• While he hasn’t even started his sophomore year at PC yet, Vincent Council has now played with two NBA draftees: Lance Stephenson at Lincoln (NY) and then with Hassan Whiteside at the Patterson School (NC) who both went in the 2nd round on Thursday night.
• As Adam Finkelstein noted in my interview with him last week, the hiring of Chris Driscoll would not only open up a pipeline with BABC, but with other Nike programs – most significantly the New Jersey Playaz. The Playaz might be the top AAU program in the country, featuring ESPN top 100 players Myles Mack and Myles Davis, in addition to big man Derrick Randall, Vaughn Gray, and two-sport star Keith Lumpkin. Isaiah Epps, Fuquan Edwin, and Ronald Roberts also played for the Playaz a year ago. The program has seen a number of stars over the past five years including Wayne Ellington, Gerald Henderson, Rick Jackson, Earl Clark, Corey Raji, Mike Rosario, Dominic Cheek, and Chris Gaston. Would the hiring of Driscoll expand PC’s efforts outside of New England, while keeping them strong locally? Time will tell.
• Sticking with the New Jersey theme, Shaquille Thomas was very impressive at the National Prep Invitational in February playing for a NIA Prep team that defeated eventual National Champion Brewster Academy (they were 2-0 against Brewster this season) and took out a Westwind Prep (AZ) team that competed in the National Championship in March. NIA Prep had around eight D1 prospects and Thomas was among the most talented. Not billed as a great shooter early in his career, Shaq seemingly didn’t miss from mid-range against Brewster and looks to be a solid athlete. He’s bounced around a few high schools, but seems to have found a home at NIA Prep where he says he is getting more 1:1 attention scholastically.
• Interesting to note that ESPN now ranks Mike Carter-Williams 25th in the country for the class of 2011. The kid has had his share of local detractors for some reason, but for my money ESPN/Scouts Inc. does a better job than anyone at ranking prospects. Jim Boeheim must have known what he was doing when he accepted a verbal from Mike last fall.
• Had a chance to see the team scrimmage recently and got my first look at Dre Evans and Brice Kofane. Kofane looks more like a small forward and is raw offensively, but he really gets after it on the defensive end. He outworked everyone on that side of the ball, but was less of a help defender/shot blocker and more of an on-ball defender on this day. Have to see more of him protecting the rim to get a true sense of what type of defensive impact he could have here, but he was at least very willing to get after it out to the perimeter and beyond. Evans shoots a quirky, slingshot jumper that consistently went in during warm-ups, but not as much during the game.
• Kadeem Batts is a better athlete than I realized. He looks all of 6’9, with a great body, and really gets up and down the court well. Would have loved to see him as a 15 minute per game energy guy backing up Bilal Dixon and Greedy Peterson in his first season, but he might get thrust into big minutes now that Peterson is gone. Looks to have the highest upside out of any of the young big men and should really benefit playing with a push point like Council.
• Speaking of athletic big men, Khem Birch is now ranked 3rd in the country for the class of 2012 according to ESPN. Dying to see how Birch and Angel Nunez look at Notre Dame Prep this season under Ryan Hurd.
• Home games against Rutgers, DePaul, South Florida, St. John’s, Cincinnati, and a Notre Dame team that lost a lot of talent this year? There are some winnable games in there for the Friars. Will the crowd have much of a reaction when Pat Skerry returns to Providence?
