Tucker Taking Time

St. John's defensive end Tony Tucker paused on the other end of the line for a second.

"This always happens to me," he said. "Sorry."

Tucker was in the midst of naming the colleges he is interested in. It is a lengthy list that includes Maryland, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Clemson, North Carolina, Michigan State, Southern Cal and one other school that he couldn't quite remember.

Tucker has visited most of those schools and holds scholarship offers from all but Southern Cal, which he said he is interested in because he has family in the Los Angeles area. The fact that the Trojans are college football's hottest team probably doesn't hurt.

Tucker, who measured in a 6 feet 3 and 230 pounds earlier this week, said he probably will not make a decision until later in the fall and that most teams are recruiting him as a hybrid defensive end-linebacker.

One other St. John's player of note is offensive lineman Pete White. The 6-4, 337-pound sophomore benched 340 pounds when Coach Joe Patterson ran his players through testing earlier this week.

"Everyone is excited about him," Patterson said.