Friday, February 17, 2006

High School Powers Collide

        

On Saturday night in Cincinnati's US Bank Arena [which all 16,000+ plus seats are sold out], the #1 and #2 teams in high school hoops will face off for the de-facto National Championship.

The #1 team is Oak Hill...who have 7 players who are lined up to play Division-I hoops next year.  The best one, Tywon Lawson, will be suiting up for North Carolina this fall.   They also have a junior named Nolan Smith who is headed to Duke. 

The #2 team is North College Hill....which houses OJ Mayo, the top ranked player in the Class of 2007 [the #2 ranked player is Oak Hill's Michael Beasley who is headed to Charlotte].  His teammate, Bill Walker, is also a top-10 talent in 2007. 

Oak Hill is used to this.  They've long been a breeding ground for future college and NBA stars [Carmelo Anthony, Jerry Stackhouse, Ron Mercer].  Since they don't compete for a state championship, they are basically a national barnstorming team.  Oak Hill also beat the last Ohio prodigy, LeBron James.....twice.  NCH isn't used to this....and may have some disadvantages in this game.  Their 6-11 center has left the team and Mayo is a bit banged up.

                             

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Yo, teach... I didn't do that assignment... I had to fly to Michigan to play basketball."

In all fairness, most of these barnstormers have coaches who lean all over them to ensure that they are up to par academically.

My teams sucked, but I'd take an L in a heartbeat before I let a kid onto the court who had less than a C average THAT WEEK. As much as I love sports, priorities are priorities.