I caught the last 3 games of the afternoon at IS8 this Sunday the 8th of October and the last 3 games Saturday the 7th of October.
Both days, the Metro Hawks featured a roster of superstars from the South, including all everything forward, 6’9 Ed Davis from Benedictine High School in Virginia who is widely regarded as in the top 10 nationally in the class of 2008 and as high as the number 4 player in the country on one major listing. Also, from the Washington D.C. top 25 guard Chris Wright was on hand for the Metro Hawks as well as LaMarcus Holt, an athletic 6’8 forward from Florida who will be prepping at St. Thomas Moore in Ct. this fall. With the Metro Hawks was Devin Ebanks as well to round at a roster that basically included three of the top 25 players in the country nationally.
In two games I saw the Metros play, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, each game involved runaway scores so there was no question of needing clutch baskets to win the game. They scored 144 points as a team on Saturday afternoon, quite a total for a high school game. Chris Wright from Washington D.C. rated in the top 25 nationally in the class of 2007, in that game conducted his own personal layup drill easily weaving thru defenders and getting right to the rim with balanced moves in the air. Between both games, you can see he has great hands, like the great NFL football receiver and he just dips easily and often into the lane at will with a touch of savvy. He dunks if he wants to but most often just floats layups. Maybe one in 5 of his shot attempts is an outside shot, and you do wonder if he can have that sort of ratio in college, where the D will be tighter in the paint and he will have to bring his game more to the outside on offense. Although he did display a good outside shot here, his overall style was not for the outside game. He has great fakes, and also passes well although he does have the score first mentality. He seems a lot stronger than most. Georgetown may be the favorite for his college choice and he has subsequently committed to Georgetown.
Ed Davis, high touted from St. Benedictine’s in Virginia, and a top ten recruit nationally from the class of 2008, has a very sweet lefty quick release jumper at 6’9. The name he brings to mind is Bill Russell especially with regards to his long arms and picture perfect form on the lefty jumper with a beautiful release on his shot. He handles and passes. He dunks basically without jumping, advantaged by long arms. Overall, he presents as having a very smooth style on the court combined with a surges of power.
Devin Ebanks, also know in the top ten nationally in the class of 2008, is now 6’9 as well, he has a nice inside outside game which both present as dominating. He is an acrobatic leaper who at the same time also just hardly jumps for a dunk. He handles and passes like a lead guard at times and shots all the way to half court effectively. He has a very long first step and finishes quit well in traffic with excellent balance and reads of the defense. If there are NBA scouts snooping around, I bet they like what they are seeing now and I would say Ebanks is a possible right to the pros guy in that his game seems to excite at every level and he has a fastbreaking style to go with the requisite skills. Marcus Holt a 6’8 athletic power player, from Florida, displayed combativeness down low with a decent outside shot. He is particularly adept at blocking numerous shots and is relentless on defense, and isn’t going to let up and he also hits the boards hard.
In other games over the weekend, Samardo Samuels led the Shooting Stars to a relatively easy victory over a team that had Dino Gregory a top 100 player who is a Maryland commit. Gregory did block a couple of Samuels shots, but as the game wore on, Samuels either dunked or finished in the paint at will. He is also a very proficient shot blocker who will block first, then second and even third attempts in sequence sometimes hard against the backboard. He also showed he can lead the break as well. Mequan Bolding filled aptly on the wing, either spotting up for 3’s that swish the basket or finishing on the break for one layup and or dunk after another. He converted three taps in a row, which is quite unusual and indicative of a shooters touch right there. Dino Gregory from Maryland, and another Southern visitor for the weekend showed a nice consistence mid range jumper.
Miles Beaty from St.Anthony’s in New Jersey, committed to George Washington, passes well, is a presence on the court, handles, leads and finishes on the break, but he does take a number of long threes, most of which he misses long. He seems to put too much arch on the ball which just misses the high ceiling.
Aston Gibbs, a soph from New Jersey considered top 25 nationally, played well, but was more of a fit in type player in these games and really didn’t look dominant, although he has a good pull up jumper in the defenders face and plays one on one outside.
In the last game Saturday, Boys and Girls played St. Mary’s. I was again really impressed with Zamal Dixon, who really holds up the whole game under intense defensive pressure, getting into the lane for spectacular dishes or connecting on the baseline in heavy traffic or with in your face jumpers on the outside. He also leaps quite well.
On Boys and Girls is Kyree Sutton, who at 6'8, runs and jumps, sees the floor and seems to have a lot of potential to go with his height.
In the game against the Metro Hawks, Tom Dowling from South Side High School in Long Island was quite impressive in rocking the defenders on the outside, weaving thru 2 or 3 defenders and finishing with spectacular underneath lay-ups against big time defenders. He did this about 5 times, and the moves were nearly at pro level, just isolating on these 5 moves. I am not saying he is a pro, but for these 5 times where he rocked the defenders and finished in heavy traffic, he looked like an NBA player.
The last game Sunday was a hotly contested battle between Holy Cross and the Bad Boys from New Jersey. It was a dogfight for the first 3 quarters of the game and Holy Cross only pulled away in the later part of the 4th quarter,. The Bad Boys were quite tough with in your face D and were led by John Holland who also scored well and Zack Rosen from New Jersey who is being recruited by Rutgers and Seton Hall and is said also to be interested in Stanford as he has a 3.95 average. He showed he can hit the deep jumper consistently, and deliver the rock on the run, I thought he could have asserted himself more on offense given how effective he was when he did but again he was playing the point.
Sylvan Landesberg put on a show for Holy Cross. He had 50 points against great defense against the Bad Boys from New Jersey well coached by Ed Wilson. He is has an awesome handle for someone 6’6 and in high school, and leads with his left hand despite being righty most of the time on his dribble and plays one on one from the backcourt to the frontcourt in adroitly holding on to his dribble despite being checked all over the court. He either spins into a Jerry West like jumper off the dribble or slides to the rim and he also can hit high rising floaters in the lane quite well. He also makes some excellent long passes.
I would compare him to Tiger Woods as an athlete who has that intuitive intelligence for the game combined with a relentless intensity coupled with keen awareness to make adjustments in the game itself.
Disappointingly, the Philly Ballers who were 2 and O, forfeited two games and didn’t get there until 5 o’clock, with a newly stacked roster that included the Morris twins, the players looked quite disappointed, I didn’t get the details as to what happened but the Metro Hawks filled in for them at the 3.45 game against the Good for the Neighborhood team from Long Island. The scheduled game for 1.l5 with the Metro Hawks, which would have been a dandy, was a forfeit as well and no game was played in its slot.
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