A New Superstar Center for the Connecticut Huskies

by Joseph Jagde⁽¹⁾

I was at the IS8 basketball tournament for the last 4 games of 6 for the day in the tournament in the quarterfinals. Game 5 was the highlight, featuring the Playaz with a Philadelphia let contingent and the Connecticut All Stars. The big surprise was Hasheen Thabeet from Tanzania who had played this year in Texas. He just graduated from a Cypress H.S in Texas where he just played one year and looked an athletic 7’3. He might have even been 7’4. As the game wore on, it became quite noticeable that there didn’t seem to be any point in the game when he wasn’t blocking shots. The least he could have had is 20 blocks, which included several sequences of 2 or 3 in a row. Probably one of the reasons for this was that he was continuously challenged as he was playing against great players who were up for the challenge of taking it to the hoop. Wayne Ellington hit a floater from the corner over his outstretched hand and looked very happy to have achieved this. At the same time, with these All American's finding his presence on the court to be a challenge, he overall just blocked on shot after another. His footwork was excellent and the key was that he seemed to have excellent timing and lateral movements and quick and nimble feet. He looked very athletic and strong. He was playing against a team that had Wayne Ellington, Gerald Henderson, and Earl Clark, three of the top 20 seniors in the country. On offense, he hit some step back baseline jumpers, and a cadre of resounding dunks. After the game the other players were crowding around him congratulating him on his performance. I first saw him in between games and I thought he was a visiting pro. He looks and plays the part of a great player. A pro comparison would be Dikembe Mutombo as the player I would say his style resembles. Ron Naclerio the coach of Cardozo high school was sitting in front of me mesmerized by the performance he was seeing. This reaction coming from the seasoned high profile NYC high school coach who has sent several players to the pros tells you something of Hasheen's exploits on the court.

For Connecticut, who had 4 signees with Uconn on their roster, Jerome Dyson scored 33 of the first 39 points. He had an array of powerful drives, double clutching down the lane and converting with the opposite hand or just rising in the lane for dunks in traffic. If he wasn’t doing this, he was hitting jumpers from 25 feet. Even when they started to double team him, he still got in on his drives and was able to shake off as many as three defenders in getting to the rim. His dunks were of the high lift variety. He was basically stopped by foul trouble, as he had the difficult job of trying to contain earlier in the game, all American guard Wayne Ellington who looked as comfortable as ever in swishing threes with only an occasional miss or converting on difficult wide angle drives. At only 6'5, he seems to have the reach and extension of someone much taller. He really knows how to set himself up for threes off the dribble if necessary. Earl Clark at 6’10 and considered a top 25 player in the class of 2006, can play an inside outside game and more gives the look of a big guard on offense and a power forward on defense. He never found a good rhythm on his outside shooting but showed an alert game on defense. I hadn’t seen him previously and would reserve judgment on his outside shot. He sees the court well on offense.

Doug Wiggins, looked great going to the basket in the second half and had more of a point guard style within this game. In one sequence, he went full court where he looked like he was lightening quick weaving like a great football running back. He has great ability to finish his drives in the lane. It looks like he has a reliable jumper once he gets warmed up as well.

Stanley Robinson from Alabama, also heading to Uconn and considered top 20 nationally did not get as involved in the offense, He did weave his dribble nicely full court several times and passed well, and showed great extension on his dunks. But it may have been the case where he just didn’t get the ball as much.

In other games I observed, Larry Davis, headed to Seton Hall, is a very strong almost classical one on one player, especially side to side with some great spin moves and turnaround jumpers of the in your face kind. For the most part, he looks like a pure shooter as well. He made some alert passes out of his one on one drives in finding cutters for easy buckets. He plays confidently but also has a fairly relentless style both on offense and defense and maintains intensity throughout the game.

Mike Glover, a strong 6’7 forward from New York, looked like a mini Karl Malone at times. It wasn’t so much his numerous dunks on the baseline but more that he had nimble feet, and a nice handle for mini drives down low and good adjustments as he was shooting unto the defense on leaning layups. I was surprised about how good he was as he doesn’t get that much press.

Devin Ebanks looked tremendous at times on offense and is an exciting player to watch, he looks like he would do really well in a running style offense with his acrobatic finishes on the break and in the lane on a number of occasions and a good pull up midrange game, He also took a number of quick release 3 pointers and was on and off with this. but you can see he has nice deep range on his jumper. At 6’8 he handles the ball very well and often dribbles coast to coast.

Justin Burrell headed to St. John’s looks to be a good rebounder defender as advertised but also has good offensive skills. His jumping ability was noteworthy, one dunk that he missed had the crowd in near disbelief, he seemed like he was almost 3 feet above the rim in rising over several defenders, as spectacular a missed dunk as you are ever going to see. . He also had an opposite hand alley oop dunk off a full run and really runs the floor and could fit in with a fast break style offense and he also seems to play the half court set proficiently as well.

Nick Murphy of Our Savior Lutheran was also impressive. A 6' 5 lefty, he rally's the team, on both offense and defense, and has a nice touch on runners in the lane or sweet jumpers from outside.

Malik Boothe from Christ the King H.S. is a tough NYC point guard. He knows when and where to pass the ball. He is never going to lose the ball. He protects the dribble as well as anyone I have seen. He jells well with big time players. When he decides to score he generally goes in for soaring drives and has a good outside shot as well. He is undersized at about 5'8 but is as tough on the court as you will find. He is only entering his senior year in high school and if he does grow a bit, he will be an elite recruit for the big time.

It was also good to see, as hard as these players played, in moments of excessive contact that was incidental, there were some excellent displays of sportsmanship.

Article submitted Monday, June 05, 2006 & read 531 times.

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» left by lilian payne from columbus, oh (5 years 308 days ago.)

thabeet graduated from cypress high school in Texas not California
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