Middle School Is Basketball’s Fiercest Recruiting Battleground ARCHIVED ARTICLE
ALL-MET ELITE
The high caliber of high school basketball in this region and the resulting pressure placed on coaches to win have fostered a fierce recruiting environment focused on players who are much too young to drive anywhere but to the basket.
Although private schools recruit middle school students in other major metropolitan areas, both openly and discreetly, the minimal regulation of the practice here and the desire to uncover the next Kevin Durant — a product of a Washington-area private school who has blossomed into an N.B.A. star with Oklahoma City — has led to an aggressive pursuit of players beginning with fifth graders.
It is common to find as many as 15 coaches from Washington-area private schools watching a summer tournament game involving middle school players. D.C Assault 14U AAU coach Zach Suber said nine of his players were recruited to the ultracompetitive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, which features traditional powers like DeMatha, Gonzaga College High School and Archbishop Carroll High School.
WASHINGTON D.C. -- One of the great college basketball debates arose in locker rooms around the Verizon Center this week. And not long after that, it ended.
The question: "What is the best area of the country for producing college basketball players?"
Using the last 15 years as a prism, it's hard to argue there's been a better area for producing top-flight basketball players than D.C.-Baltimore. The roll call includes Michael Beasley, Carmelo Anthony, Delonte West, Sam Young, Josh Selby and Will Barton. They compliment Durant, Hibbert, Green, Ty Lawson and Gay to make the D.C.-Baltimore unmatched.
D.C.-Baltimore is the clear No. 1 and both analysts agree that Dallas, LA, Chicago North Carolina and Atlanta are close behind.
ESPN networks coverage of the 2012-13 high school basketball season will include, for the fifth consecutive year, the National High School Invitational Tournament (NHSI). Action begins Thursday, April 4, at noon ET on ESPNU, with No. 3 seeded Prime Prep (Texas) facing No. 6 seeded Blanche Ely (Fla.) in the opening boys’ game. The event, organized by Paragon Marketing Group, will be held at Georgetown Preparatory School’s Hanley Center for Athletic Excellence in Bethesda, Md. and features 10 games with some of the country’s best boys and girls’ high school basketball teams.
For the first time, every boys’ team in the NHSI field is ranked in the ESPN 25 Power Rankings and five are in the top 10. The defending champions, Findlay Prep (Nev.) returns to try and clinch their fourth NHSI title after an undefeated regular season. In the girls tournament, Archbishop Spalding (Md.) is seeded No. 1 with 2011 NHSI Champion Dr. Phillips (Fla.) at No. 2. Each NHSI Boys Quarterfinal will air on ESPNU Thursday, with the Semifinals on ESPN2 Friday, April 5, followed by the final matchup on ESPN Saturday, April 6, at 1 p.m. The NHSI caps off 24 games of the country’s best high school basketball teams playing on ESPN networks during the 2012-13 season.
The National High School Invitational launched in 2009 at Georgetown Prep in Bethesda, Md as the ESPN Rise NHSI. The 2009 boys tournament was won by Findlay Prep with the girls tournament won by Seton Keough. The second annual tournament was held at Coppin State University’s Physical Education Complex in Baltimore with Findlay Prep retaining the boys’ title and the Peddie School claiming the girls’ title. In 2011, Montrose Christian won the boys’ title in double overtime while Dr. Phillips won the girls’ championship. Last year, Findlay Prep recaptured the NHSI title with an overtime victory and Riverdale Baptist took the girls’ championship trophy.
Thu, April 4
Noon
NHSI Boys Quarterfinals: #3 Prime Prep (Texas) vs. #6 Blanche Ely (Fla.)Joe Davis, Paul Biancardi & Dave Telep
ESPNU
2 p.m.
NHSI Boys Quarterfinals: #4 St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.) vs. #5 La Lumiere (Ind.)Joe Davis, Paul Biancardi & Dave Telep
ESPNU
4 p.m.
NHSI Boys Quarterfinals: #2 Montverde Academy (Fla.) vs. #7 Oak Hill Academy (Va.)Joe Davis, Paul Biancardi & Dave Telep
ESPNU
6 p.m.
NHSI Boys Quarterfinals: #1 Findlay Prep (Nev.) vs. #8 Montrose Christian (Md.)Joe Davis, Paul Biancardi & Dave Telep
Twenty-three of the nation’s top 16-and-under male basketball players, 21 of whom participated in the October 2012 USA Basketball Developmental National Team mini-camp, today were announced as members of the 2013-14 USA Basketball Men’s Developmental National Team.
Members of the developmental team will make up the roster of the 2013 USA U16 National Team and 2014 USA U17 World Championship Team (provided the U17 squad qualifies).
The developmental team will train May 30-June 7 in Colorado Springs. A 12-man roster for the U16 National Team will then be selected to compete in the FIBA Americas U16 Championship, set for June 11-15 in Maldonado, Uruguay. The tournament is a qualifier for the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship.
The developmental team's roster will be fluid, and players may be added to the roster over the next two years, according to a press release from USA Basketball.
Cook has known Smith for more than a decade. Growing up together in Prince George’s County, Md., just outside of Washington, D.C., the 10-year-old Smith was a local hoops legend known as Showtime Smith. Eventually Smith and Cook joined the same AAU program, Smith playing for the Maryland Crusaders and Cook for the Mitchellville Trailblazers. Cook, five years younger, liked to study Smith’s game.
In the summer of 2000, their AAU teams traveled to Memphis for a tournament and Smith watched Cook struggle through a loss. After the game, Smith sought out Cook, wrapped his arm around the 7-year-old’s shoulders and said, “You’re my little brother now. I’m always going to be watching over you and you’re going to be all right.” Nolan Smith became more than a big brother. He became Cook’s idol. Quinn Cook wanted to be just like him.
Cook eventually attended DeMatha High School and became the first junior in three decades to earn D.C. Player of the Year. Recruiters were stalking him and he didn’t have his father to shepherd him. Once again Cook needed to escape and Smith had an idea. Smith suggested that Cook follow in his footsteps to Oak Hill Academy in remote Mouth of Wilson, Va., to help hone his game for college. Smith made a phone call to Oak Hill coach Steve Smith and Cook was invited.
Then when it came time to settle on a college, Cook followed in Smith’s footsteps once again. Cook had visited Smith at Duke several times and relished the environment. Smith became Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s primary salesman.
Hipp, who lives in southeast Washington, had previously attended Washington's Ballou High and Forestville's Bishop McNamara, averaged 12.5 points, four rebounds and 5.4 assists last season, and is listed near the top of most prep scout sheets. Hipp, who also considered Wake Forest, Providence and Georgia Tech, was one of three front-line players from Harker, which finished last season as the 12th-ranked high school team in the country by USA Today, to announce his choice of schools.
Stu Vetter sometimes changed his players' academic classification -- from a
junior to a sophomore, for instance -- so they could play high school basketball
for an extra year. Dennis Scott transferred to Flint Hill in 1984, after playing
a freshman season at Loudoun County High School. Vetter made Scott a freshman
again at Flint Hill and, in Scott's fifth year of high school, USA Today named
him the player of the year.
How the brilliant point guard who lived in Falls Church ended up at Woodson was a bit controversial in and of itself. Amaker's mother was a Fairfax County teacher, and as such she could choose which school her son would attend. She chose Woodson, knowing that her son would play on the varsity team as a freshman, because Jenkins had been impressed with Amaker's performances in summer league games since the time Amaker was ten-years-old. The County changed the rules about where teachers can send their children to school partly because of Amaker's dominance at Woodson.
Before Amaker became the dominant point guard that he was, he had to find a way to get around certain basketball disadvantages. Not only was his shooting a mess, as Jenkins said, but Amaker came into Woodson at 5-foot-7, 108 pounds. In 1987, Jenkins told the Connection that when Amaker first came to practices at Woodson, the bottom of his uniform would hang out of the bottom of his shorts, and one could barely see the top of the 1 and the 0 on his back. However, Amaker was a natural, recalled Jenkins.
Amaker shined the first chance he got to be the team's point guard. It was his freshman year, and Woodson was playing in a Christmas tournament in Pennsylvania, against national powerhouse basketball schools. Woodson's senior point guard, Steve Hass, got injured, and Amaker had to step into the role from the bench. "He ran the show like he'd been doing it for years," recalled Jenkins.
Jenkins said that perhaps the most memorable moment he has from Amaker's career at Woodson is a summer league game the Cavaliers played against perennial national powerhouse, DeMatha. He said Amaker single-handedly beat the favorites with 36 points and 12 assists. The following day, Red Auerbach, the legendary Boston Celtics president, said in the newspapers that Amaker was the best high school guard he had seen in at least ten years.
During his time at Woodson, Amaker led the Cavaliers to four straight Northern District titles. A McDonald's All-American, Amaker also earned the Wooden Defensive Player of the Year award in 1983, awarded to the nation's best high school defensive player. He averaged almost 18 points, and contributed 7.5 assists and 3.5 steals per game while at Woodson
Victor first joined a basketball team, the Green team, in kindergarten. He was excluded from his friend's Purple team, which got many of the best players. This was Victor's first athletic slight. "My team won the whole thing," he says. "The next year they put me on the Purple team." As he progressed through St. Jerome's CYO program, he was befriended by Nigel Munson, the point guard at nearby DeMatha Catholic High School, who would come by St. Jerome and play Victor one-on-one, whetting the latter's appetite to play for DeMatha "and to wear their blazers and bucks," Victor says.
DeMatha coach Mike Jones, who had played at the school under storied coach Morgan Wootten, first saw Victor in an eighth-grade CYO playoff game. "Victor stood out," says Jones. "He didn't score a whole lot of points, but he was always talking, always clapping, always around the ball." These are recurring themes in Victor's development.
He enrolled at DeMatha, played on the freshman team and made the varsity as a sophomore. According to Jones, Victor's first two varsity baskets were throwdowns, both in a November game against Coolidge High. "First time he was on the floor, he just took off ahead of the field and dunked," says Jones. "Nobody expected that." It was that year, Crean's last at Marquette, that the coach first went to watch Victor in one of DeMatha's optional 6 a.m. practices, which the sophomore seldom missed. "I'd guess he was maybe 6' 1" or 6' 2" at the time," says Crean. "You could see that he had this incredible athleticism and burst of speed and leaping ability, and you could see his relentlessness on defense, because he knew he wasn't going to get on the court at a high level unless he defended at a high level."
Kenny Johnson and Keith Stevens, the coaches of Team Takeover, a D.C.-based AAU squad, had seen many of the same qualities in the previous spring's tryouts. "Mike Jones told me he had this kid who was a little raw, but he had some potential," says Stevens. "He was a run-and-jump, high-motor kid, really raw. A lot of those kids don't develop, but Victor put in the time." Playing AAU involved complex travel arrangements, whereby Victor often spent weekends at his coaches' homes, because it was such a long drive to his house.
As a junior Victor was part of a DeMatha powerhouse that included Quinn Cook (Duke), Josh Selby (drafted by the Grizzlies, now in the NBDL), Jerian Grant (Notre Dame), Mikael Hopkins (Georgetown), Marcus Rouse (Stony Brook) and Naji Hibbert (Gardner-Webb, transferred from Texas A&M). "Victor is that rare guy who played on a high school team that was as good as his AAU team," says Crean. Early in the season, says Jones, Victor stood in front of the team's top players and volunteered to come off the bench. DeMatha went 31-4 and won the city championship. A year later Victor started and averaged 11.9 points and 10.3 rebounds; DeMatha went 32-4 and won another city title. Victor was named All-City but was ranked only No. 144 in the country by Rivals.com.
"At that time his motor, his passion for the game, his athletic ability were all ahead of his skill set," says Chris Caputo, an assistant at Miami, who was an assistant at George Mason at the time and saw Victor frequently. "Not a great dribbler, not a great shooter, not a dynamic pick-and-roll guy. But he was a tough guy who could defend and do whatever it took to win. His other qualities were developing. Those were things Coach Crean was able to identify that others were not." By the end several D-I schools were recruiting Victor, including Notre Dame, Xavier and Charlotte, but none had worked longer than Indiana.
"Chris is a true point guard that's consistently ranked as one of the top point guards in the D-League this season," Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said. "He's a high-character, tough competitor who's had to consistently overcome personal challenges like MS to put himself in this position. The physical obstacles he's had to contend with are significant."
"That's definitely one of the things I pride myself on, being the face of it and being an inspiration and motivation for people to keep fighting." said Wright, who averaged 15.5 points, 7.0 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals for the Iowa Energy this season to earn a D-League All-Star bid. "I made history with this."
Former Baltimore prep basketball star Aquille Carr plans to pursue a professional career overseas instead of playing at Seton Hall next season, he announced Saturday evening after he scored 52 points in his final high school game.
Basketball standout Junior Etou, a 6-8, 225-pound senior from Bishop O’Connell in Arlington, Va., is considering signing with the University of Miami next month, according to his high school coach.
The three-star recruit, who led O’Connell to the Virginia Division I state final, is also considering Kansas, Arizona, West Virginia, Maryland, Xavier, Temple and Clemson.
O’Connell coach Joe Wootten said Etou is a “face-up” power forward who is averaging 16 points, 13 rebounds and 5.5 blocks.
“He is physically tough and has great form on his shot,” Wootten said of Etou, who scored 15 points in the state final. “He can guard multiple positions inside and on the perimeter.’’
head coach John Thompson III has been named Big East Coach of the Year. Thompson led the Hoyas to a 24-5 record this season including a 14-4 mark in Big East play and a share of the Big East regular season championship.
The Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament is organized by Wamba Caravan No. 89, International Order of the Alhambra.
The ACIT is based in Cumberland, Md., in Allegany County.
Frostburg State University's Bobcat Arena in nearby Frostburg, MD as it's game venue.
Since it's beginning in 1961, the A.C.I.T. has been host to 84 teams from 10 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Many of the players and coaches that have participated in the tournament have gone on to find success in College and the NBA.
The transfer to Paul VI was as much about academics and social adjustment as it was about basketball, but there was no denying the jump in the level of basketball, going from a Group AA VHSL school to a program where Green competed against the likes of Victor Oladipo, Kendall Marshall, Quinn Cook and Tyler Thornton.
“Everybody was telling me I couldn’t hang with the DC and Maryland kids, those inner city kids, because they were so much better,” Green said. “But I just hung in there with them, and I proved everybody wrong.”
Green averaged 16.8 points per game as a senior, and earned all-WCAC honors and All-Met honors from the Washington Post. But that confidence was quickly crushed by his difficult freshman season. Erick Sr. said one of his son’s biggest problems was that he tried to change his shot.
“He was listening to other people tell him how to shoot the basketball, and I told Erick, look man, I taught you how to shoot the basketball. And all through high school ... he shot 57 percent from the floor,” Erick Sr. said. “So why are you going to change your shot now that you’re in college? He was trying to please too many people. We had a long talk. Do what you’ve been taught. There’s nothing wrong. You’ve been successful. Believe in yourself.”
Most NBA mock drafts predict Green to go into the middle of the second round in June. He’s already received an invite from the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament and he’s hoping for an invitation to the NBA predraft camp in Chicago.
Green said he’s confident he’s improved his ball-handling enough to make an impression at point guard, where he’ll likely play as a professional. Johnson has lauded his decision-making throughout the season. Green has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to be known as a ball hog, and the numbers back that up. He’s only attempted more than 20 shots seven times in 31 games, and in three of those games, he’s shot better than 50 percent.
High School: Played as a senior at Paul VI High School in Fairfax, after lettering three years at Millbrook High School in his hometown of Winchester … At Paul VI, was the 2009 Division I Independent League Player of the Year and led his team to the state championship … Averaged 16.8 points per game as a senior … Named Washington Post All-Metro and was named first team All-WCAC … At Millbrook, led his team to the 2008 VHSL AA State Championship as a junior … Was an EA Sports All-American as a senior, when he also earned Group AA Player of the Year, as well as being named the district and region Player of the Year … As a senior was named Washington Post All-Metro and was the AP Player of the Year in Group AA.
Everett Coker and Shaquille James each scored 12 points to lead a balanced offensive attack as Coolidge capped a stellar late-season run with a convincing 69-47 win at Verizon Center.
“We’re the first team to win a state championship in D.C.,” Jones said. “I think we’ve proven that, you know, we’re the best team in D.C.”
DCSAA will crown its Inaugural Girls and Boys State Basketball Champions this Monday night, March 11 at the Verizon Center. The girls game will feature HD Woodson vs. Georgetown Day – tip off is at 6:00pm. The boys game will feature Coolidge vs. Ballou with tip off slated for 8:00pm. All DC High School students are admitted free with a valid school ID. Admisson for adults is $10 and $5 for students without an ID. Children 10 and under are admitted free.
