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Harrisburg's Proctor headed to Iona

04/30/2015, 8:00pm EDT

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Harrisburg (Pa.) senior Jahaad Proctor is headed to Iona.

The 6-foot-3 guard committed while on a visit to the school's New Rochelle (N.Y.) campus on Thursday night, impressed by the program's recent run of success and its style of play.

"It was just a gut feeling, I didn't really feel how I felt at the other schools, so just take this decision when it's there instead of waiting," he said. "After watching some film...I really liked how they played, uptempo, they shoot a lot of 3s, all of that is what I liked."

Proctor had originally signed with Holy Cross last November, but got a release from his Letter of Intent after the school fired head coach Milan Brown following the conclusion of the 2014-15 season.

After re-opening his recruitment, he was offered by Manhattan and Robert Morris, with a few others showing interest as well.

Proctor was a three-time all-state selection at Harrisburg HS, where he averaged 24.4 ppg, 8.5 rpg and 4.5 apg as a senior for a team that captured the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division title and advanced to the PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinals. He finished his career as the all-time leading scorer at his school, with 1,689 points.

A combo guard with good size and length, Proctor is at his best when he score off the wings. He's a very good 3-point shooter who's crafty with the ball and has become a very good mid-range scorer as well.

Last season, Iona went 26-9 under sixth-year head coach Tim Cluess, who's won at least 20 games in each of his first five seasons at the school. The Gaels have earned a reputation for running one of the nation's more up-tempo, efficient offenses, breaking the 70-point mark in all but five games this past season.

They graduate second-leading scorer David Laury (19.8 ppg, 9.7 rpg), but return senior guard A.J. English (20.1 ppg) and rising sophomore Schadrac Casimir, who averaged 14.5 ppg and shot 42.3 percent from beyond the arc.

The ability to go up against English, Casmiri and the rest in practice every day ended up on Proctor's mind as he made his decision.

"One thing that the coach did say to me that really stood out was he said 'why would you rather go to a school where as a freshman, you're the best kid on the team, when you can come to a school and play against pros and get better and thenb ecome the best player on the team? So I never looked at things like that," Proctor said. "If you're the best player as a freshman, you're never going to be able to grow as much."

Growth has been a big theme in Proctor's life lately, as he found out three months ago that he's the father of a five-month old girl, Jolene.

Though he was "shocked" at first by the news that he had a two-month old baby daughter--not to mention nervous and scared having to tell his parents--Proctor quickly adjusted to having a new priority in life.

"When I found out, it was like 'wow, are you serious?" he said. "Wow, wow. I couldn't stop saying 'wow' the whole day."

"Now I have more motivation," he added. "I was very motivated going into college and everything, but now I have someone to live for, prove everything to."