By MARC RAIMONDI
After a long recruiting process, Krystal Pearson has finally made her college decision.
The Truman star wing will sign a National Letter of Intent to Towson on Tuesday during a press conference at the Bronx school, The Post has learned. Pearson chose Towson over VCU. Cleveland State and Florida Atlantic were also in the mix.
“I just felt the same way about Towson that I felt about Truman when I first went there,” Pearson told The Post. “I just felt something there. I love the coach, I love the coaching staff. I knew they would help me.”
The sweet-shooting 5-foot-11 forward led Truman its first PSAL Class AA quarterfinals this year under coach John Burke and also to two wins against archrival John F. Kennedy. For the first time in maybe ever, the Mustangs could make the claim that they were the best public school team in The Bronx. Burke never won at Kennedy before this season.
Pearson is only the second Division I player the coach has had at Truman. Kaydine Bent went to St. Peter’s three years ago. Pearson doesn’t see herself as the best player in program history, though.
“There were a lot of great players to come out of Truman,” said Pearson, who just got back last week from a team trip to Ireland, Burke’s home country. “They just didn’t have the team around them to succeed. I think I had the players around me to succeed.”
The modest star never even saw herself as a potential Division I player until she started playing with the Gauchos after her junior season.
“I was just thankful that my coach was going to help me go to college – any college, D-II, D-III, whatever,” Pearson said. “I was just hoping I could get a free education.”
She’ll be getting that with the prestige of playing Division I basketball on a campus she feels very comfortable at. Pearson will be close enough to a city – Baltimore – to make her feel at home, yet far enough away for a college atmosphere.
“I feel good about it,” Pearson said. “I really do.”