NPSI Day I

Quick hits on a somewhat uneventful opening day for Friar targets.

Day I

Friarbasketball arrived just in time for the start of Ron Giplaye and Notre Dame Prep's beatdown of Canarias Basketball Academy.  Canarias is an interesting story, their coach Rob Orellana spent 15 years coaching D1 basketball and opened the Academy in the islands in hopes of developing young basketball players overseas.  I was intrigued to see what the school produced in hopes that Providence could score the occasional overseas big man, but it became apparent early on that they weren't on the same level as ND.  The game turned ugly quickly and nothing new was learned from Giplaye's efforts that hasn't been written about previously.  Ryan Hurd played his backups for a majority of the 2nd half.

Hotchkiss and Brewster in the 7:15 game featured a matchup of star junior point guards, Naadir Tharpe and Derrick Wilson.  Wilson, built like Baron Davis, is an aggressive lead guard who Prepstars has ranked in the top 40 nationally.  I caught him a year ago in Springfield, loved his game, and was looking forward to seeing him again.

The hope here was that Wilson and Georgia Tech-bound wing Jason Morris could keep Hotchkiss in the game, and while Wilson outplayed Tharpe on this night, Brewster had a 30 point lead mid-way through the second half as another rout was on.

Tharpe was credited for 13 assists, but his impact on this game seemed minimal when the game was still in question.  He didn't shoot well or score much, but seeing as it was a 30 point blowout I was willing to overlook a lackluster effort.

Syracuse commit CJ Fair was terrific, in what would become a trend over the first two days.

The night cap featured New Jersey's NIA Prep (Shaquille Thomas) taking on a very good Westwind Prep team out of Arizona.  Thomas was surprisingly outstanding from 18 feet.  Bo Barnes impressed for Westwind.