Live from Barrington RI: The St. Andrews Holiday Classic

Friarbasketball.com was back in Barrington, RI this past Friday and Saturday as several of New England’s top prep school programs were in action at the annual St. Andrew’s Holiday Classic.

On Friday night, both Ed Cooley and assistant coach Brian Blaney were in attendance to watch Kaleb Joseph and Jalen Adams from Cushing Academy, as well as Aaron Falzon from St. Mark’s.

Friar Recruits at the St. Andrew’s Holiday Tournament

Kaleb Joseph – 2014 – Cushing Academy Kevin McNamara from the Providence Journal has compared Joseph favorably to the Friars’ Kris Dunn and it is obvious to see why. Both are great athletes who use their quickness to go to the basket. While Dunn and Joseph are still streaky shooters at this point, they both have solid form on their shot with room to improve. The great thing about Joseph is that he is able to play his natural point guard position at Cushing against the best competition in the country. He is already on everyone’s 2014 top 100 list, and with two years to improve against top competition I am betting he winds up on everyone’s top 50 lists, if not higher.

Jalen Adams – 2015 – Cushing Academy The more I see of Adams the more I like him. The kid is just a player. The one word to describe his game is smooth.  A very good athlete with a nice shooting touch, he is a nice complement to Joseph in Cushing’s backcourt. By the time he is through he is going to wind up being a high major player.

Terrance Mann – 2015 – Tilton  At 6’5 I am not sure if Mann is going to wind up being a shooting guard or small forward in college, but his skills are obvious. He has a nice handle, plays above the rim, and with a good outside touch. As with most players his age he definitely needs to put on weight, but Mann is going to be a high major player and one of the top players in New England in 2015. On Saturday I felt he got the best of his matchup with fellow 2015 star Luis Monteiro from Wilbraham and Monson. The Friars will definitely need to keep a close eye on Mann going forward.

Matt Cimino – 2015 – Worcester Academy Cimino has improved all aspects of his game since last Spring. He now looks very comfortable going to the rim and has developed some low post moves. He was out in front and finished off several fast break opportunities during both games over the weekend. And I don’t think he missed one of his patented three pointers from the corner during the tournament. As a matter of fact I don’t even think he even hit the rim.  Beautiful outside shot and nothing but net all weekend.

Goodluck Okonoboh – 2014 Wilbraham and Monson   Okay, who went ahead and put Nerlens Noel in Goodluck Okonoboh’s body? All kidding aside, Goodluck has become a huge defensive presence in the paint. With both Noel and Chris Obekpa moving on to college, Okonoboh is now the best shot blocker in high school basketball. Even though Wilbraham and Monson came up short in their game against Tilton on Saturday Okonoboh owned the paint, making several acrobatic highlight reel type blocks against his former team, including a couple on Tilton star Wayne Selden. Okonoboh’s offense still needs plenty of work, but he is athletic enough that you can tell it will come in time. I do not know how involved PC still is with Goodluck, but he is going to one of the top players in the class of 2014.

Aaron Falzon – 2015 – St. Mark’s  This was my first opportunity to see Falzon in person and I came away very impressed. He has a nice shooting touch from three point range and was demonstrating this against Cushing on Friday, particularly in the first half. He also showed off his rebounding, passing, and low post skills during both of St. Mark’s games in the tournament. He is the type of player that is going to be fun to watch over the next couple of years as he improves. The key word for Falzone is “upside” which he has a lot of. Having already offered, I have to believe PC will be following him intensely over the next couple of years.

Luis Monteiro – 2015 Wilbraham and Monson This was also my first opportunity to see Monteiro in person. He did not have a particularly good game against Tilton, but you can see that the complete package of skills are there. During the game he landed very badly and was quite shaken up. That had more than a little to do with his play during the course of the game. Monteiro is going to be one of the top players in New England in the 2015 class.

Djery Baptiste – 2015 Wilbraham and Monson At 6’10 he is already built like Kadeem Batts. Baptiste did not play too much in the game on Saturday and is very raw, but he’s one to keep an eye on over the next couple of years. He just looks like a high major player and is definitely an athlete who can get up and down the court.

Mustapha Heron – 2016 –  Wilbraham and Monson  Still a work in progress, but at 6’4 already,  Heron has the type of long frame that Ed Cooley is looking for in his guards and might have the skills to one day be a point guard at the college level. Regardless, this is another name that Friar fans should keep on for the next few years.

News and Notes from the St. Andrew’s Holiday Classic

• Butler is going to be an absolute pleasure to watch the next few years with both Andrew Chrabascz and Rene Castro. Both are throwback type of players who really know how to play the game.  I only hope that one of their games each year is going to be in the Dunkin Donuts Center against the Friars in the new conference.
• The highlight game of the tournament was the Tilton-Wilbraham and Monson game on Saturday which came down to the wire with Selden sealing the game at the end with two free throws as Tilton won 63-59. This game was played at a much higher intensity level than the other games as Okonoboh was facing his old team, Tilton, for the first time.  There were a lot of exchanges and chippiness going on but the refs were able to keep it under control.
• Selden played another great game and is going to be a fine addition to Kansas next year. Selden reclassed to the 2013 class and it is obvious that it would have been ridiculous for him to return for another year at Tilton in 2014. I would expect more and more players will wind up reclassing to their original classes going forward. Chris McCullough from Brewster is the latest to reclass back to the 2013 class and I don’t think he will be the last.

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