SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Sunday’s second major day of the 17th Spalding Hoop Hall Classic in Springfield College’s Blake Arena was as noteworthy for who was watching the action on the court as it was for who was playing.
Head honchos Dana Altman (Oregon), John Calipari (Kentucky) and Patrick Ewing (Georgetown) were among the college coaches who were in the building for at least a few of the eight games played Sunday that tipped at 9 a.m. and didn’t wrap up for 13-plus hours.
Altman was there to watch, specifically, future Ducks Miles Norris (the 6-foot-9 resident of San Diego who is attending Brewster Academy in New Hampshire as a senior) and Bol Bol (the 7-3 son of late NBA player Manute Bol, who played for Mater Dei in Southern California for the second half of last season before relocating to Findlay Prep in Henderson, NV, in the fall).
Calipari and Ewing were focused on the clash between Queens, NY’s Archbishop Molloy and Hyattsville, MD’s DeMatha.
The nation’s top unsigned and uncommitted center in the Class of 2018, 7-1 Moses Brown, plays for Molloy and Kentucky and Georgetown (along with UCLA; Bruins’ assistant Tyus Edney was court-side, too) are among the programs he’s still considering signing with in April.
But Brown – who is likely to be announced as a McDonald’s All-American when the 2018 version of the 24-player squad is revealed this week – was out-played significantly, at least when the game was still remotely “competitive”, Sunday.
Six-10-plus sophomore Hunter Dickinson was too strong, too assertive and too fundamentally sound for Brown to cope with, as the left hander backed him down in the post and scored on a jump hook over the top of him, and later bounced to the corner for an 18-footer as the Staggs took at 14-point lead at intermission.
Brown finally starting producing as both scorer and rebounder in the second half but DeMatha continued to cruise and won, eased up, 86-56.
Dickinson, for the time being, at least, the No. 1 “center” in the Class of 2020, scored 21 points to go with seven rebounds and two assists while Brown’s numbers – he, too, scored 21 and grabbed six rebounds with two blocked shots – eventually pretty much equaled his counterpart’s.
Dickinson is one of a multitude of quality underclassmen on Coach Mike Jones’ roster.
Six-six sophomore Earl Timberlake Jr. (a transfer from Rock Creek Christian in Upper Marlboro in Maryland) went for 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists while junior Justin Moore scored 21 points (hitting each of his three attempts from behind the arc).
Archbishop Molloy would have made things a whole lot more intriguing, no doubt, if Cole Anthony – one of the two or three best point guard prospects in the Class of 2019 – had been healthy (he’s got a sore heel) and able to play Sunday.
Less than 24 hours after his Ducks lost a Pacific 12 Conference toughie in Tucson against the University of Arizona, Altman was in Blake Arena and watched as Norris scored 13 points with nine rebounds and five turnovers in the Bobcats’ 101-57 beat down of Ashburnham, MA, Cushing Academy
About eight hours later Altman saw Bol Bol score 31 points (14 of 17 from the floor) as Findlay Prep boat-raced Montclair, NJ, Immaculate Conception, 91-47, despite the presence of Syracuse-bound guard Jalen Carey (a team-high 16 points) for the latter.
Bol Bol scored most of those 14 buckets in such spectacular fashion (dunks . . . a whole lot of dunks . . . from just about every angle and distance from the rim – vertically or horizontally) that it was easy to overlook that he only grabbed two more rebounds than you or I did in the game.
Representatives of some 10 to 15 NBA franchises were also on hand to watch as Bradenton, FL, IMG “Post-Grad” squad held on to edge Saxtons River, VT, Vermont Academy, 81-78, despite the 31 points (24 of those by way of eight 3-pointers in 19 attempts) from 6-3 junior David Bertram.
NBA employees are usually prohibited by the league office from watching – in person – all but just a few high school events.
The reason that could be court-side for the IMG-Vermont Academy tilt was because each is a “prep school” without any of the players having any “true high school” eligibility (as “fifth-year” students).
Six-three Anfernee Simons (originally from the Edgewater High in Florida graduating Class of 2017 last June) originally committed to Louisville before re-opening his recruitment following Louisville’s link to a federal investigation into some of those inside and outside of college hoops last September.
Since he’s a “fifth-year prep” and will be 19 before the June 21 date of it, he is eligible to be selected in the next NBA Draft.
He showed off his high-quality jump shot (hitting five 3s, four in the second) and his slick and creative handling skills while scoring 29 points Sunday.
He’s still far from being as “NBA-ready” as Class of 2018 members (but ineligible for the draft) Zion Williamson (Spartanburg, SC) or R.J. Barrett (Montverde, FL, Academy) are.
But he did show enough under the glare of a lot of NBA folks that he is expected to go full-bore in the “draft evaluation process” in the spring, working out for select NBA franchises during which “decision makers (general managers and personnel directors and the like) will be among those taking even more concerted looks.
If he and his family don’t like the consensus of opinion (of those decision makers) as to where he would be selected if he stays in the draft pool on the evening of June 21, he’ll have oodles of options as to where he wants to spend at least one season as a college player.
Stay tuned.
The final day action gets underway on Monday morning at 9 o’clock (ET).
In other games Sunday:
Baltimore Mount Saint Joseph 71, Tinton Falls (NJ) The Ranney School 48: Six-nine, Maryland-bound Jalen Smith – likely to join Bol Bol, Williamson and Barrett as McDonald’s picks this week – dominates things on both ends of the floor with 23 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots for the Gaels.
Six-five junior Scottie Lewis kept things from getting too out of whack for the New Jersey lads with a 27-point performance to go along with four rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.
Other than – perhaps – Bol Bol, there was no better “long-term” prospect on display Sunday than Lewis.
Woodstock (CT) Academy 97, Barrington (RI) St. Andrew’s School 73: The outcome certainly qualified as a “blowout” but that didn’t damper the impressiveness of the effort of St. Andrew’s School’s Villanova-bound Cole Swider, who scored 41 points (15 of 24 from the field, including six of 11 from behind the arc).
Mount Hermon (MA) Northfield 90, Chatham (VA) Hargrave Military Academy 74: Six-ten Nathan Laszewski, who signed with Notre Dame in November, went for 17 points and 10 rebounders for the victors.
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