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Here is a report from Saturday’s Prime Time shootout. I observed the last 7 games and in this particular day there were 5 players who have appeared on lists as first team All American. Samardo Samuels, Tyreke Evans, Greg Monroe, Brandon Jennings, and Lance Stephenson. In additional, there was an array of talented players who have been recruited highly. The first game I observed was the The Hun School (NJ) vs. St. Augustine(NJ) The final score of this game was 76 -56 in favor of the Hun school. St. Augustine was led by Josh Thompson a 6’4 guard who is committed to Wagner College with 16 points and Thompson showed exception leaping ability in this game. The Hun school was led by Sterling Melville with 18 points. Doug Davis was hitting for deep also for the Hun school Lance Goulbourne, a big 6’8 forward who is committed to Vanderbilt University, looked particularly adept in shooting 3 pointers and in smooth drives to the hoop. He is a high potential offensive performer. He has a nice smooth release on his deep shots. Lance is consider a top 100 national recruit. Matt Florio, a 6 foot guard for the Hun, looked particularly sharp in handling and dishing, his timing on his passes was impeccable. r Mount Vernon(NY) verse Roman Catholic(PA) promised to be a great game and it was. In the first quarter, it was Kevin Jones and Malik Wayne. Jones had one basket after another including several threes and in taking advantage of his height at 6’8 down low. He has a very quick release on his shot and he is bordering on a pure shooter. He likes to run the court. Malik Wayne, is a highly touted 6’2 junior guard for Roman Catholic who is verbally committed to play for Villanova University. He hit 5 of 6 three pointers in the first quarter with some beautiful looking launches. He also showed on subsequent plays spectacular finishing ability on acrobatic drives to the hoop, he is a sharp passer, and handles well. He finished the game with 26 points. Courtney Stanley, a 6’1 senior guard for Roman Catholic with scoring ability who likes to fast break, also showed a good passing eye. Brothers Will and Wes Kirkland, both at 6’5 for Roman Catholic, looked good as shooters. Rakeen Brookins, a 5’10 sophomore guard for Roman Catholic, made his presence felt in the game hitting repeatedly from deep. For Mount Vernon, 6’5 junior guard Sherrod Wright, drove hard to the basket and drew any number of fouls. He may have pro potential down the road, as he has the style that could translate big time in that he finishes at the hoop, midrange in traffic and can hit the deep J, but he plays very big on offense as a high leaping shooter who can finish from difficult angles while playing very tough using the handle in lanes. His coach has compared some of his recent performances to Ben Gordon a former Mt. Vernon star who now plays for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA. Kevin Jones finished the game with 27 points, he might have scored much more but sat out portions of the game and this seemed to slow him down more than anything else. It was a great game, with Mount Vernon edging ahead slightly and in the last quarter it was Roman Catholic slightly ahead only to be edged out in the final seconds 71-70. Wayne hit a three from way downtown in the last minute off the dribble that wooed the crowd. The next game featured American Christian ( PA) vs. Rancocas Valley (NJ). American Christian has a big team with post grads and its lineup includes Tyreke Evans who is considered one the top 5 players in the country. Rancocas Valley, even with some height, was a bit overmatched. In the first quarter, 6’1 guard Jeremiah Kelly, hit 4 threes for American Christian, Kelly is headed to DePaul University of the Big East conference. For Rancocas Valley, 6 foot senior guard Andre Byrdsong started the game sharp and stayed that way, hitting tough shots all over the court and finishing the game with 19 points. 6’7 Larry Awosanya played hard for Rancocas Valley and had several nice finishes. Mike Bersh, a 6’7 junior guard, started the game with a deep three for Rancocas, but subsequently missed 7 in a row. He probably just had an off day, and he did look athletic on a couple of drives and you wonder why he didn’t adjust and go to that and stayed with the three pointer almost strictly and didn’t even take a couple of steps in for a foul line jumper. Tyreke Evans, considered by some the best senior in the country and who is uncommitted to a college at this point, missed a lot of outside shots as well, after hitting an early deep three. He finished with only 11 points and he has had games in the 50’s this season. I would speculate that the shortened warm-ups may have played into the shooting problems for him as he seemed out of rhythm. Before this game, the warm-ups were less than 10 minutes, more like 6 minutes as they were behind schedule going into the game and the shortened warm-up might have affected some of the long shooters. Evans passed well this game and his passing game is superlative not just in style but also in feeling out who to go to and when. It didn’t seem to affect Lamont Jones, who put on an awesome shooting display in the 3rd quarter hitting 6 threes in the quarter and getting the crowd excited, and a couple of these threes were launched from near the half court line and they still dropped. Lamont Jones is a 6 foot guard, who is committed to Louisville as a junior. He also has that in between game where he can slice and dice and pull-up for midrange J’s. The next game featured St. Benedict’s ( NJ)vs. Our Savior New American (NY). St. Benedict’s has been listed in the top 5 in the country in recent polls of high teams. Our Savior New American listed any number of big men on it’s roster, none of whom were actually present which was a disappointment. It would have been interesting to see how they matched up with the big lineup of St. Benedict’s . However some excellent guard play kept the game relatively close throughout. 6’11 Samardo Samuels, who is ranked as high as the number 2 player in the country as a senior is committed to Louisville. If he isn’t dunking, which is relatively rare, he has a nice short range touch and knows how to angle in traffic. He occasionally steps out and hits from deep as well. But he certainly knows and plays the part of a power player, but what is particularly intriguing is how is can make any number of adjustments in midair and can find angles high above the rim. 6’9 junior center Gregory Echenique, has a somewhat different style than Samuels, but also uses the lanes effectively, and takes advantage of his size. He had a beautiful length of the court pass to Samuels. He has excellent hands, smart fakes and hits a very high percentage of his shots. He showed excellent form on his foul shots. What was interesting, was how quick he gets back on defense, he is incredibly fast in getting back to where it is just a blink and he is there. I was seeing Tristan Thompson, the 6’8 sophomore for St. Benedict’s for the first time. He did start and looked very athletic. He is listed as top 10 nationally for the class of 2010. He didn’t have that much of the offense with all the supers on his team, and it would be interesting to see him in another context but he had a couple of Scottie Pippin type dunks. St. Benedicts plays a passing style where they seem to be coached to swing the ball quickly from player to player. He is a lefty shooter. Mike Machado, a 6’2 guard runs the point for St. Benedict’s and showed good leadership and poise. 6’2 junior guard Tamir Jackson of St. Benedict’s, highly touted, showed he is a zone buster concept and leads the break nicely and finishes from hard angles on his drives. He had 6 three pointers for the game and finished with 26 points. He is generally listed as a top 50 player nationally. For Our Savior New American, 6’4 senior guard Gerardo Suero, converted on any number of athletics drives despite the inside defensive presence of St. Benedict’s and also hit from downtown to finish with 27 points. Suero is from the Dominican Republic and is being looked at by major schools such as Pittsburgh. He has a hard driving style that he maintains all game long and is averaging over 30 points per game. Rayner Maquette, a 6’1 junior guard looked great on this outside shots for Our Savior New American and along with his shooting he passed well. This slick junior guard finished the game with 17 points. The final score of the game was 77-63 in favor of St. Benedict’s. The next game was Whitney Young( Chicago,IL) vs. Helen Cox( Harvey, LA) The Helen Cox lineup features a player who is widely considered the best in the country, 6’10 Greg Monroe who is headed to Georgetown University in Washington D.C.. The game opened up with Monroe driving to the basket and getting his shot rejected resoundingly and Whitney racing up the court for several scores. However this wasn’t a sign of things to come as Helen Cox and Monroe warmed up quickly. In the lineup with Monroe for Helen Cox is 6’10 senior center Trevon Flores who looked fast and effective on the court as a lefty and he is committed to Marist. Also helping out for Helen Cox was 6’5 scorer Taj Givens. In fact, everybody in the lineup for Helen Cox looked sharp including 6 foot junior guard Calvin Thompson. As Monroe warmed up, he hit soft jumper after soft jumper, going outside for a 3 at one point. He is smooth going to the basket and uses craft in his style. He is a lefty shooter. He didn’t play in the stratosphere and you couldn’t tell is he is a high flying leaper. Later in the game, he showed fancy ball handling skills with radar assists off the dribble in traffic, any number of them to Trevon Flores who finished with 18 points and ran the court extremely well. He did actually miss a couple of shots in the second half while finishing with 24 points. A 5’7 freshmen guard played a lot for Helen Cox, his name is Brockton Bush. He was very impressive with his ball handling skills and his command of the offense. Obviously he may grow but he must be one of the top freshmen in the South. For Whitney Young, Marcus Jordan hit some tough shots, he is a 6’3 junior. He is the son of NBA great Michael Jordan. He is considered top 50 nationally in his class. Stan Brown, a 6’7 junior big man contended well down low. Ahmad Starks only a sophomore at 5’8 had an awesome shooting game and someone from the crowd commented that he doesn’t even hit the net, on some perfect shots. To shoot this well against competition like this as only a sophomore was quite compelling towards him being a national prospect down the road. He shot 5 of 6 from threepoint range and totaled 21 points. AJ Rompza, a 5’10 guard who is heading to Central Florida, wooed the crowd with whirling plays all over the court, and spectacular passes from difficult angles. He shot inconsistently although he did show range and finished with 12 points and MVP honors for his team but he certainly entertained the crowd with his twirling and exciting moves. He is a lefty shooter who shoots more of a set shot on deep threes. The final score of this game was 62-58 in favor of Helen Cox. The next game was Rice(NYC) vs. Lincoln(NY) in a matchup of 2 of the top 12 high school teams in the country. Lincoln features Lance Stephenson, a 6’7 powerfully built junior guard, who some consider the best player in the country regardless of class. He opened the game up scoring 18 of Lincoln’s 20 points in the first quarter. He overpowers defenders on drives to the hoop, but more so he is a great outside shooter off one on one play and he has a Bill Bradley like jumper. He also has a keen passing eye so it is difficult to put double teams on him as he will just take advantage of that with his passing. He really let his presence be felt early in this game and the barrage just continued on for the whole quarter. After the first quarter several of his teammates stepped in and contributed from then on in, especially Justin Greene doing some excellent work in the blocks on offense. 5’8 junior guard Darwin Ellis for Lincoln has a sweet shot and good presence on the court. Rice hung tough and it’s lineup is led by McDonald’s all American Kemba Walker, who was a standout performer in games in the Rucker league over the summer that involved current NBA players. So you would expect more of the same here and he showed he can break down defenders, drive all the way or stop and pop for radar jumpers and that he continually imposes his will on the game. He finished with 24 points. Highly touted junior guard, 6’5 Durand Scott, likes to drive hard and also had the rhythm jumper from the top of the key going in this game and finished with 21 points. 6’6 Dorvell Carter, a senior, runs the court well and stops and pops for jumpers on the break. The final score in this game was Lincoln 75 and Rice 68. In the final game, another 2 of the top 12 high school teams in the country squared off and this game featured Oak Hill Academy(VA) verses St. Patrick’s(NJ). Oak Hill is the perennial top high school team in the country although they had some losses this season and they are still in the top dozen. In Oak Hill’s lineup is Brandon Jennings, the all world point guard who is heading to Arizona. He is on some lists as the top player in the country regardless of position. Also in the Oak Hill lineup was 6’9 Keith “Tiny” Gallon who is listed at 295 points and has a good shot to midrange. 6’7 Brian Oliver is a junior jump shooter who is considered top 50 nationally as well. St. Patrick’s is led by dynamic junior guard Dexter Strickland who is committed to North Carolina. He has a balanced game as a smooth outside shooter, hard driving high leaping to the basket player and is quite speedy on the court. Also for St. Patrick’s is precocious freshmen 6’6 freshmen Mike Gilchrist, who has a combative style on the court to go with a superlative handle. He is considered one of the top 2 freshmen in the country. Paris Bennett is a 6’6 junior swingman who came up big in this game, hitting midrange jumpers in traffic in key moments. St. Patrick’s edged ahead early in the first half and was leading 34-20 until Brandon Jennings hit a 3 pointer from way out at the buzzer to make it 34-23 at the half. Jennings had been more passing but some of his passes where dropped and then it seemed he decided to go into a scorers mode and he seemed to find that mode right away in launching long 3’s or going in for soaring drives. He opened up the second half with a three pointer as Oak Hill came right back into the game and from here it was a hotly contested game. St. Patrick’s however was up to the task and 6’8 Quintrell Thomas battled down low and drew fouls and had a resounding dunk in traffic. Dexter Strickland also drew a number of fouls as well and Paris Bennett was hitting timely short jumpers. Thomas is heading to big 8 powerhouse Kansas. There is no place like home. Kevin Boyle Jr. came in a showed some fantastic handling skills for St. Patrick’s. Jermel Jenkins ran the point for St. Pat’s with poise and control. The game was within two points when a Brandon Jennings drive was blocked with 3 minutes to go and 2 points for St. Pat’s on the turnaround and I thought this was the key play. In the final minutes, ,there was a lot of fouling to get the ball back, St. Pat;s hit the shots and finished the game to win at 63-54 with the score being skewed by the foul shots in the final minute and the game was actually closer than this. 6’8 center Dan Jennings, had 6 blocks for Oak Hill playing only half the game and showed he has good hands. Brian Oliver didn’t get totally untracked but surely has a great looking jump shot. Paris Bennett finished the game with 19 points for St. Patrick’s. Brandon Jennings had 34 points for Oak Hill. Mike Gilchrist, had 10 points and was the named the MVP of the game for St. Patrick’s.
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