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Tues Morning and Afternoon Notes from Nationals

By: Brett Blevins

Kyrie Irving got the day started off scoring 21 points against the Louisiana Lightning, 15 of which came in a huge third quarter.  Kyrie is silky smooth and can get to where he wants to on the floor at any time.

A nice surprise on Kyrie’s New Jersey Roadrunner’s team is a young man named Khalil Murphy.  Murphy is a 6’7 3/4 man that has decided to reclass and improve to get some more D1 attention.  He had received interest from Western KY and New Orleans before the decision to prep for 2010.  Khalil will look at schools like Notre Dame Prep, Fork Union, and Hargrave Military.  He has a big body which allows him to play on the block, but is more of a 3 in terms of skill set. 

Tawaski King, 6’8 forward in the 2010 class, turned some mid-major heads today, scoring 15 points in the 1^st half against the Memphis Stallions.  King paced his Georgia Stars team by knocking down midrange and turnaround jumpshot after jumpshot.

Speaking of the Memphis Stallions, they also have some good-looking mid-major players that turned some heads.  Chris Jones, 5’11 PG, is lightning quick and loves to get out in transition.  A major theme of the game was Jones driving, drawing, and dishing to his running mate Brandon Wright.  Wright is a 6’5 wing with tremendous leaping ability.  He showed ability to finish around the rim with authority off the catch and off the glass.  Wright, a lefty, also stepped out and knocked down a few jumpers. 

One of the best games of the day saw the NY Gauchos defeat MBA Elite in overtime.  Overall it was a sloppy game, but nonetheless very hotly contested.  The Gauchos were paced by smooth guard Doron Lamb, whose list remains the same.  MBA Elite was led by 6’8 lefty John Harris.  This game had, by far, the most coaches in attendance of Tuesday’s early session.

Austin Rivers had the performance of the day knocking down 10 3-point field goals, on his way to a 34 point effort in front of his dad Doc Rivers.  I got a chance to catch another quarter in a second game and Rivers continued his hot shooting, knocking down 3 more 3’s.   We got a chance to catch up with Doc and he said his son was motivated after a poor performance yesterday. 

I continue to be impressed with Derek Smith All-Stars point man Elisha Justice.  Scouts want to knock him on his size at 5’8 but the kid can flat out play.  He may not overwhelm you scoring the ball but he does everything you need him to do.  His handle is very tight and he can defend.  It looks like he added 10 pounds of muscle to an already strong and quick frame.  Justice is also a good leaper at his size and can really elevate to hit his pull-up jumper. Morehead St. is definitely in the mix for this kid, other D1’s should take notice. 

I got a chance to catch up with Damontre Harris, one of my favorites in the class of 2010, and not only because he is a very polite kid.  Damontre is a VERY long 6’8 who runs the floor well.  In the game we watched he hardly touched the ball but he never let that affect his approach.  He continued to block shots, rebound, and run the floor like he was going to get rewarded after the game.  I asked him after the game how he stays involved when he isn’t getting touches, and his answer was simple, “Play Defense!”  Got to love that.  He said that South Carolina and VCU have offered, with Wake Forest, Tennesse, in Florida recruiting him hard as well.  He plans on visiting Florida while down here and has enjoyed visits to South Carolina and Wake Forest already.  He has no set time table for a decision and is still open to hearing from other schools. 

Tonight we will watch and try to catch up with standouts from BABC, Boo Williams, Jacksonville Lee Bulls, Squires Richmond, amongst others.  Stay tuned to Hoopsreport.com for the latest!