I traveled to Delta College in Saginaw / Bay City for the Dorian Styles Dawkins "Show Your Heart Memorial" classic on Monday and saw some good talent both known and unknown. The First game was the best. It featured top teams in Class C with #1 rated Detroit Consortium playing #3 rated Flint Beecher. Detroit Consortium was coming off a very impressive victory Saturday over College Prep Summit Academy, who beat Detroit Country Day earlier in the year. Consortium again came out on the winning end of this one and remains unbeaten with a 74-69 victory in a good high school basketball game. Consortium is a young, talented and deep team that should find themselves in East Lansing in late March. I had heard of talented sophomore Vince Hunter and 6'10 Junior Center transfer, Matt Willms, but I had not heard of Devondre Peoples (Jr) or Travon Baker (Jr). Peoples, with 11 points and 12 rebounds was named the MVP for the game. What I like about Peoples is that he is a player that flies under the radar but can surely fly. He is 6'5 but plays much taller than that, very long, always around the glass and can get up in a hurry. He was a defensive distraction to Beecher on a number of driving lane shots. He also had a big one handed dunk off a miss late in the 4th quarter. Despite all this and the recognition for the MVP, I personally felt it should have gone to Junior point guard Travon Baker. This kid is a nice player. He is their floor General and at 5'11 a true point guard. He is quick, handles the ball well with either hand, goes as good to his left as his right, creates off the dribble and is not afraid to dish off on penetrating to the hoop or shoot the ball from the outside. He got a little frustrated with the Beecher zone press in the first quarter but settled down and figured out the press. He finished with 15 points for the game and only 1 turnover that I was aware of. Not to be outdone, his older brother (in the audience) participated in a half time half court shot contest and cooly sank one on his first shot to win a gift card to Applebee's - I think I heard Dad say his son was treating for dinner that night). Hunter is another talent on this loaded team. He is a 6'5 sophomore with a lot of raw skills and potential. He led the team with 21 points and if not for a double technical near the end of the game may have been awarded the game MVP. He has quick feet, long reach, shifty with the ball on the dribble, a good slasher and gets to the glass on both the offensive and defensive side. He has a low arc tight outside shot but with good rotation. He hustles but I noticed that he got lost and caught out of position at times in the zone defense. He definately has the skills to play at the D-1 level but must work on his ballhandling and outside shot to be a High D-1 recruit. He reminds me of a young Alex Legion. It was tough to really gauge Matt Willms as this was his first game eligible and played limited time. He did not start and did not get in the game until the 3:43 mark of the second quarter. In all he played less than a quarter and picked up 3 fouls but did show signs of talent. He had a nice behind the back pass to Hunter for a jam in the 3rd quarter. He runs the floor extremely well for his size. He is all of 6'10 and has good footwork, good form on his shot and can use both his left and right hands. When he starts getting more playing time, I don't see anyone touching this team. Their only archilles heal would be if Baker gets in foul trouble. They do not have another floor leader like him on this team that I saw. I realize this sounds like Consortium ruled this game when in fact they did not. Beecher was up to the task and was led by their talented gangly 6'0 guard, sophomore Monte Morris. On this team he plays point and the number 2 spot. This kid is poised beyond his years. He is a real good passer off the dribble, he protects the ball well. He goes equally to his left and right and may be stronger with his left hand. He is not afraid to take it down the lane and gets to the hole well. He is not exceptionally fast but does have a deceptive quick step and can get by his defenders. He takes long strides and just looks so natural with the ball in his hand. He and Cha Cha Tucker (East Lansing) are the top 2 rated guards in the state. I am not sure which one is better, they are both real good but if Morris keeps growing I think he gets more looks from better programs. He led the Bucs with 21 points on this day. Beecher had a 23-21 lead after the first quarter where Morris kicked in 10 before Consortium took back the lead with a 40-34 lead at half. They built it to 58-44 after 3 quarters before Beecher made a run at them and closed it to 73-69 with 28 seconds and the ball. However Morris missed a shot when he got caught too far under the basket and Consortium closed it out with the 74-69 victory. Junior guard (quick) Antuan Burks had 15 for Beecher including 3-3 pointers. Beecher plays good team basketball, is well coached and will make a run at getting back to Breslin where they were last year but it all depends if they have to go through Detroit Consortium to get there or be fortunate enough to play them again in the semi's. For now Consortium remains #1 and for today this team was too big, too deep and too talented for Beecher.
The second game featured Thea Bowman Academy out of Gary Indiana vs. Dearborn Heights Robichaud. Once again there was D-1 talent on the floor. Bowman ended up winning this one, 84-70 and touted a very good talented Junior, DeJuan Marrero, who is rated the #18 Wing Forward in the country for the Junior class. This 6'5 kid is big, solid and has strong upper body strength. He had 32 points, 3 power dunks and was very effective posting in the lane and powering in or putting on quick spin moves to attack the basket. He goes hard at the boards and is active around the glass. His outside shot is suspect but he makes up for it with his ability to create space from his defender due to his strength. This Bowman team also featured 4 freshman and 6'5 Justin King is one that I would keep me eye on.
For Robichaud, I came to see 6'9 Khaliq Spicer (Jr) and sophomore Lorenzo Bonnam. I walked away very impressed with Bonnam. Already at 6'4 and looking like he is still not done growing, I like this kids skill sets. Bonnam ended up with 19, while Spicer finished with 15 (8 of which were off dunks). Bonnam reminds me a lot of a larger version of Anthony Crater (Flint Southwestern). He handles the ball well from both sides, glides with the ball, slices to the basket, controls his body extremely well in flight, another one with long strides and has an exceptionally good left hand for a righty. He has nice form on his jumper and a soft touch but I did not get a chance to see many long range jumpers in this game. Flipping to Spicer, definately has size and athleticism and nice form facing the basket from within 10 feet but not real sure about his hands. He did not work hard to get open and did not call for the ball a lot. He was not very active on the glass and was out of position on a lot of rebounds. Was not anticipating on the defensive end enough for me for a big guy down low. definately has skills but needs to work on a few things.
The final game was a Big Surprise, I was expecting a game between Chicago Orr (who beat Detroit Country Day) and Saginaw but all I got was a big dose of SAGNASTY and I mean NASTY. Saginaw came out with high energy and took it to ORR and buried them gangster style leading 86-43 with 3 1/2 minutes and still pressing when I left. They were firing up three's and for all I know could have hit the century mark.
This one was over early and the Mychael Henry (Illinois) that I saw drop 42 on DCD was a no show for this one. Henry only scored 2 in the first quarter and suffered from cold outside shooting all game. After they were down 23-15 at the end of the first quarter, he became visibly frustrated with the lack of calls and fouls that he thought he and his team should have been getting. In the first quarter the fouls were 7-1 against Orr. Saginaw came out with their full court trap press and it
forced and hurried Orr into poor shots. This game got away as Saginaw raced to 26
2nd quarter points and a 49-30 lead at half. Orr folded the tent with 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and trailing 56-30 when Chicago ORR pulled their starters for the rest of the night. Unfortunately for them Saginaw continued the party on the floor. This was a completely different team than what I saw against Lansing Eastern on Saturday. I talked to one of the players before the game and he mentioned that they had some sick players that night. Perhaps McCune was one of them because he sure looked healthy and came out aggressive in this one. He scored 6 points early and probably had close to 10 rebounds for the game. The player that impressed me the most and who's stock is rising is Senior Marquavis Ford. This kid has another motor and is high octane. He does not stop moving and as he drives, penetrates and creates, he opens it all up for the rest of the athletes on this team to get them some. He is a much better guard than I gave him credit for. He is fast with the ball and as he goes, so does Saginaw.
I traveled with my sports jockey (wife) and it was well worth the trip to see some of the young talent in and around the state and some of the better teams. Watch for my new rankings at the end of this week. Till the next blog, your Basketball SNOB is out.
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