Pickin' Splinters

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Trabs Gabs: Summer Update

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Zach Harris Scott (24) will make the move from UPrep to East High this school year. (Photo: CHRIS ROACH)

By MATT TRABOLD

Enjoy this update on what this past summer entailed for just some of the notable teams and players from our area.

Aquinas Institute: The program whose home is Wegman-Napier Gymnasium was always poised for an upswing this upcoming season after the promise displayed last year by the sophomore group of Steven Mahar, Justin Johnson, Ruben Torres and 6-foot-10 Tyler Warner. The best basketball summer this time around out of anyone from that group might belong to the 6-foot-7 Mahar. While playing for one of the City Rocks 16U teams and the Rochester BCANY team over the past few months, his aggressiveness, confidence and consequent consistency experienced a sizable increase.

Bishop Kearney: Kevin Goode Sr. and his staff saw a very talented senior class move on from the school after this last school year came to a close with Shykell Brown, Jamal Fennell, Kevin Goode Jr. and 6-foot-6 Jordan Love moving on. Brown is now manning the floor general spot for the postgraduate team at Mount Zion Christian Academy. Yes, it is the same Mount Zion that molded Tracy McGrady. In late August, the leading scorer for the Kings last season in terms of total points in the high-flying AJ Gray opted to continue his scholastic basketball career at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania.

VIEW MORE CHRIS ROACH PHOTOS HERE.

You might ask about which dude will be the next top option for this storied program. That answer could easily be 6-foot-5 Miles Monchecourt. Miles might just be the best-kept secret in Section V boys basketball coming into this season. He sat out from high school basketball competition in this area last year after playing on the Pittsford Sutherland JV team two years ago, so he could lace them up for the Kings this season. Gray did something similar recently when coming over from Irondequoit. Over the past couple of summers, Monchecourt has certainly made a name for himself on the grassroots basketball side of things with the City Rocks organization. When arguably the best dribbling coach in the world in Tyler Relph put on a basketball clinic here last summer, Miles was one of the main two big men that Relph worked out at it. The other one was a behemoth you may have heard of: Isaiah Stewart. With that being said, Monchecourt is listed as a guard in many places despite that solid height. The Pittsford Sutherland swap, rising junior guard Michael Gentile and sweet-shooting Miles Rose will make up a very strong core for this side this upcoming season. With plenty of production probably coming from Miles and Miles this upcoming campaign, Bishop Kearney will play to the tune of a particular song by The Who: “I Can See For Miles.”

 

 

Update: One of the very best players for Aquinas Institute last season in Kidtrell Blocker has also found a new Section V home with the Kings for this school year that is just getting started. On top of being one of the standouts at the 2018 University of Buffalo Elite Camp, Blocker impressed for that same City Rocks 16U team that Mahar was on to the tune of posterizing multiple defenders on a baseline drive at one point and scoring 33 points in a single game at RUMBLE in the Bronx 2018.

 

East High: The Eagles could easily be back to their historic clout this year. Top option Chaz Washington is going into his senior campaign. Also slated to return for East High are thorough contributors Maurice Coney, Kaori Barley and lengthy Kni Jear Sapp among others. Behind Washington though, the top players to watch for this group this upcoming season could be a couple of proven commodities in this area coming over from other schools. That would be a pair of 6-foot-5 rising junior cousins sopping with promise in Zach Harris Scott and Dyllon Scott from University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men and Penfield, respectively. The former really came into his confident own down the final stretch of last season, especially as those Griffins fought all the way to the sectional title game of the highest classification. Zach Harris Scott has played grassroots basketball this summer with 585 Bobcats, alongside the likes of Jalen Rose Hannah from Eastridge, Tony Arnold from Eastridge and DeAndre Newsome from Greece Athena. At the 2018 GymRat CHALLENGE, Scott and Hannah picked up Honorable Mention honors.

McQuaid Jesuit: One of the very best stories in Section V across the board last school year was the manner in which McQuaid Jesuit won a boys basketball sectional title in the highest classification with a little run in state postseason play on top of that after seeing its imposing starting frontcourt from the season prior in Isaiah Stewart, Thomas Jones III and Cam Wilson move on. The Knights will be doing a little more rebuilding this season based off of quality rather than quantity. With Divine Williams being sidelined for essentially all of last season, this program only loses a pair of rotation players. That number may seem low, but the shoes of Anthony Iglesia and Josh Purcell will be hard to fill, especially those of a definite Rochester area bastion on and off the court in Iglesia. Rising junior Kobe Long looks poised to slot over to the floor general spot after being a productive off-ball backcourt player since he was a freshman in the program.

 

When he was not hitting game-winning heaves in the Section V summer league at East High, he was blazing a relevant path this summer for the same City Rocks 16U team that Mahar and Blocker played for on top of the deep Rochester BCANY team that he was one of the top two options for with Miles Brown from Northstar Christian. Long ended up getting named to the 2018 BCANY Summer Hoops Festival All-Tournament Team.

Kobe Long (foreground) was named to the 2018 BCANY Summer Hoops Festival All-Tournament Team in early August. (Photo: PAUL GOTHAM/PICKIN’ SPLINTERS)

Monroe: Speedy, confident and established point guard Devante Mateo returns with Jo-Nathan Jones in the backcourt there. With the batch of forwards for Matt McCormick and his staff graduating Chris Gibson Jr. and Jonathan Jones from a season ago, there should be an even bigger emphasis on said backcourt in the near future. The near future and more distant future of this program will get a boost by the school recently building a new home basketball gymnasium, which is affectionately being referred to as “The Hive.”

 

These Red Jackets had been playing their home games at John James Audubon School No. 33. Mateo played at a very high level in the Gus Macker 3v3 in a tournament that featured a second team of other current Section V stalwarts, including University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men talisman Jakhi Lucas alongside a trio of Wilson Magnet Wildcats in Robert Davis, Brennan Clark and Desi Floyd.

Robert Davis (11) is the RCAC’s career active scoring leader with 1,279 points. (Photo: PAUL GOTHAM/PICKIN’ SPLINTERS)

Northstar Christian: After four seasons already of varsity boys basketball productivity at Northstar Christian, twins Miles Brown and Michael Brown are finally both entering their senior season for the Knights. While it seems a little unfathomable to say, those two might actually see their roles expand this upcoming campaign due to the graduation of the reliable supporting cast of Tray Roberts, Matthew Medeiros and Daniel Pickett. Miles and Michael both represented the Rochester area at the 2018 BCANY Summer Hoops Festival within the last month. Miles recorded double-digit scoring outings all over the place down in Johnson City at that event, which led to him joining Kobe Long on the all-tournament team for it. The best performance down there for the slightly taller Brown twin was a game-high 22 points against the Adirondack side with top 55 Class of 2020 recruit Andre Jackson, Yale commitment Gus Mahoney and the one and only Joe Girard III. Miles did not get as much playing time for the City Rocks 17U team in the 2018 Nike EYBL season as fellow Rochesterians Isaiah Stewart and Gerald Drumgoole, but he did drop nine points on a trio of triples in just twelve minutes of work against Mississippi Express MEBO Team Hood, overseen by current Cleveland Cavalier Rodney Hood, back on April 29. On top of that, Miles had a bigger role and production level on that team in some of its events later in the summer after the Nike EYBL season wrapped up, including the Hardwood Classic in Kansas City and Lawrence.

University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men: Yes, Zach Harris Scott is a sizable roster loss. This summer has also seen a former star pogo stick for the program in Jabez Thomas, who sat out much of last season for the Griffins, pick his next destination in scholastic basketball in the form of the more traditional high school team at Mount Zion than what Shykell Brown is now playing on down there. That landing spot comes after he was linked with Olympic High in Charlotte two and a half months ago. Luckily for new head man Demond Stewart and his staff, springy 6-foot-2 KayShawn Ross is set to make another massive jump in production as a junior. Ross was also on that Rochester BCANY team that reached the title game of the tournament early in August. Like Miles Brown, Ross scored in double figures against the illustrious Adirondack side as well. Hey, you cannot forget about Jakhi Lucas. This is his team now, especially after the graduation of a great mix of perimeter prowess and vertical athleticism in Elroy Clark. Kani Lagree and Christian Jefferson-Edwards will be looking to become more than role players this year.

//A mention also has to be made of the Rochester Area Players Stars 17U team winning the 2018 AAU Basketball National Championships last month at the Disney/ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. The current Section V players on that squad were Keith Slack of Gates Chili, Connor Taylor of Avon, Mitchell Carr of Hilton, Colton Dillon of Elba and Justice Smith of Lyons. A teammate of Carr at Hilton in Tah-jae Hill wove yet another monster grassroots basketball season this summer for the City Rocks organization, this time for their 16U EYBL team. It earned him a Division I offer from Bryant. Also, Pittsford Mendon rising freshman guard Kidder Lindley was selected last month for the prestigious CP3 Rising Stars National Camp in Greensboro, North Carolina put on by Chris Paul. Recent Section V talents to get invited were Isaiah Stewart, Robert Davis of Wilson Magnet, Shamire Broyld of Honeoye Falls-Lima/Rush-Henrietta and Slack. If Kidder gets placed on the varsity boys basketball team for the Vikings this season, he will make up one half of one heck of an intriguing inside-outside duo with 6-foot-5 Daniel Cook. Lindley was on the JV team over there as an eighth grader last season. Miles Rose of Bishop Kearney was additionally picked for the camp.

 

SECTION V IN DIVISION I UPDATE

Anthony Lamb—Jr., Vermont (Greece Athena)
In a foreign exhibition trip for Vermont men’s basketball earlier this month to Montréal, Lamb arguably proved that he is undoubtedly back to full strength after missing seventeen games last season due to a foot fracture. He scored eighteen points and a team-high nineteen points against the University of Ottawa and McGill University during that excursion, respectively.

 

Emmitt Holt—Sr., Providence (Webster Schroeder)
It was a very pleasant surprise to some that Holt was able to play with his Friars on their foreign exhibition trip to Italy this month after a situation that required abdominal surgery kept him away from the team, and even the Providence College campus as a whole, for most of the last year. After sitting out the first game on it, Emmitt had a very promising and long-awaited return to action the next time out for the squad against the Adriatic Sea Dragons as he recorded seven points, a team-high eleven rebounds and two steals. Him banging down low for double-digit rebounds is probably more impressive than if he went for double-digit points in his first game back with the specific type of surgery he went through.

Webster Schroeder alum Emmitt Holt (15) was able to play with his Providence Friars on their foreign exhibition trip to Italy this month after abdominal surgery kept him away from the team, and even the Providence College campus as a whole, for most of the last year.(Photo: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports)

Nahziah Carter—So., Washington (Bishop Kearney)
For the second summer in a row, Nahziah played in the star-studded summer league in Seattle put on by much respected NBA guard Jamal Crawford, The CrawsOver. He did not just play in it. He starred yet again. While playing for the Kitsap Admirals, Carter was no stranger to double-digit scoring performances and double-digit rebounding performances in the league. In one game against a team boasting current San Antonio Spur Dejounte Murray, current Houston Rocket Marquese Chriss, former NBA veteran Spencer Hawes and former NBA veteran Martell Webster, Nahziah went for a game-high 33 points and seven rebounds.

 

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