Elite level prep hoops: WGAF?

[Starman]

As we speak on one of the ESPN+ channels, IMG Academy, "ranked #11 in the country," is playing LaLumiere Academy, "ranked #22."
The game is tied at 48 going into overtime. There are maybe 100 people in the stands.

Vigorous jacking-off gesture.

 

[tapintoamerica]

I keep waiting for Overtime Elite to show up on TV. And then I remember they don't have a deal to air their games live and -- remarkably -- they still don't appear to need it.
In general, however, expletive national TV of sports-driven pseudo high schools.

 

[maumann]

I'm now 13 miles from the IMG campus in Bradenton and unless 91-year-old Nick rises out of his hospital bed and gifts me with a free round of golf, I'm not pretending to care one whit.

 

[jr/shotglass]

A kid from suburban Lancaster spent a few years at IMG in middle school, came back to lead his friends to a district title as a sophomore last year ... and went back to IMG.

I guess if you're treating HS basketball like a job, or an end to a means, that's the way to go. But I bet the kid would have enjoyed his HS years a lot more had he stayed home. And anyway, he's good enough that he'll be able to write his own ticket in two years.

 

[rtse11]

The inconvenient truth is anyone who wants to play high major is playing at an academy or at the least, a national AAU summer schedule.
College coaches want these kids ready made to play significant minutes as a first-year player.
No one from the Hickory Huskers, or South Bend Central, for that matter, is getting a look from Duke or Kentucky.

 

[User 149557]

La Lumiere is in the town my wife went to high school. She went to the public school. She said sports at LaLu were a complete afterthought even in the late 1990s. She left to go to D.C. after college and she came back to find it a basketball factory.

 

[HanSenSE]

Does Bishop Sycamore have a basketball team?

 

[cjericho]

Montverde beats both of these teams by 20.

 

[playthrough]

Montverde beats both of these teams by 20.

My first newspaper job was in Leesburg, Florida, and Montverde was in our coverage area. Was a nothing-special-whatsoever small school that when you divvied up the writer assignments on a busy game night, it would be lucky to get a stringer. That was a verrrry long time ago but I still shake my head at what the place has become for basketball.

 

[cjericho]

My first newspaper job was in Leesburg, Florida, and Montverde was in our coverage area. Was a nothing-special-whatsoever small school that when you divvied up the writer assignments on a busy game night, it would be lucky to get a stringer. That was a verrrry long time ago but I still shake my head at what the place has become for basketball.

Kevin Boyle is a very good recruiter/coach. Went head-to-head with Bob Hurley. Hurley kind of felt Boyle was more of a recruiter than coach.
Back when Hurley started and probably through the 90s, every kid on St. Anthony was a Jersey City kid. But times change. At St. Patrick's
Boyle looked outside of Elizabeth for players. He gave kids from other cities a chance to play with other real good kids and against other real
good kids. He always said Hurley was a guy he looked up to. Hurley is a great coach and a great guy for all he did for so many kids, but think
he was a little bitter toward Boyle because Boyle built such a dominant program.

 

[Webster]

Is someone forcing you to watch? It isn’t exactly new that kids go to elite schools for hoops and there have been HS hoops and football on ESPN in the past.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Is someone forcing you to watch? It isn’t exactly new that kids go to elite schools for hoops and there have been HS hoops and football on ESPN in the past.

It rubs me the wrong way, too. I can't think of one elite prospect in this area over the past decade who has decided to stay with his hometown school through graduation. There's something lost with that.

 

[Starman]

Montverde beats both of these teams by 20.

Who gives a ****? They're U21 semipro teams. All of them.

 

[sgreenwell]

It rubs me the wrong way, too. I can't think of one elite prospect in this area over the past decade who has decided to stay with his hometown school through graduation. There's something lost with that.

A little bit, but as someone who watched the rare talent go through Rhode Island basketball from time to time - If it was my kid, I wouldn't want my 6'6"+ kid getting tackled in the paint nightly by the football linebacker turned center. When there's a clear talent gap at the high school level, the worse team usually just wants to muddy it up. I also doubt there's much skill development going on if you can just easily shoot over 5'10" PGs.

 

[Starman]

A little bit, but as someone who watched the rare talent go through Rhode Island basketball from time to time - If it was my kid, I wouldn't want my 6'6"+ kid getting tackled in the paint nightly by the football linebacker turned center. When there's a clear talent gap at the high school level, the worse team usually just wants to muddy it up. I also doubt there's much skill development going on if you can just easily shoot over 5'10" PGs.

Well, if your 6-6 son can't light up the scoreboard on converted football linebackers, he ain't playing D-1 anyway. And if your 5-11 to 6-3 guard son can't learn to dominate against 5-6 to 5-10 high school opponents, he ain't playing at big time schools either.

 

[Webster]

Players have always congregated to elite schools for sports, especially hoops. For example, the Catholic schools in the NY area have dominated in hoops for years because they recruit. These schools in Florida have just taken it up a notch.

 

[cjericho]

The 6-6 kid, who may play the 1 or 2 at a top college, isn't gonna get any better posting up overmatched 6-1 kids in the paint.
NYC and NJ public schools can't recruit to the extent the catholic and prep schools do, but it's been at least a couple decades
since kids have been forced to go to the public school in their neighborhood.

Would've been interesting to see St. Benedict's if Dan Hurley didn't want to be a college
coach. Would think they'd be right there with Montverde. They're top 5 in the nation in
soccer every year.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Is someone forcing you to watch? It isn’t exactly new that kids go to elite schools for hoops and there have been HS hoops and football on ESPN in the past.

And on this case it’s not even on ESPN. It’s one of a million streaming options on ESPN+.

 

[sgreenwell]

Well, if your 6-6 son can't light up the scoreboard on converted football linebackers, he ain't playing D-1 anyway. And if your 5-11 to 6-3 guard son can't learn to dominate against 5-6 to 5-10 high school opponents, he ain't playing at big time schools either.

I don't mean he's not going to light it up - I mean the linebackers are going to take his legs out when he jumps for dunks or just hack him anytime he gets into the paint. Any kid with a size or speed advantage in most HS basketball leagues, it's like how Shaq used to be called in the NBA.

 

[User 149557]

I watched LeBron’s teams absolutely blow the doors off elite teams on ESPN and then struggled once when I covered him with a small-school public school in the state tournament that had two twins who only played in the MAC. And then he lost a state title game to a much less talented private school out of Cincinnati. I think he got bored at times, but he was so good ai don’t know if level of competition really mattered to his development as a player. No player at the high school or college level was going to guard him.