Live from Barrington, RI: Hoop Mountain Roundup

The annual Hoop Mountain Prep Showcase took place this past weekend at St. Andrew’s in Barrington RI. This event was an opportunity to see some of New England’s finest prep school talent as well as a chance to watch some of PC’s recruiting prospects in person. Friarbasketball.com was able to take in some of the action on both Friday and Sunday. Listed below are some brief recaps of potential Friar recruiting targets in addition to other news and notes from the tournament.

Friar Recruits at Hoops Mountain

Kaleb Joseph – 2014 – Cushing Academy.  On Friday night Joseph  had a great game against Marianapolis Prep, particularly in the first half. All his talents were on display including his great athletic ability (with several great dunks), his ball handling and his shooting (which is still a little streaky). Joseph came down to earth in the second half, but it was still a top notch performance for one of PC’s primary 2014 recruiting targets. Joseph was on the PC campus for the Mal Brown scrimmage and hopefully he will be at the Dunk for a couple of games this season.

After seeing Joseph on Sunday afternoon the Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara compared him to Kris Dunn, while noting that PC’s staff was in pursuit.

Jalen Adams – 2015 – Cushing Academy.  Adams is a freakish athlete, but his position is a bit murky at this point. At 6’0 he really needs to be a point guard at the high major level, but right now seems more of a shooting guard. PC has offered and  he is still very young, so if can develop into a point guard the sky may be the limit for him.

Jared Terrell – 2014 – Brewster Academy.  Terrell had an off game (for him) on Sunday when Brewster played Worcester Academy. His outside shot was not falling and he had a couple of sloppy turnovers, but you can still see the talent is there. At 6’3 his best position is at SG but he will have to develop a more consistent shot. He is probably 220 pounds with great jumping ability and is a real bull when he drives to the basket.  Terrell is more of a freakish athlete than a complete basketball player right now, but there is still plenty of time to improve his outside shot.

Kevin Zabo – 2014 – Brewster Academy.  Zabo had a solid, if unspectacular, game against Worcester Academy, but he did nail a jump shot with a second left to give Brewster the win.

Matt Cimino – 2014 – Worcester Academy  Cimino’s outside shot was on display against Brewster as he nailed several corner jumpers including a catch and shoot jump shot that was passed to him around his ankles. He is going to be a prototype face up four at the high major level.  Matt is 6’10 and rail thin, yet he did not back down at all against Brewster’s more physical inside trio of Chris McCullough, Kyle Washington, and Elijah Macon.

I was unable to catch Goodluck Okonoboh and Wilbraham & Monson play against Cushing on Sunday as after  attending the Prep Classic on Friday, the Friar Day/Night basketball/hockey doubleheader on Saturday and back to the Prep Classic on Sunday I simply ran out of gas part way through the Tilton-Bridgton game (by the way my early prediction is that Wayne Seldon from Tilton is going to be a one and done at Kansas).

News and Notes from St. Andrew’s

• The Friar staff was out in force all weekend. On Friday night Brian Blaney was in the house watching Kaleb Joseph and Jalen Adams. On Sunday Ed Cooley, Bob Simon, and Andre LaFleur all took turns watching the action.
• Providence was far from the only school represented at the Classic as Jamie Dixon, Brad Stevens, and Steve Donahue were all in attendance.  Stevens’ saw Butler commit Rene Castro go off for Worcester, scoring 32 points in nearly leading an upset of Brewster.  Worcester controlled the second half before faltering late, thanks to the outstanding play of Castro.  Many readers may know that in the movie Hoosiers the Indiana State High School Basketball Finals took place in Butler’s arena. I can’t think of anything more appropriate as both Castro and Andrew Chrabascz (Cushing) are throw back players from another era who could fit right in on the Hickory team depicted in the movie. They are not great athletes, they just play great basketball.  They will be fine additions to Stevens’ program.  Brewster versus Worcester was the best game I saw all weekend, despite shaky officiating ruining the flow down the stretch.
• The Sage Gymnasium at St. Andrew’s is a great place to watch a basketball game. The St. Andrew’s team plays a very high level of prep basketball and I would highly recommend that if you like basketball you take in a game at some point during the season. Another big event is coming up in two weeks when St. Andrew’s holds their annual Christmas tournament more details on the teams involved will be posted as it gets closer).
• The mix tape guys were out if full force (Crusader 22, Ballas TV, HoopDreams Magazine, 2EZ Videos etc.)  so we should have some great mix tapes to share with the readers shortly.  And The Basketball Diary was there on Sunday so we should also have some full game videos of Sunday’s action to share with everyone.
• Chris McCullough from Brewster Academy is going to be scary good. Ten years from now if he keeps developing he may wind up being a better pro than both Andre Drummond and Nerlens Noel. Syracuse has a real gem in this 2014 power forward
• Faces in the crowd did not just include college coaches. New England Playaz, Expressions Elite, and the Mass Rivals AAU programs were all spotted in the crowd probably looking for potential players and well as watching their own current players.
• Also spotted in the crowd were Kevin McNamara and Bill Reynolds from the Providence Journal. It is nice to know that they are not just sports writers but are basketball junkies as well. I imagine it really helps when you love the sport that you cover.

Email Craig at craig.leighton@friarbasketball.com

7 Comments

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   JMC

   December 7, 2012 at 8:11 pm

   With Chris McCullough off to Syracuse, the friars may have a better chance at Goodluck- who I think is much more althletic than Noels-
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