Miami Makes Final 6 For Top Point Guard

In my Canes Hoops Recruiting Update post from last week, I alluded to Ja'Quan Newton potentially cutting his list this week.

This morning, we finally received the trimmed list, with some good news attached.

The six finalists for Newton are: Miami, UCLA, Syracuse, Minnesota, Oregon and Texas A&M (in no particular order).

I spoke with Rob Brown, the coach of Team Final (Newton's AAU squad) a few weeks ago to break down Ja'Quan's game for me, and he had some very high praise of Newton's offensive ability.

"He's a very confident player. He’s got a lot of stuff in his game. He drives the ball extremely well. He has floaters with both hands, he can go left, right, he can work with a guy on his hip. His jump shot is probably his biggest weakness, but he’s actually become pretty adequate at it. It’s good to see that he’s improved so much in his jump shooting, because then it shows that he can just continue improving".

Newton stands 6'3", and while many consider him a combo guard, he prefers to play the point at the next level, and his ability to do so will factor in to his final decision. Newton is the #49 overall player in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings.

There has been talk of Newton being a package deal with 5* shooting guard Isaiah Whitehead. If that is going to be the case, there are four potential destinations: Minnesota, Syracuse, UCLA and Miami.

ESPN is reporting that Newton plans to take official visits to Miami, Syracuse, UCLA and Oregon.