Hoopword January 2008

Area Top 10, or 20, or 30…A the Halfway Point

I don’t watch local TV sports broadcasts very often, except on Tuesday and Friday nights, after the high school basketball games, to see the highlights and find out the scores of that night’s contests. If all you want is the scores, the online version of the Times Union will usually have those updated before the 11:20 or 11:25 blurb on the local networks. But the brief visuals of video can be worth watching for, especially when you’ve seen Channel 6, 10, 13 or 23 camera people at your own team’s game. Last week our Varsity coach got his 6 or 8 second expression of victory on-camera via the local CBS affiliate, and that was worth flicking the remote a few times to find.

But there is another reason for hoop fans to tune in on other nights occasionally, and that is when they are running a countdown of the Ten Best Area Hoop Allstars. In my day, that was “Bob McNamara’s TV 10 Allstars”—coincidently broadcast ON Channel 10. Now it is Roger Wyland of Channel 13 (WNYT) who seems to have the most prestigious high school rundown, calling it the Capital Region Top Ten All-stars, or something to that effect. It must be difficult for the scouts and sportscasters to agree on which 10 to pick in any given year, and several prominent players are always going to be left out in that format.

This year in particular, I would have a hard time limiting the list to just 10 from the whole area. Based on what I’ve seen and read, I would have a hard time ranking them, whereas last year seemed fairly clear cut.

If I was doing the choosing, a lot of them would be from the area’s best teams, and only those from Class AA and Class A teams would be considered, where the competition is greatest. There is usually a lot of interesting debate on this subject—some of it highly subjective—on the local websites and blogs related to Hoop, but I’m not going to enter into those discussions, I’d rather give my opinions here. And since I am not limited by space or time (so to speak), my list of candidates to consider will be a lot longer than 10 deep. I will go with 20
from Class AA and A Teams, 10 more top contenders from B/C/CC/D ball, and a list of honorary mentions that I couldn’t squeeze into the other two lists.

CLASS AA & A Teams

This year, there are a lot of teams that have more than one potential Top 10 player, and in the case of Bishop Maginn, there may be four in the Top 20, which tells you why they will be tough to beat. Instead of ranking them in order of talent or preference, which is something that can change from week-to-week, I’ll list them by team to start with….

Bishop Maginn

*Shimeek Johnson, 6’7” center, senior.
*Taran Buie, 6’2” guard/forward, soph.
*Terron Victoria, 5’10” forward, senior.
*Khaliq Gross, 6’0” guard, senior.

CBA of Albany

*Malcolm Austin, 6’3” guard, senior.
*Deandre Kennedy-Ebron, 6’3” forward, senior.

Catholic Central of Troy

*Devin Grimes, 6’6” center, senior.
*Jordan Gettings, 6’ guard, senior.

Bishop Gibbons

*Zach O’Brien, 6’3” forward/guard, senior.
*Brian Hamor, 6’2” guard, junior.

Guilderland High

*Brett Marfurt, 6’4” guard/forward, senior.

Saratoga Springs

*Jordan Stevens, 6’4” forward, junior.

Colonie High

*Tashan Newsome, 6’1” guard, senior.
*Herb Tedford, 6’6” center/forward, junior.

Albany High

*Isaiah Duke, 6’5” forward, senior.
*Malachi Mitchell, guard, senior.

Albany Academy

*Jamel Fields, 6’2” guard, soph.
*Shavar Fields, 6’7” forward, soph.
*Chris Pelcher, 6’8” center, junior.

Troy High

*Donovan Johnson, 6’1” guard/forward, junior.
*Raheem Pringle, 6’ guard, senior.

Averill Park

*Gerard O’Shea, 6’ guard, senior.

Mohonasen

*Cameron Couball, 6’4” guard, senior.
*Jordan Macejka, 6’2” forward, junior.

Amsterdam

*Ben Miseikis, 5’11” guard, junior.
*Vinnie Nicosia, 6’1” forward, senior.

Schenectady

*Chris Lewis, 6’2” forward, senior.

Bethlehem Central

*Joe Kane, 6’0” guard, senior.

Lansingburgh

*Connor Gallo, 6’3” forward, senior.

Queensbury

*Kellen Henderson, 6’0” guard, senior.

Honorable Mention (& maybe better than some of the above)

*Gerard Jacques, 6’3” forward, CCHS, junior
*Denzel Paschal, 6’1” forward, CCHS, junior
*Andrew Stire, 6’8” center, CBA, junior
*James Mantas, 6’ guard, CBA, senior
*Kam Ritter, 6’2” guard, CBA, soph
*Avery Mitchell, 6’2” forward, Bishop Gibbons, senior
*Joe Gallagher, 6’3” forward, Bishop Gibbons, senior
*Bunduka Kargbo, 6’2” guard, Bishop Maginn, junior
*James Torres, 6’3” forward, Bishop Maginn, junior
*Antonio Davis, 6’4”, forward, Bishop Maginn, senior
*Guy Robichaud, 6’5” center, LaSalle, senior
*Mason Horne, 6’3” guard, LaSalle, junior
*Mark Blair, 6’4” center, Schenectady, junior
*Rashard Taylor, 6’3” forward, Schenectady, junior
*Terence Blanchard, 5’11’ guard, Schenectady, junior
*Jim Bacher, 6’2” guard, Colonie, senior
*Dave Fischer, 6’5” center, Burnt Hills, senior
*Paul Layton, 6’2” forward, Burnt Hills, senior
*Tyler Foster, 6’3” guard, Albany Academy, junior
*Andrew Smith, 6’2’ forward, Guilderland, senior
*Jon Terry, forward, Guilderland, senior (?)
*James Tucker, 6’5” center, Saratoga Springs, junior
*Ryan James, 6’0” forward, Saratoga Springs, senior
*Josh Hooper, 6’0” guard, Queensbury, senior
*Ty Michaud, 6’0” guard, Hudson Falls, junior
*Jeff Stopera, 5’9” guard, Scotia, senior
*Jim Janson, 6’10” center, Scotia, senior
*Tom Kukuk, 6’2” guard/forward, Shenendehowa, senior
*Matt Miner, 6’2’ guard, Shenendehowa, soph
*Matt Baldwin, 6’2” guard, Gloversville, junior
*Haneef Scott, 6’0” guard, Lansingburgh, junior
*Alex Olbrych, 6’2” forward, Niskayuna, senior
*Garrett Bush, 6’0” guard, Niskayuna, senior

Some Comments:

I haven’t seen teams like Guilderland, Mohonasen,
Bethlehem, Shen, or any of the Colonial Council teams play yet this year, and some of these kids I’ve only seen in summer leagues or AAU ball; with others I’m just going from their T-U stats or game summary accounts as a basis for assuming they are good, and looking at how they did against the most competitive teams they’ve played. But I’ve seen all the Big 10 teams, and I can again say that some guys who are “mere” role players in the area’s best league would be stars and stat leaders elsewhere.

With that in mind, the only Suburban Council players listed in the Top 30 list above who could compete just as effectively in the Big 10 as they do now would be Bret Marfurt of Guilderland, Jordan Stevens of Saratoga, and the
two from Colonie: Tashan Newsome and Herb Tedford. I also think Albany Academy’s two best players, Shavar and Jamel Fields (no relation!) would fare well in the Big 10, and Chris Pelcher and Tyler Foster might as well—which is why Academy should probably BE in the Big 10 instead of the Colonial Council. Jamel Fields in particular put up big numbers when Academy competed in Houston against big-time competition out there at the end of 2007—proving he is likely Top 10 material on that basis—but I’d have a hard time putting him ahead of Newsome of Colonie or Kennedy-Ebron of CBA, or Brian Hamor of Bishop Gibbons, who has been fighting the Big 10 wars locally since 8th grade. The night-after-night competition of the Big 10 and upper level Suburban teams is just tougher than what the Colonial can provide. That’s why it’s a stretch to include kids from Scotia, Hudson Falls, Gloversville, Lansingburgh, and Queensbury on this list, even though they play at Class A or AA schools, but I’ve given them some credit even without the benefit of truly nasty competition on their schedules.

BUT HOW TO JUDGE WHO ARE THE BEST, THEN?

I’m not wild about applying individual rankings to players for a couple of reasons—I don’t think it’s fair because I haven’t seen them ALL play as much as I’d like to if I was going to be an arbiter of such things; and also because the rankings would change from week to week based on performance differences.

I might’ve had Shimeek Johnson as the best player in the area, for instance, until noting that Taran Buie, on his own team, hit 28 points the other night, and is now probably climbing the charts as perhaps the best player on the best team in the area. Or Malcolm Austin might’ve shown me he was the best player in the area one night, only to be made to look like a mere mortal against Maginn a week later. Brett Marfurt could likely dominate 9 out of any 10 games he’s playing in around here, but against Maginn was also held in check. Jordan Stevens has been hearing D-1 buzz since he first dunked in 7th grade, but is injured, and out for the season, now so it’s hard to put him in the Top 10 if this year’s all we’re focusing on.

Zach O’Brien put on some great shows in the 2 games I saw him play so far, and he’s definitely in the Top 10 overall, but if I had to rank him individually, it would be hard to peg him ahead of the dynamic duos that play for CBA, Maginn, or CCHS, so he’d be around 7th at best, based on team performances so far. As hoop athletes, Terron Victoria, Khaliq Gross, and Donovan Johnson all look like Top 10 candidates, but the intense competition of the Big 10 likely pushes them into the 2nd Ten, not the Top Ten. Similarly, if
Isaiah Duke was playing for a winning team his stats would qualify him for the Top 10 in the area, but with a winless team in the league, it’s hard to justify that.

It feels weird not to have any players from Shaker, Niskayuna, Columbia, or Ballston on the list, as these were Power-house teams in the recent past. Likewise, Shen is such a balanced, defensive-oriented team this year that no one stands out as brilliant, although their team is doing well. LaSalle and
Schenectady are like that in the Big 10 as well, with a host of good athletes and teams that will be dangerous in the Sectionals, but no individuals putting up gaudy stats in the scoring column to dazzle the casual observer.

Points aren’t everything, of course—there is a lot more to the game than that. But I put a lot of stock into which players make their teamsbetter—and which star players are LEADERS on winning teams. I also count how well a player has done AGAINST the best teams in the area when faced with that challenge. Devin Grimes, for instance, might have an off-game versus Troy High when his team is winning by 20, but comes up big with 28 points when he is goes against CBA. Shimeek Johnson might only hit 7 in a rout where the bench players have their fun, or hit 29 against Bishop Gibbons when
Buie was having a rare off-night. It’s sort of comparable to how difficult it is to rank NCAA college hoop teams…you have to take the head-to-head match-ups most seriously.

TENTATIVE BIG SCHOOL TOP TWENTY-FIVE, THEN:

1*Taran Buie, Maginn
2*Malcolm Austin, CBA
3*Shimeek Johnson, Maginn
4*Devin Grimes, CCHS
5*Jordan Gettings, CCHS
6*Brett Marfurt, Guilderland
7*Zach O’Brien, Gibbons
8*Jordan Stevens, Saratoga
9*Tashan Newsome, Colonie
10*Deandre Kennedy-Ebron, CBA
11*Herb Tedford, Colonie
12*Isaiah Duke, Albany
13*Jamel Fields, Albany Academy
14*Brian Hamor, Gibbons
15*Gerard O’Shea, Averill Park
16*Terron Victoria, Maginn
17*Shavar Fields, Albany Academy
18*Donovan Johnson, Troy
19*Khaliq Gross, Maginn
20*Vinnie Nicosia, Amsterdam
21*Joe Kane, Bethlehem
22*Cameron Couball, Mohonasen
23*Jordan Macejka, Mohonasen
24*Ben Miseikis, Amsterdam
25*Chris Lewis, Schenectady

Given my preference for and prejudice toward the Big 10, it was hard not to slip G. Jacques from CCHS, Raheem Pringle from Troy, Andrew Stire from CBA, Avery Mitchell from Gibbons, Guy Robichaud from LaSalle and even James Torres or Benduka Kargbo from Maginn onto this list. Based on scoring stats alone, Connor Gallo from Lansingburgh would belong. Based on size and potential, Jim Janson of Scotia and Chris Pelcher of Academy would be there. Based on 3-point shooting, Tyler Foster (who hit 9 in one HALF recently) and Mark Seager of Ballston Spa (who hit 7 in a game against Saratoga in December) would be listed as well. Jim Bacher of Colonie has a good shooting touch that will serve his team well come playoff time, and he could move up. Denzel Paschal from CCHS has been gaining in confidence, and adding to their arsenal of weapons. Reece Jackson and Rashard Taylor of Schenectady are kids to keep an eye on as well. Certainly things can change by the end of the season. As with all mid-season prognostications, this is a work in progress.

Some people I know had projected T. Buie to be among the Top 5 in the area this year, but I’m not sure too many had predicted he might be in the number one spot this early. He started out a bit up and down, but seems to be ascending “with a bullet” as they say on the record charts, as of now. He and junior Jordan Stevens (at #8—would be higher if not injured) are the only non-seniors in my Top 10.

It’s common knowledge that T. Buie has some powerful D-1 schools looking at him already, and that Shimeek (Central Connecticut State) and Marfurt (Colgate) are already signed to letters-of-intent. But how about Austin, Kennedy-Ebron, Grimes, Gettings, O’Brien, and Newsome? These are all talented seniors near the top of this Section 2 list. If anyone has insider info about their college prospects, let me know. They all seem to me to be worthy of scholarship consideration at D-1 or D-2 schools of some sort. Among the well-known juniors on my list, Jordan Stevens is assured of attention even though a broken hand has him out of commission for a time, while Brian Hamor and Herb Tedford and Andrew Stire would seem to have that kind of potential in their futures as well.

THE BEST OF THE REST….

Area’s Top Ten (or More) List of Class B, C/CC, & D Players

In no particular order of ranking, I’d like to give credit to players competing in the smaller school leagues—the first 5 or 6 on the list could probably make waves even if they were moved up in the AA/A ranks mentioned above…

*Shea Bromirski, Cambridge High, senior
*Pat Lanoue, Hoosic Valley Central, senior
*Evan Christner, Voorheesville, senior
*Lyle Hughes, Hudson High, senior
*Steven Hunt, Tamarac, junior
*Pat O’Rourke, Saratoga Central Catholic, senior
*Ryan Knotek, Saratoga Central Catholic, senior
*Clark McKinnon, Catskill, senior
*Nick Benoit, Cohoes, senior
*Jake Bowman, Schenectady Christian, senior
*Brian Bishop, Schenectady Christian, senior
*Schuyler Thomas, Schuylerville, senior
*Alex Guiggan, Warrensburgh, senior
*Dylan Miller, Salem, senior

Some of these names I know only from their being near the top of the stat charts on the T-U page. Bromirski leads the area in scoring now that Battle and Fredette are graduated and gone—hitting nearly 30 per game, and getting mentioned as a recruit for D-2 St. Rose of Albany. Lanoue is one of the area’s best quick-trigger shooters for HVCS, and impressed me the one time I saw him play for City Rocks B team last year. Christner has been a potent inside force for Voorheesville for two seasons previous to this, and will lead them deep into the “B” Division of the Sectionals, I believe. Any of those three might show up on Roger Wyland’s list of Top 10 Area Hoopers, displacing some of the Big School players I’ve already discussed. I would choose the guys with lower stats who have played tougher competition… but some people are fond of the big numbers, regardless of what kind of defense or style of play is involved. Considering that Taran Buie was only listed at 40-something in the list of Section 2 scoring leaders, however, tells you that talent is evaluated by
more than just numbers on the scorebook page.

Much as I’ve heard good things about Bromirski and Lanoue, they would NOT be scoring the same amount of points in the Big 10 as they are tallying right now in their respective leagues, just keep that in mind.

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Short Takes and Corrections…

In my last piece on Top Sophomores in Section 2,
there were a couple of omissions: Kevin Donahue of Hudson Falls (Class A) is one of the few sophs averaging over 10 a game for his team, in the Foothills League, and he is second in scoring on his team, a good shooter. Nolan Hart is drilling 3’s for Albany Academy, and is now 5th on his powerful squad in scoring, last I checked. If I pegged soph guard Kam Ritter as strictly a defensive stopper, I noticed he hit 11 points the other night and is emerging as the 3rd or 4th scoring option for the powerful Brothers’ squad.

The only JV team in the Big 10 we hadn’t seen yet when I wrote that last piece on this website was Albany High. They were better than our coach figured them to be, with kids like Tevon Erwin, Jeremic Bennett, Jabbar Bunch, Kevin Skeen, Daion Morris, Yasmir Stratton, and Owen Daniels giving our Catholic High boys a good tussle. (Despite having an 11 point lead in the second half, we suffered some ill fortune in going down to a 3 pt. loss in what would be Miles’s last JV game.) Austin Bateman at Schuylerville (Class B) is starting for that team and playing a prominent role, as he does as quarterback for the Black Horses’ football team. Brad Lyons and Taylor Barber have already moved up at the same school, while Nick Mariotti and Jeff Osche perform well on the JV level, giving that team a strong nucleus for the future. Sean Hidde is scoring over 5 a game on varsity at Fonda High (Class B). Tony DeLoatch is now a starter at Saratoga Springs (where he also starred as a running back this year) and scored 11 in a recent game. Anthony Luciano is the leading player on Saratoga’s JV team, and is developing an all-round game to go with deadly outside shooting. Danny Lee, Josh Koopman, and Salih Banks are reportedly doing well on a loaded Shen JV squad. Same can be said about Nick Keefe and Nick Balzano at Columbia High’s JV program, where Kennie Norwood is up on varsity, contributing already. Another Suburban team with a soph up on the big squad is Niskayuna, where Guy Waltman is showing his jumping skills, no doubt.

I got a couple of names wrong in the last installment, as well, the first of which was calling Ryan Wilkins (a great leaper at Shen) by the last name of Wilkes—not to be confused with lean 6’3” shooter Kevin Wilkes at CCHS. I should have noted that the latter, along with fast-streaking guard Keaton Woods, and increasingly athletic Sam Clements, will be up on varsity next year for the Crusaders.

I also inadvertently called Chris Hooks of Shaker by the wrong first name (I said “Brian”, sorry…)—and he should be noted as a deadly shooter too. A similar 3-point artist is Kyle Pelozzi at Hoosic Valley, in CC ball. I didn’t mention Class D ball at all, but when I checked the T-U stats, our former Rec League center Lucas Wager (now 6’6”) was piling up a surprising amount of points for Doane Stuart in Albany, and Ballston Spa transfer Cullen Overholt was doing the same at Loudonville Christian. Among those remaining at Ballston Spa in the JV program, Nick Stassola, Matt Clark, Nick Gallo, and Dom Denofio are names you will hear in the future. I imagine the same could be said for Julian Wukitsch at Bethlehem Central, whom we haven’t seen play for awhile. And his former CYO teammates from St. Catherine’s in Albany—Owen Daniels (now at Albany High) and Dylan Tully (a great point guard caught up in a backlog of talent at Maginn) are players that could emerge into the varsity spotlight before they are through—and any of those last three are welcome to transfer to CCHS to add to our depth chart in the two years to come. I would say the same for 6’4” center Bren Haley from Saratoga, who had some brilliant moments in AAU ball in recent years, or any other big post players who might be looking for an opportunity to shine in Big 10 ball at
an excellent private school (though this is not an official solicitation!).

As my son has played either with-- or against-- nearly everyone on this list-- and named in that last article-- over the past six, seven, or eight years, we wish them all well.

And soon after posting that last piece on JV ball, Miles got the call to go up to varsity for the second and now final time. Though he misses hanging with his 2010 classmates in the JV program under Coach Foglia, he looks forward to practicing with and against a skilled and poised varsity squad which is currently third in the Big 10 as I write this. New challenges await. He reluctantly gave up his number 44, which he’s had in CYO, AAU for the past 2 years, and on JV for a year and a half, to make the move up to Varsity. When they hand you a uniform halfway through the year, you don’t complain about whatever number it is they assign you.

There is a LOT of great basketball to come in the remainder of the month of January—after I get caught up on a bunch of other subjects I will report back on some of what I’ve seen.

Take care, and here’s to keeping hoop dreams alive.

updated Jan 13th 2008

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J.V. Ball in the Big 10, as of Dec. 2007 & Best of the Class of 2010

JV ball in general is to varsity what the NBDL is to the NBA—it gets almost zero media attention, far fewer people watch in the stands, and some of the players involved will never make it up to the Big Show. These are uncontestable facts, and nothing I say or point out will change things—still, it is a proving ground for young hoopers who still aspire to appear on the high school varsity stage. As a player, you would want to do as well as you can to help your JV team to win Tournaments, and to compete favorably in your League; but the major aim is to advance to the next level, and leave JV behind. As I said to my son, I guess it’s like the challenge of video games: you have to beat one level to get to the next.

There was some prestige involved last year in Miles being a freshman who started on JV in the Big 10—even on his team that usually started at least three freshmen, since three of his school’s sophs had already moved up to varsity last year, leaving a void he gladly moved into. When his team’s skinny 10th grade center got injured early in the season, and with no one else over 6 foot tall to help out, my then-5’11” leaper of a son was often matched against bigger, stronger, more mature kids last year, playing out of position underneath. He led the team in rebounding, and more than held his own, though I felt his guard skills weren’t being used as much. Although there were a lot of painful losses against the older, larger opponents of the Big 10, he had a few memorable moments—a calm thirty-foot 3-ball to tie Albany High at the buzzer in their gym; a double-pump Maravich shot to elude a baseline double-team at home against CBA; a steal & layup plus a foul shot to help win a game early in the year… these are the things a parent remembers, whether the kid does or not.

But I wasn’t counting on watching another season of JV ball, and yet here I am doing that. The head coach’s rationale was that there were 8 returning varsity players ahead of him in the rotation, on a team expected to do very well, and he didn’t want to see Miles sitting the bench. Conversely, the JV coach wanted to keep last year’s precocious freshmen together and maybe have a winning season in a tough league, at a school where the serious-hoop ranks were lately pretty thin, and the JV boys team hadn’t won very often in the past decade.

My attitude was that I just wanted my kid to keep getting better, whichever way that was going to happen. And in the Big 10, there was still plenty of competition and challenges to go around, as I’ll show below.

THE BEST OF THE CLASS OF 2010…SO FAR

As a sophomore…JV becomes less prestigious and more ordinary; a developmental league fight for survival. The truly advanced sophs that age are mostly playing up on Varsity now, and some have been there for a year already. Taran Buie at Bishop Maginn, and Reece Jackson at Schenectady High are the most notable examples in the Big 10. The Suburban Council is laced with a few more—Mark Seager at Ballston Spa, Matt Miner at Shenendehowa, Brian Hooks at Shaker High, Mike Branch at Colonie, Justin Collen at Averill Park… all kids that Miles had competed against pretty well in the past. There are other sophs on varsity benches in AA ball who would be killing people if they were still on JV, and others like Shavar Fields at Albany Academy in Class A ball who is playing in a league (the Colonial Council) where he is already proving dominant as a 15 year old. But the guys I’ve named above are all true, legit sophomores who are contributing significantly to their respective teams after roughly one-third of the High School Hoop season so far.

Add Kameron Ritter of CBA, a key defensive stalwart as a sophomore, and Jamel Fields of Albany Academy, who reputedly is in his last year of eligibility, plus the 6’5” Raja Johnson of Maginn (who I believe is 17 or close to it) and the Class of 2010 begins to look deep and formidable indeed….especially when you include the 5 starting Bishop Maginn JV players of that age group that I’ll mention below, and a few more Big 10 kids like Mike Murray and Rich Smith at LaSalle, Josh Dennis and Max Macielak at CBA, & Tejric Boggs of Schenectady, who torched our JV Boys for 22 points back in mid-December.

There are a couple of others in the Suburban Council who deserve mention—Ryan Wilkes at Shen, and Robert Johnson at Shaker, both talented bench players on varsity-- who could conceivably be starting and starring on 90% of the non-AA teams in Section 2, or could be absolutely dominating in the B, C/CC, or, God forbid, D schools. Overall, there are 6 to 10 players toiling away in JV ball in the Big 10—including Miles at CCHS-- about whom you could say the same thing—they are just playing in a higher level league, which has more talent ahead of them in their respective schools. I’m telling you right now, for instance, that Bishop Maginn’s JV squad could outright BEAT that same 90% of the varsity squads outside of AA schools in Section 2, right now. So everything is relative, in other words, and after seeing almost two full years of serious Big 10 ball on a weekly basis, I’m telling you there is nothing even close to Bishop Maginn’s level of talent on the local scene—either JV or Varsity-- they are way ahead of their peers. And that’s why it’s a challenge to play against them.

We heard from a Suburban Council scorekeeper before the season started that his son’s team had scrimmaged Maginn’s JV, and that they had 5 or 6 kids who could dunk. How many Varsity teams in all of Section 2—outside the Big 10, especially—can say that?

A First Hand Look, Early in the Season…

I walked past that Maginn JV squad as they stood in the doorway at their gym, waiting for the freshmen game to end. They seemed to have at least half-a-dozen athletes 6’3” or taller—more size overall than our varsity—though not all of them would be factors in the game about to unfold. We could’ve used some of the guys at the end of their bench to even things out, size-wise.

They started 4 guys who were solid scorers, and one guy whose job was to cover Miles. Their center was a lanky kid who dunked on a break before the game was four minutes old— Trason Burrell, #00. In Travel ball a couple of years ago, he was a bit player, but he’d grown immensely and his game exploded upwards. He hit three 3’s in the game—rainbow shots from the corners, nothing but net. He finished with 20, as did the muscular white forward Chris Jeffers (#44), who also hit a three late in the game, to balance his inside scoring dominance. If my game stats were right, Burrell was 8 of 9 from the field; Jeffers was 9 of 12. I will say it again: these two kids in particular could play for and start on 90% of the Varsity teams in the entire greater Capital District right now. Only at a school as loaded as Maginn would they still be on JV as sophomores. Right with them in talent and savvy is Jerel Scott (#10), who finished with 15 points on 6 of 8 shooting, including three 3’s of his own. Between these top three scorers, they shot 23 of 29 by my book—how do you beat a team like that?

The other two starters were John Scurry (#31), who finished with a dozen points, and Tyrone McNeil (#23), who only scored a deuce, but kept the ball away from Miles effectively early on, when the game was still in slight doubt. This kid was grabbing rim in seventh grade when we last saw him, and Maginn had groomed him into a tenacious defender. I’m sure against other teams he might have a field day scoring, but on that day he was single-minded about staying on Miles, who touched the ball rarely in the first half—the only deuce he hit he had to triple-pump to get off the shot, and he neatly banked it in. But he got swatted once as well—which hasn’t happened to him in months.

Despite 10 turnovers against their vaunted pressure, 7 different guys scored for CCHS in the first half, while only 5 did for Maginn—that was faint consolation as we were down, 39-24, at the break. The third quarter was played almost even--(17-15) despite 8 more turnovers on our team. Miles came alive (a little too) late to redeem himself slightly with some nice drives and steals of his own, to finish with 13, but Maginn won every quarter in a 77-55 win. On the bright side, ten guys scored in the game for the losing team, some of whom had never played competition like that before. Teams in the Suburban, Colonial, Foothills and beyond still never have. Playing Maginn is akin to playing downstate’s Mount Vernon or Rice—as close as most kids in this area will get to competing against NYC-style ball, with constant full-court pressure and ten athletes coming at you in waves.

Back-in-the-Day Digression:

When I was playing HS ball, it was Philip Schuyler (of Albany) who provided that butt-kicking experience for us, while other small-school programs might have felt the same way about playing Linton High of Schenectady (home of Pat Riley, Sidney Edwards, Dave Modest, and many other greats), while for others it might have been St. Joseph’s of Albany (an almost forgotten school that former St. Peter’s of Saratoga guys always talk about) that tested you with the most urban competition. And back in the day of the late ‘50’s all through the ‘70’s, Catholic Central of Troy was counted among urban hoop heavyweights in the Capital District as well…

         But that gets the story back to Varsity ball— at the highest levels of competition—when I started out talking about JV. The fact is, not every kid who stars on the Junior Varsity level will automatically shine once they move up to the main stage on Tuesday and Friday nights.   We saw players like Raja Johnson and T.J. Jefferson light it up in JV for 28-30 points at different times for Maginn last year, and they barely get burn for their varsity this year after moving up. Will Ruetemann was a smooth and dominant 6’4” JV post player as a soph at LaSalle last season, but he was on the bench for varsity as a junior-in-waiting behind a lot of returning players for the Cadets early in the season, as was soph move-up Marquis Campbell. Corey Vance at Albany High hit four or five threes against our JV in a single half last year, and I don’t think has been given those same looks on varsity for that squad yet this year.   But before their hoop careers are through, I’d predict that all five of these guys mentioned above will make a name for themselves somehow. They were all kids who looked like they could have been playing varsity at a LOT of schools even a year ago. They all could be stars at different schools right now, but to some extent that’s the luck of the draw.
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         In conclusion, I guess I’m giving a plug for some of you fans to eat your supper a bit earlier, to show up a bit sooner, and get out to see some AA schools’ junior varsity teams play at 6 pm on hoop nights, or at least to get there early enough to catch the second half before the varsity game. You might be getting a sneak preview of what’s to come, and you won’t have to fight for your seat-space at the subsequent varsity game.

And out of the two dozen or more sophomores from the Class of 2010 whose names I’ve dropped in this article, Taran Buie has rightfully earned the most publicity and acclaim, already out-playing some of the area’s best seniors in early season match-ups. He is averaging 15.7 a game on the best team in the area, narrowly ahead of his D-1 senior teammate Shimeek Johnson, who is at 15.2 per game at the time of this writing. Buie is becoming known for his defensive prowess as well, often covering the opposing team’s star, whether it be Malcolm Austin of CBA, Brett Marfurt of Guilderland, or whomever.

It will be interesting to see who emerges, after Taran, in the next year or two as the rest of the cream of the crop of a very deep & talented sophomore class in Section 2 Hoop. I may be prejudiced by having watched a lot of these players closely since they were in 5th or 6th grade, I admit. But even after mentioning by name a couple dozen of them, I know there are some I’ve left out, as they await their turn for stardom, and their moments to shine on the big stage of high school hardwood courts.

Posted Monday, January 7, 2008