A prep basketball journalist's dream

The small southwest Mississippi town of Port Gibson (pop. 1,840) apparently has the state's tallest two players, one at each of the community's schools.

Jamarious Sykes, who's listed at 7-2, 265 pounds, is a senior averaging about 10 points, 12 rebounds and 6 blocks for Port Gibson High, which is 22-3 and No. 4 in The Jackson Clarion-Ledger Class 4A rankings entering this week's Division 6-4A Tournament at Forest Hill.

David Hahn, 7-0, 245, is a senior at Chamberlain-Hunt Academy, where he's averaging 28 points, 15 rebounds and 8 blocks for the Cadets, who are 17-6 and No. 5 in The C-L Academy AA rankings entering this week's South AA Tournament at Copiah.

Man, to be so lucky to see two 7 footers in high school play on a regular basis.
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090210/SPORTS06/902100335/1287/SPORTS&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL

 

Jamarious Sykes is 7-2 and scores 10 points a game in high school. He must really suck.

He probably doesn't have to leave the ground when he dunks.

 

That's what I was thinking, too, mustang.

Also, this is so not my dream. I could care less how many 7-foot-plus kids I cover. Give me coaches who don't spew cliches, kids smart enough to be a good quote without trying and at least one competitive game per week and I'm set.

If you want a wealth of boys basketball talent, try a visit to the Seattle area. Lots of the country's top boys battle each other week in and week out over here.

 

There are more bad, unathletic, untalented 6-foot-10 to 7-foot basketball players playing at a high level than probably any other cross section of athletes in any sport ever.

 

During my junior year in high school when I lived in Maine, the starting center was 6-foot-3. His backup was 6-foot-1. The next year, the school had a 6-foot-7 starting center.

I once played in a two-on-two basketball game against the 6-foot-3 guy who had a 5-foot-11 teammate. My teammate was 5-foot-9. The 6-3 dude starts going "we need to double team forever_town." I'm like "dude, I'm not scoring." He goes, "you're getting all the rebounds." I was 5-foot-7 on a good day.

 

7-footers are nice, but give me a 6-foot-8 kid who's comfortable in his body over an awkward 7-foot-2 kid everyday of the week.
And Ducky is right. On the preps front, all I want are coaches who are open and honest, and allow for access that leads to good features and stories.

 

when I saw this threat title, i was thinking that the ultimate dream is for all the prep basketball teams you cover to get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round (or not make the playoffs) ... but that's just me...

 

Doesn't mean shit if they don't have a guard to get them the ball..

 

Sykes started his prep career in my area. In reality, he's the least talented of the four Sykes siblings (Joe committed to Louisville as a junior, but ended up at Louisiana Tech; Jarius helped lead North Hardin to the state tournament semifinals; James was an automatic double-double at 6-6).

Jamarious was 6-11 as a freshman and couldn't get off the bench in a seven-team area which had very few players taller than 6-6.

 

I don't see what's so dreamy about having two footers in your area. You still have to cover the games, you still have the same deadlines, you still have to get good quotes, and a meeting between two footers is only necessarily interesting the first time it happens.

 

no, a prep basketball journalist's dream is a running clock and no fouls.

 

I'll take the autistic kid making the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer every time.