by Charley Rosen, NBA Analyst
foxsports.com [excerpt]
May 4, 2010 — Forget about Boston’s Big Three. Rajon Rondo was the driving force that propelled the Celtics’ thoroughly convincing 104-86 win in the Cavaliers’ corner of the world, and evened their series at one-all…
Still, there’s no question that the Celtics’ leading man and best player is Rondo — 5 for 10, 19 assists, 13 points. For sure, Rondo can sometimes play too fast and try to force the issue, hence his six turnovers. Plus, his jumper continues to be unreliable. But his speed and quickness are explosive, he’s extremely creative when he’s challenged after zipping into the lane, and his court awareness seems to expand game by game…
Click here to read the full article at foxsports.com.
by Ken Tysiac, Staff Writer, The News & Observer
February 24, 2010 – The text message delivered to Nolan Smith’s cell phone two weeks ago didn’t say much, but it was exactly what the Blue Devils’ junior guard needed to hear after Duke’s win at North Carolina.
“Get in the gym,” the late-night text read.
It came from Michael Beasley, Smith’s childhood friend and Miami Heat forward who was the No. 2 pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. Short, direct messages such as Beasley’s have helped spur Smith to overcome the struggles of his sophomore season to become the ACC’s fourth-leading scorer at 17.9 points a game.
Quick-witted with an eager smile, Smith remains close with his childhood teammates from Upper Marlboro, Md., and from his high school days at Oak Hill Academy.
Click here to read the full article at newsobserver.com.
by Steve Aschburner
NBA.com
January 26, 2010 — Three or four players and a few civilians were left in the Milwaukee Bucks’ locker room late Saturday night when the relative quiet was pierced by the sound of someone going all “American Idol” in the shower. Turns out, it was Jerry Stackhouse’s baritone echoing off the tile and down the hall, singing a tune no one instantly recognized but making known his presence that began with Milwaukee just five days earlier.
Bucks guard Jerry Stackhouse is still shaking off the rust after his long NBA layoff. Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty ImagesEager to fill the void created by shooting guard Michael Redd’s latest season-ending knee injury, seeking to replace some of the scoring and experience that Redd provided, the Bucks reached out to Stackhouse. Never mind that the long-ago North Carolina star had played in just 10 NBA games since the end of 2007-08 and none at all this season in what was looking more like a forced and endless furlough than any official retirement. The Bucks knew Stackhouse — general manager John Hammond had been with him in Detroit, coach Scott Skiles actually played with him for a season in Philadelphia — and felt he had something left in his tank.
Click here to read the full article and interview with Stack at NBA.com.
by Norm Wood, Inside Recruiting
hrvarsity.com
January 24, 2010 — For a guy who thought he’d only be spending about five to eight minutes per game on the floor while wearing the uniform of the nation’s most elite prep boys basketball team, this season has been an eye-opening experience for Keith Hornsby.
As it turns out, he has evolved into much more than just a garbage-time player for Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, a town in southwest Virginia. He’s a legitimate sixth man as a junior. Though he’s still waiting for the bigwigs from programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East and Southeastern Conference to take notice, he knows he’s at least on the radar map — by osmosis, if nothing else.
“There are such great players on this team, so I just naturally get so much better, and my confidence rises, too,” said Hornsby, who is a former Hampton Roads Academy student and the son of Grammy Award-winning musician and Williamsburg native Bruce Hornsby. “My shots, my driving (to the basket), my ballhandling have all gotten better, but especially my defense. With having to guard these guys, that’s the main thing that’s improved.”
Click here to read the full article at HRVarsity.com.
by Courtzide Seatz, Correspondent
bleacherreport.com
Some prep schools are renowned for academic excellence, feeding universities with bright, well prepared, intellectual students. These institutions are highly respected for their positive influence on their pupils, providing them with the all of the necessary tools to become highly successful adults.
While Oak Hill Academy in Virginia is certainly one of these elite schools and offers a rigorous curriculum, it is more well-known for its boys’ basketball program.
Players with ambitions of being recruited by top-flight college programs often transfer to Oak Hill Academy for their final years of high school in hopes of being discovered. It is renowned for outputting high quality athletes and provides them with the national exposure needed to be discovered by the NCAA’s top programs.
Throughout the years, Oak Hill Academy has seen many notable alumni walk down its halls, and has educated some of the most well known NBA players in the last 20 years.
Click here to read the full column and view the slideshow of bleacherreport.com’s “All-Oak Hill” team.
MitchMash: Diener saw Brandon Jennings show coming
by Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
(excerpt)
I was hyperventilating over Brandon Jennings, of course, and his third-quarter cremation of an entire NBA franchise.
Brandon Jennings averaged more than 38 ppg at Oak Hill Academy.He made 12 consecutive shots and scored 29 points from every spot on the court — driving right-hand spin shots (he’s left-handed), pull-up jumpers from the foul-line, an assortment of 3-point bombs — fadeaways, catch-and-shoots and pull-ups.
The 6-foot-1 rookie point guard for the Bucks did much of the same in the fourth quarter and, despite going scoreless in the first, finished with 55 points, three off the rookie record held by the most dominant player in league history, Wilt Chamberlain. Yes, that Wilt who once averaged 50.4 points per game.
(Read the complete story at MaxPreps.com.)
Foreign correspondence prepped Jennings
by Dan Wetzel
In his first career NBA game, Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks scored 17 points, grabbed nine rebounds and handed out nine assists. He was within a couple plays of joining Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson as the only player to ever record a triple-double in t heir NBA debut.
Brandon Jennings nearly became the first player since Oscar Robertson to have a triple-double in his first NBA game.The next night, in leading the Bucks to victory, Jennings led the team in scoring with 24 points.
Prior to last weekend, Jennings had been known as the trailblazing young player who boldly decided to skip college to spend a year in an Italian pro league developing for the NBA.
Now he owns one of the best starts to an NBA career … ever.
(Read the complete story at Yahoo! Sports.)
Hoops Notes: Storied Oak Hill tips season Saturday
by Jason Hickman
The NBA’s 2009-2010 schedule isn’t the only basketball action tipping off this week.
At storied Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) head coach Steve Smith’s Warriors begin their 39-game odyssey that will include contests in nine states Saturday night against Central Carolina Academy.
The Warriors, 40-1 a year ago with a trip to the National High School Invitational finals, have already scrimmaged against Hargrave Military Academy (Chatham, Va.) and Stephen’s Prep (Raleigh, N.C.). Smith is upbeat about what he sees.
“I’m optimistic. We are playing better than I thought we would this early in the year,” Smith said. “We are not as deep, but I feel good about our top six or seven.”
(Read the complete story at MaxPreps.com.)
The Hard Way
Diminutive point guard Jennings has taken a long and winding road to the NBA.
by Gary D’Amato of the Journal Sentinel
After signing his rookie National Basketball Association contract worth nearly $4.5 million with the Milwaukee Bucks, Brandon Jennings could have walked into any dealership showroom in the city and driven away in something that said he’d arrived.
(Read the complete story at Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.)
At the Top of the Hill
Head coach Steve Smith gives SLAM a inside look at his famed program.
by Franklyn Calle
There isn’t much around. Just grass and hills. No malls. No movie theaters. No fast food restaurants. Basically nothing. But these isolated hills lying on the borders of Virginia and North Carolina have been home to many of the NBA’s most prominent players. This is where they spent their winters, working out in a small gym in the middle of nowhere.
(Read the complete story at SLAMonline.com)
ESPN — For the second straight day ESPN RISE FAB 50 No. 1 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) played a sluggish opening half. And for the second time the Warriors delivered again in the last 16 minutes, toppling No. 4 St. Benedict’s (Newark, N.J.), 74-66, Saturday in the semifinals of the ESPN RISE National High School Invitational at Georgetown Prep’s Hanley Center. Lamont “MoMo” Jones scored a game-high 22 points and Keith “Tiny” Gallon added a double-double, with 13 points and 14 rebounds as OHA (40-0) extended its win streak to 46 games, bridging two seasons. The Warriors will battle second-ranked Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) on Sunday at 3PM (ET) on ESPN in the title game after Findlay overtook Montrose Christian 60-43. Montrose’s only previous two losses came at the hands of the Warriors. Click Here to Read More, View Photos & Watch Video
ESPN — What started as a first-half standoff turned into a second half blowout for top-ranked Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) in the opening round of the inaugural ESPN RISE National High School Invitational. Doron Lamb scored 26 points and Lamont “MoMo” Jones netted 10 his 20 points in the decisive third quarter as the Warriors crushed Pinewood Prep (Summerville, S.C.), 83-64, Friday afternoon at Georgetown Prep’s Hanley Center. Pinewood’s Milton Jennings recorded a double-double, with 24 points and 12 rebounds. The Warriors play again Saturday at 11 a.m. ET (ESPN2), against St. Benedict’s (NJ). Pinewood, the four-time South Carolina Independent Schools AAA champion, finished 29-6.
Read the Full Story on ESPN.com
In its third decade of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in partnership w/ESPN RISE, today announced that Keith “Tiny” Gallon of OHA as its 2008-2009 Gatorade VA Boys B-ball Player of the Year. Gallon is the 7th Gatorade VA Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from OHA.
Gallon is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys basketball player of the Year award to be announced in late March. Gallon has signed a letter of intent with the Univ. of Oklahoma. Gallon joins other past OHA Gatorade VA Boys B-Ball POY winners Brandon Jennings (07-08), Nolan Smith (06-07), Tywon Lawson (05-06).
The Warriors victory over nationally-ranked Montrose Christian on ESPN2 last week, combined with a loss by Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) has propelled the Warriors to #1 in two of the nation’s top high school basketball polls — ESPN Rise and PrepNation.com. The team also moved up to #2 in the USA Today rankings.
The Warriors are scheduled to close the season the first week of April at the star-studded, ESPN-televised National High School Invitational outside Washington, D.C., a tournament that includes several top-ranked teams and may determine the nation’s top team.
Warriors’ Coach Steve Smith was named this week as the Naismith Boys’ High School Coach of the Year, the first time the award has been bestowed on the veteran Oak Hill coach. Smith has led Oak Hill to a 38-0 record in what many believed would be a rebuilding year for the Warriors, especially after losing to graduation Brandon Jennings, the reigning Naismith National Boy’s High School Player of the Year. Along the way Oak Hill has defeated 10 nationally-ranked opponents, all on the road. In 24 seasons, Smith has amassed a 756-44 record, and his teams have claimed seven mythical national championships.
