This tournament served as a coming out party for Shabazz Napier a year ago, as the sophomore sensation put on a scoring display throughout the weekend and won the co-MVP award with Oklahoma commit Andrew Fitzgerald (Brewster). A rare feat for an underclassman.
Notable Providence targets expected to play include:
Napier (Lawrence Academy), Angel Nunez (Winchendon), Khem Birch (Winchendon), Naadir Tharpe (Brewster), Ricky Ledo (St. Andrew's), Andre Drummond (St Thomas More), Alex Murphy (St. Mark's), Kaleb Tarczewski (St. Mark's), Vince Van Nes (Northfield Mount Hermon) and PC commit Ron Giplaye (Notre Dame)
Looking for star power? Will Barton (Brewster-Memphis), Nate Lubbick (St. Mark's-Georgetown), Derrick Wilson (Hotchkiss), Jason Morris (Hotchkiss-Georgia Tech), Eric Ferguson (Winchendon-Georgia Southern), CJ Fair (Brewster-Syracuse, JJ Moore (South Kent-Pitt), Russ Smith (South Kent-Louisville, and Marus Kennedy (Winchendon-Villanova) will be in the house.
Underrated players include Anthony Ireland (Winchendon-Loyola Marymount), Hector Harold (Northfield Mount Hermon-Pepperdine), Melsahn Basabe (St. Mark's-Siena)
Featured Games:
February 4 - Giplaye and Notre Dame Prep make the first of their two appearances in the tournament versus Canarias Basketball Academy (5:45pm)
Prep monster Brewster Academy faces the impressive backcourt of Derrick Wilson and Jason Morris in what could be an outstanding game in the 7:15pm tilt.
February 5 - Perhaps the best day of the tournament for PC fans has Brewster (Tharpe) in the second game of the day, followed by St. Thomas More (Drummond), then Notre Dame Prep at 1:30, St. Andrew's at 3 and what might be the most interesting game of the day for Friar fans with Winchendon (Angel Nunez, Khem Birch) taking on St. Mark's (Alex Murphy, Kaleb Tarczewski) at 4:45.
February 6 - On Saturday Giplaye makes his final appearance of the tournament while PC takes on Marquette and then Napier debutes at 2:30.
February 7 - Super Bowl Sunday is highlighted with a string of games involving the biggest of the big time PC recruits. Andre Drummond plays at 11, Ledo plays in the next game at 12:45, Birch and Nunez are next at 2:30, and Napier plays in the 4 o'clock game.
While there are a number of PC targets identified, what makes this tournament most interesting is identifying under the radar kids. A year ago PC fans wrote of how impressed they were with Giplaye and he was a Friar commit five months later. Chris Gaston and Hassan Whiteside exploded last year and Doug Gottlieb is talking about the 6'11 Whiteside as a one and done kid out of Marshall now.
Given the chance to see Giplaye, Johnnie Lacy, Vincent Council, and Gerard Coleman at last year's tournament provided a real glimpse into the future of Friar basketball and my hope is this year's Invitational is just as informative.
For more information, here is the website for the tournament. http://www.nationalprepinvitational.com/
