Indiana teams making noise
The Class of 2003 is suppose to be a down one in Indiana and many complain
that the talent now is spread into too many AAU programs. Whether true
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or not, one thing is certain, Indiana based teams are making some noise the past
few days, first with unheralded Billy Shephard Sports at the Big Time Event in
Las Vegas and again here in Orlando this weekend, where three of the final
sixteen teams left in the championship bracket are Hoosier bred, including the
one that humiliated the powerful Houston Hoops program last night.
Parnell Smith too much to handle for Houston Hoops
The buzz quickly spread around the Wide World of Sports Complex last
night. Over on court 6, something was happening that was dropping jaws for
those coming by and taking a look at the scoreboard. At one point midway
through the second quarter, the score was 31-8 and the pre-tourney favorite,
Houston Hoops, was on the wrong end of it. The hurting they were getting
was being put on by none other than Spiece Central, a collection of Indianapolis
area seniors to be.
Granted Houston Hoops was a tired team after going to the championship of the
Super Showcase here last Friday where the fell to the St. Louis Eagles.
But Spiece Central had also competed there and made it all the way to the
quarterfinals, where ironically they fell to Houston Hoops. In that game
perhaps they learned something when they fought back from a big deficit to only
trail by four late in the final period before succumbing to the Texans. A
couple things they learned might have been that the Houston team doesn't fare to
well when playing against a zone and secondly, they have no answer for Mr.
Parnell Smith, who is quickly solidifying himself as a high major prospect here
in Orlando.
Smith, a 6'6 forward from Indianapolis Pike and younger brother of former
Purdue star Rodney Smith, had 27 points the first time against Houston Hoops and
21 points in last night's rematch, won easily by Spiece, 77-61. A score
actually closer than the twenty plus leads that Spiece enjoyed throughout the
game. Smith scored 13 of his points in the decisive first half. Also
helping the Spiece team get off to that flying start was 6'5 Perry Meridian wing
Austin Montgomery. Montgomery only had 10 points in the game but they all
came in the big first period when the game was decided. Also key for
Spiece was strong second half point guard play from Corey Johnson (Anderson
Highland) and Zach Decatur (Indianapolis Cathedral). When Houston started
pressing, both of those guards took it right to them, and Johnson was especially
tough in converting on the break. He had 14 second half points to end up
with 20 points on the night.
Austin Montgomery helped key the fast Spiece start
The nightmare for Houston was most lucid for Mr. Ndudi Ebi, a prime Indiana
target. With Mike Davis, Lute Olson and other interested observers looking
on, Ebi got into major foul trouble, getting his fourth foul midway through the
second period. He sat the rest of the game which contributed to the big,
fat donut he had in the scoring column. The fourth foul he picked up was a
totally unnecessary one out on the 3-point line and why he was in the game at
that particular point was a mystery other than it might have been real panic
time already given the huge deficit they faced.
The zone (2-3 and 3-2) employ by Spiece flustered the entire Houston team,
especially penetrating guard Tack Minor who repeatedly failed to convert on
drives, picking up charges on 2 or 3 occasions. The only thing going for
them last night was the outside shot and fine defensive play of Daniel Gibson,
who ended up leading them with 18 points.
Another Indiana team up next
Spiece Central now moves on to the round of 16 where they will meet another
surprising Hoosier team, the Evansville Basketball Club. Evansville is a
well balanced team led by junior all-star Kyle Anslinger. They escaped
with a thrilling one point win last night against Martin Brothers (IA).
The other Hoosier team to advance was Team Indiana/Bloomington Black.
They beat a team from Memphis last night to set up a tough tourney game this
morning against All Ohio Red, the winner of the Nike Peach Jam earlier this
month. Team Indiana is led by Sonny Troutman (Brebeuf), Brandon Crone
(Frankfort), Errek Suhr (Bloomington North), and some other fine south and
central Indiana talent. They have played as a group for several years and
placed very highly at nationals each time and could do so again if they can
survive All Ohio this morning.
Indiana prospect teams
While Ndudi Ebi's summer is over, another IU target's team did make it
through. Von Wafer and the Arkansas Wings have been perfect in the
nationals, winning all three pool games and two tourney games, including last
night's ten point victory of the North Carolina Hornets, a team that had also
been unbeaten to that point.
Later this morning the Wings and Wafer will meet up with the Georgia Stars, a
talented team that Coach Mike Davis was watching closely yesterday. The
Stars have Patrick Ewing, Jr, the 6'8 son of the NBA star and a player who has
mentioned Indiana recently. They also have another tough insider in 6'8
Rashaun Bryant, who had at one time listed Indiana. The Stars won a tough game
last night, 79-71 against Monty St. Clair and the always tough Cincinnati AAU
Red team. The Cincinnati team led much of the game before collapsing some
in the final stanza.
Another prospect here widely mentioned with Indiana is 2004 power forward DJ
White. White had a great Super Showcase here and started off the nationals
here with a bang, scoring 29 points in his opener for Mobile Challenge.
After winning their first two pool games, Mobile appeared to be in good shape to
move onto the championship tourney. Ironically they would have moved on if
they had not in the last seconds tied up their final pool game with the New
Jersey All-Stars and sent it into overtime. Because in overtime they fell
apart and lost by enough points (12), such that they got eliminated in the pool
tiebreaker since three teams there finished at 2-1 and only two teams to
advance. Besides New Jersey, Bloomington White advanced from that group as
they had defeated the New Jersey team in pool play and played White and Mobile
tough enough in their opener to get the tie-breaker nod. Bloomington White
fell in their tourney opener to the North Carolina Hornets.
While Keith Wooden and the KC Nets played here in the Super Showcase, his
team returned home this week to play in the KC Hoops Invitational. In their
opener this weekend against the Illinois Warriors, Keith had 22 points to lead
his team to a 71-58 victory.
But in the tournament yesterday the Indiana curse hit Kansas City as
well. The KC
Nets were upset, 68-64, in the quarterfinals by SYF Players, a team of
northwest Indiana players. SYF moves on to the final four today.
Another big man to take note of
Josh Boone has been impressive this week
I was impressed this weekend by the play of 6'9 power forward Josh Boone of
the Cecil Kirk team. Cecil Kirk went unbeaten threw pool play and lost a
tough battle last night against the very talented Boo Williams team. Boone
was a big reason why as he was a real presence for Cecil Kirk both inside
offensively and other end defensively. Prior to this in other internet
stories he had only been listed at 6'8 but in the program here he was listed at
6'10. He might not be that big but 6'9 might not be inaccurate.
Why bring him up? Well the Hoosiers are looking for several big men in
this class and Mr. Boone is none other than the high school teammate of incoming
Indiana freshman Marshall Strickland. Boone, like Strickland graduated
this year from South Carroll HS (MD), but he has elected to postpone college for
a year and attend prep school this winter at West Nottingham Academy (MD).
Final 16 Match-Ups
Here are today's match-ups in order
Upper bracket:
Team Indiana vs All Ohio Red
Philly Hoops Gold vs Louisiana Select
Middlesex Magic White vs Arkansas Hawks
Georgia Stars vs Arkansas Wings
Lower Bracket:
Kappa Magic vs Newark RAM
Evansville BB Club vs Spiece Central
Boo Williams vs BABC
St Louis Eagles 16's vs Tallahassee Wildcats
For scores and a printable version of the bracket in a PDF file: Click
Here
Billy Shepherd Does Vegas Right
If the performances by the Indiana teams in Orlando wasn't enough, take a
look at the run another Indiana team had at the Big Time Event in Las Vegas, the
largest tourney of the season. Billy Shepherd Sports, a collection of
relative no-names, rolled through a bunch of high talent, high profile teams on
the way to the final four of the championship tourney there, before they to the
eventual champ New York Ravens.
Along the way they knocked off heavyweights like the Atlanta Celtics and Ft.
Sooy Limit. Teams that have five or more players that might be considered
high major prospects. Observers from Vegas said that the Billy
Shepherd team simply played fundamental basketball, something not often seen in
summer hoops.
Two of their players, point guard Peyton Stovall from Lafayette Jefferson,
and 6'7 forward Matt Webster of Westfield, made the all-tournament team.
Look for both of those players now to be strong Indiana All-Star candidates and
get some recruiting interest from Big Ten programs. Whether Indiana is
interested may be too early to know, but Indiana assistant coach Ben McDonald
did reportedly watch the team closely in Las Vegas.