Christmas cuts list

In a national press release, elite 2011 post prospect Rakeem Christmas announced the narrowing down of his school list to eight schools.

Baylor, Florida, Georgetown, Indiana, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas and Villanova made the cut.

"It's been a process, one that we wanted to make sure that the best choices were made for Rakeem," said Amira Hamid, Christmas' aunt and legal guardian. "He has been receiving scholarship offers since the 8th grade. With such an overwhelming number of schools interested in him, it was important that we did our due diligence with finalizing this list."

Christmas, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound center, is transferring to Bryn Athyn (Pa.) Academy of the New Church. He also had a statement in the press release.

"I appreciate the interest that many coaches have in me but these are the schools that my family and I think would be a good fit for me" Christmas stated. "My family and I are thankful to everyone that has offered me a scholarship and participated in my recruiting. I'm looking forward to my season at ANC and playing for Coach Givens. I've played with some of the players during the summer and I had a good time. After summer is over I want to make sure that I do well and improve in class and on the court."

Christmas is currently the No. 6 prospect in the class of 2011.