star-Ledger has learned.

Herb Pope, a 6-8 forward who averaged 11.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game last season for New Mexico State, received his release from the school last week and took an official visit to Seton Hall last weekend.

Pope, who visited the school from Thursday to Saturday, said when reached by phone yesterday that he will decide within "the next couple of days'' what school he will transfer to. But the Aliquippa, Pa., native said he wants to attend college back East because of "a family matter'' about which he would not elaborate.

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-LedgerBrian Laing, shown in action against St. John's in March, has signed to play professional basketball in Europe, the school announced Friday.

Laing a 6-5 forward who averaged 18.6 points per game as a senior last season, signed with STB Le Havre, in France, while Nutter, a 6-2 guard who averaged 10.9 ppg last season, signed with the Bakken Bears, the two-time defending champion in Denmark.

Also, Stephen Sauers, who had been the director of basketball operations on coach Bobby Gonzalez's staff, left the school last week to take a job as an assistant coach with Iona. He will be reunited there with former Seton Hall star point guard Shaheen Holloway, who is also an assistant on head coach Kevin Willard's staff.

The Big East men's basketball schedule pairings were released yesterday.

Seton Hall will have home-and-home series with Rutgers, UConn and St. John's and home games against Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Providence, South Florida, Villanova and West Virginia. The play the other conference opponents on the road.

Following a suspension handed down by Seton Hall administration for illustrating bad behavior, Pirates coach Bobby Gonzalez spoke for the first time since the season's end Wednesday afternoon. Read the full Q&A press conference here.