A bit of an abbreviated version due to holidays and a Monday night game.
Commits
Darius Morris
Windward cruised through the Windward Classic with wins over Sierra Canyon (56-39), Cleveland (51-38), Price, and Vista (76-62). More scouting from commenter WTHEF:
Darius’ team won their own tournament by beating Price on Friday (not sure on score – they were up about 15 heading into the 4th) and Vista on Saturday, 76-62. Darius made the All-Tournament team – Denzel’s son, Malcolm was MVP which would be akin to Grady being called our MVP of the non-conf season. While you could see Darius’ ability on Wednesday – he was finishing those same moves on Friday against Price. I would guess he ended up with 20+ points.
In the Championship game they played Vista who I saw destroy a team Wednesday, 74-36, and was fairly merciless in doing so. They have 2 very athletic guys that are 6’6 and 6’4 and a fast 5’9 guard that can fill it up from deep – 24 on Wednesday and 19 on Friday. Darius was primarily covered by the 6’4 guy and had responsibility for covering the 5’9 guy – who ran him all over the court. He stayed with him though and held the kid to 5-17 shooting and 12 points (most of which came when Darius wasn’t in the game). They were running a lot and Darius often led the break and made some nice passes – several to their 6’5 sophomore forward, Wesley Saunders – who did a great job of finishing and had 19 points at the half. In the second half, Darius asserted himself more offensively – mainly with drives to the hoop and he finished with 21 points. The highlight of the game was a brilliant alley-oop he threw to UCLA-bound teammate, Anthony Stover for a nasty dunk. The PA announcer called it as “Michigan to UCLA for the alley-oop” – quite a bit better than the “the Wright stuff” call that we are used to in Ann Arbor.
After having seen Darius play in three games now – my thoughts are similar to when I saw him the first time. He is an excellent ball handler and distributor. When he drives he is looking to pass but with his size, he is effective at finishing. He is athletic and acrobatic in the air and makes some difficult finishes look easy. He has a great looking shot and plenty of range from 3. I only saw him take 2 shots in the 3 games that weren’t from 3 or within 3 feet of the basket, so he might need work on his mid-range game. My guess is its more of a function of him being able to get to the basket at will so there is no need to pull up. He picked up a couple offensive fouls that I think had more to do with the level of the competition (ex. setting a screen he knocks over a 140 pound kid and the ref calls it). I would have also liked to have seen him dunk the ball on the break or when finishing (he had only one dunk attempt – it went off the back off rim). For his athleticism, I wonder if he isn’t a great leaper or it could be that he needs to get back into basketball shape – or just he prefers to lay it in. I think the upcoming tournaments against top competition – Max Prep and Pangos Classic – will reveal more about his game.
Matt Vogrich
Matt Vogrich led Lake Forest through a couple of easy wins over Mundelein (72-52) and Stevenson (57-33). Matt had 26 points and 8 boards against Mundelein and also led Lake Forest with 14 over Stevenson. Don’t miss the Matt Vogrich scouting report from posted last week.
Lake Forest is 7-2 thus far and has the State Farm Holiday Classic coming up after Christmas.
Blake McLimans
Worcester had a busy week that included a win over Tabor Academy as well as a big upset of St. Marks. McLimans had 13 points including three triples in the 65-41 win over Tabor.
Worcester just edged St. Marks and former Michigan recruit Nate Lubick in a 90-87 thriller. 2010 shooting guard target Austin Carroll added 29 points (5 threes) in the win over St. Marks. Blake posted 8 points in the game while St. Marks stars Erik Murphy (Florida) and Nate Lubick (Georgetown) posted 26 and 20 respectively.
Worcester is on break over the holidays and won’t be in action again until 1/10/09.
2010 Targets
Moses Morgan
Trey Zeigler
Mt. Pleasant went 0-2 this week but Zeigler still put up solid numbers. Trey had 26 points, 15 boards, and 3 assists in a 62-56 loss to Gaylord on Tuesday. Thursday night in a 76-63 loss to Saginaw Heritage Zeigler managed 28 points and 7 boards including 20 points in the second half.
Alex Dragicevich
Dragicevich is the newest wing on Michigan’s radar (see Rivals article $). The big two guard is a smooth player with a sweet stroke who attends the same high school as Duke’s Jon Scheyer.
Highland Park resorted to a box-and-one to shut Alex down on Friday and managed to hold him scoreless for the first quarter but Glenbrook North won the game 49-23. Dragicevich had only 8 points (short of his 24 ppg average) but added 8 rebounds.
Tim Hardaway Jr.
In a 4 point win over Miami Dade Hardaway Jr. had a monster game including 20 points with 4 three pointers and 15 boards. Hardaway Jr. also had 8 points including a triple in a 61-41 win over Miami Springs.
Palmetto plays next in the Hoopla @ Vero Beach on 12/27.
Cameron Ayers
Ayers had a quiet week with 9 points in a blowout win over Hatboro-Horsham.
Allen Payne
Payne had 13 points in Winton Woods’ 68-47 win over Harrison High School.
Michael Talley
Talley is a bit of a plan B for the class of 2009 but Mike Talley III had a monster game this weekend. Talley posted 44 points and 8 assists for Melvindale ABT in a 87-49 win. The issue with Talley is that he is still limited by his 5-9 size.
Will Regan
Nichols was off this week but will be back in action 12/27 at the NHSCA High School Basketball Festival.
2011 Targets
Brandan Kearney & Percy Gibson
The Southeastern duo took on Detroit Community and Providence bound big man James Still. Kearney played a typical all around game with 6 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals but it was Percy Gibson who stole the show:
Gibson was quiet for most of the first half but he came out in the second half aggressive and went right to work. The 12-0 run in the second, in which Gibson scored 7 straight, was the difference maker in the game. Gibson’s dunk was impressive- he squared up, took two hard dribbles, and elevated right over his defender for the two hand slam. The sophomore finished with 9 points and 8 rebounds.
Gibson and Kearney are only sophomores but are clearly establishing themselves as some of the top 2011 recruits in the state.
Matt Poches
The sophomore scorer had a solid week leading Hartland to two wins. Poches had 12 points and 10 rebounds in a 76-53 win over Adrian. His big game was Saturday against Dexter, Poches scored 27 points including 13 in the first quarter of a 82-58 Hartland win. Hartland got out to a 35-10 lead thanks to three early triples from Poches who also pulled down 12 rebounds.
