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Congratulations to former Warrior Nolan Smith (‘07) who has won the 2010 NCAA Championship with the Duke Blue Devils!

Nolan had 13 points and 4 assists as Duke defeated Butler University 61-59 in Indianapolis Monday night.

Your Oak Hill family is proud of you, Nolan!

Congratulations to Nolan and Danny as well as the other Oak Hill alum who participated in this year’s NCAA Tournament:  Julian Vaughn – Georgetown, Landon Milborne – Maryland, Dion Dacons (asst coach) – Temple, Rod Strickland (asst coach) – Kentucky.

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.

Duke's Nolan Smith drives on Virginia Tech's Erick Green during first-half action. / Photo credit Chuck Liddy, The News & Observer

“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.

Duke guard Jon Scheyer is constantly amazed by the number of friends Smith has. When Duke was at Miami last week, former Hurricanes guard Jack McClinton was there to have his jersey retired.

Just before the start of the second half, McClinton yelled at Smith, telling him to look for his shot. After the game, McClinton texted Smith to say he has a sweet shot and needs to be confident with it.

“He’ll know somebody on the other team, no matter what team we’re playing,” Scheyer said. “He really knows everybody, either from playing AAU or, ‘Yeah, at this camp I met him.’ We always joke about it.”

Beasley and Smith have been close friends since childhood and were teammates on the D.C. Assault club team. Smith also corresponds with former Oak Hill teammates Ty Lawson of the Denver Nuggets and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“They really help me because they give me the confidence that I need,” Smith said. “They let me know to keep working, keep staying in the gym.”

Smith usually heeds their advice.

Click here to read the full article at newsobserver.com.

OHA Class of 2002

Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets will make his third All-Star game appearance as a starter for the Western Conference. Melo leads the league in scoring (30 ppg) and the Nuggets lead the NW Division.

OHA Class of 2004

Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics, an Eastern Conference reserve, is the second NBA All-Star from the Draft class of 2006. Rondo currently leads the Eastern Conference in both assists and steals. He’s averaging career highs in points (14.2), assists (9.7), steals (2.54) and field-goal percentage (.534).

OHA 2005

 
Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, a Western Conference reserve, is the league’s third-leading scorer and a first-time All-Star.

The All-Star Game will be broadcast live on TNT February 14, 2010 from Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

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 Images

Eager 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.

So if that had been a rookie crooning away in the shower, the grinning folks in the locker room might have thought: Knuckleheaded new guy. But since it was a warhorse drafted nearly 15 years ago, taken No. 3 overall in 1995 ahead of fellow All-Stars Rasheed Wallace, Kevin Garnett and Michael Finley, Stackhouse’s little audience could nod knowingly at his not-quite dulcet tones and think: Savvy veteran influence, keeping things loose.

I talked with Stackhouse Saturday before and after he blew out the carbon of nearly 1 1/2 seasons of inactivity in his new team’s 127-94 cruise past Minnesota. In 28 minutes, playing in his third game in four nights, Stackhouse scored 14 points with three rebounds, five assists, two steals and four turnovers. Next stop: Dallas, where he spent five of his best NBA seasons but was dumped in a trade last summer to Memphis, a team that waived him almost immediately.

Click here to read the full article and interview with Stack at NBA.com.

by Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com

(excerpt)

“I’m OK, it’s just that. … You can’t believe. … He made another! … It’s this kid I covered in high school. … He just. … Wow! … He did it again!. … They can’t stop him. … Oh no he didn’t!”

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.

Anyway, while my girls rolled their eyes and went to catch an episode of “iCarly,” I just kept gushing and spitting superlatives to no one in particular.

While doing so, I retraced my life back to Milwaukee — not where the Bucks play — but where the 2008 McDonald’s All-American contest was held. I was fortunate enough to cover the game and three practices preceding.

Jennings, the MaxPreps Player of the Year that season, was one of five native Golden State guards in the game whom I featured, and West co-coach Tom Diener gushed over his heart, handles and hoop sense.

Diener didn’t need to know that Jennings shattered the single-season scoring mark by averaging 38.7 points per game his senior year at Oak Hill Academy, a place that helped produce NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Stephen Jackson, Jerry Stackhouse and Rod Strickland, to name a few. He didn’t need to see the Oak Hill alumni list, either, to make a comparison to a future NBA Hall of Famer.

“He’s Allen Iverson with a great attitude,” he said that week.

I remember thinking at the time that Diener, who led Vincent High School to five Wisconsin state titles, was full of cheese. But watching Jennings slice through the Warriors like a slab of Swiss, I realized I didn’t know jack. Jennings showed the confidence, poise and savvy of an NBA veteran — just like Diener projected.

“No, really,” he told me 18 months ago. “He’s probably the best guard I’ve seen at this level.”

(Read the complete story at MaxPreps.com.)

November 16, 2009 – bucks.com

Congratulations to 2008 OHA graduate Brandon Jennings!

Milwaukee Bucks Rookie Brandon Jennings

The National Basketball Association announced today that Bucks guard Brandon Jennings was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the games played November 9 through November 15.

Jennings averaged 43.5 points, 7.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds in 39.5 minutes per game in helping the Bucks to a 2-0 record. He shot 60.4 percent from the field, 90.0 percent from three point range and 87.5 percent from the line in two contests. The Bucks defeated the Denver Nuggets (currently 7-3) 108-102 on November 11 and came back from a first half deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors 129-125 on Saturday.

Jennings became the third player in franchise history (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Redd) to record 50-plus points as he tallied 55 points in the victory over Golden State, breaking the team’s rookie scoring record previously held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (51, February 21, 1970) and it was the most scored by an NBA rookie since Earl Monroe had 56 in 1968.  The 55 points were also just two shy of the franchise’s high-scoring game of 57, set by Michael Redd on November 11, 2006.

Saturday’s performance also marked Jennings becoming the youngest player in NBA history to score 50-plus points as he was 20 years and 52 days old and LeBron James was 20 years and 80 days old when he accomplished it on March 20, 2005. Jennings’ 45 second-half points were the most in a half since Kobe Bryant tallied 55 on January 22, 2006. By recording 30-plus points in consecutive games (he had 32 against Denver), Jennings is the first Bucks rookie since Glenn Robinson in 1995 to have back-to-back 30-plus point nights.

In the Bucks win over Denver, Jennings had 32 points, nine assists and four rebounds. He tallied 14 of those points in the final quarter, including going 2-2 from three point range and knocking down all six of his free throw attempts in the final 21 seconds to seal the game. On Saturday, he scored 29 points in the third quarter (12-13 field goals) and 16 in the fourth quarter. With the team down 109-110 with 3:39 left in the game, Jennings scored 12 of the team’s final 20 points, including two three-pointers and two free throws to put the team up four with 10 seconds to play.

Jennings is the team’s first Bucks player since Michael Redd (December 25, 2006 through January 1, 2007) to be named player of the week.

For the latest on Jennings and the Milwaukee Bucks visit bucks.com.

The Denver Nuggets forward was named Western Conference Player of the Week for games played from Tuesday, Oct. 27 through Sunday, Nov. 1.

Anthony, who leads the NBA in scoring at 37.7 ppg, has led Denver to its first 3-0 start since the 1985-86 season and only the fourth perfect start in team history.
 
For the week, Anthony averaged 37.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg and 4.3 apg in three games while driving Denver to home wins over Utah (10/28) and Memphis (11/1) and a road win at Portland (10/29). He posted his 11th and 12th career 40-point efforts in consecutive games with 41 at Portland and 42 against Memphis. With 30 points vs. Utah in the season opener as well, Anthony joins Alex English as the only players in team history to score 30 or more points in each of the first three games of a regular season.
 
Anthony has now garnered nine Player of the Week honors in his six-plus seasons in the NBA – building on his team record. Anthony received the award twice during his rookie season (weeks ending on Mar. 14 and Apr. 11), once during the 2005-06 season for the week ending on Mar. 19, three times during the 2006-07 campaign (weeks ending on Nov. 26, Dec. 3 and Feb. 11) and twice during the 2007-08 season (weeks ending Dec. 23 and Mar. 30).
 
Anthony is the first Nuggets player to be named Western Conference Player of the Week since Chauncey Billups was selected on Nov. 17, 2008 last season.

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.

The two facts are related, the Compton, Calif., native assures.

“I think the whole year in Europe helped me out,” Jennings said. “I was playing against older guys, 30-year-olds, guys with lots of talent who were stronger than me, smarter.”

Jennings, 20, is aware of his place in hoops history and how his rookie season will impact the game’s immediate future. He knows all eyes are on him and his stat line. He knows plenty of people want him to fail.

He isn’t backing down from any of it.

The NBA instituted an age minimum for American-born players in 2005 that essentially mandated they attend at least one year of college. Players previously could jump to the NBA right out of high school.

(Read the complete story at Yahoo! Sports.)

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.

BMW 7-Series. Cadillac Escalade. Lexus LS600H. Mercedes-Benz S-Class. None of those would do. So Jennings is the proud new owner of a . . .

. . . Ford Edge. Starting MSRP: $26,900.

“I probably saved $40,000,” Jennings says proudly. “And who knows with the league? There might be a lockout in a couple years. I’m saving my money.”

Before you get the idea that Jennings is squarer than Scott Skiles’ jaw, he laughs and adds, “It’s a brand new car. It’s a 2010. Hey, I fixed it up a little bit. I put some rims on it and tinted the windows.”

Jennings also could have picked anywhere to live in metropolitan Milwaukee. Mequon. River Hills. A downtown condo, perhaps?

Not good enough.

(Read the complete story at Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.)