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PrepScoop Pre-Season Top 5 (Early Edition)

 

 

allenhatchett.jpg?resize=474%2C316Could The Spartans End Up Being In The Top 10 This Season? (Allen Hatchett -pictured)

 

With the school year starting last week, you know what that means right? Only 78 days, 22 hours, 9 minutes and 59 seconds until basketball season!! Well okay, it’s a little off, well a lot off but you get the point, the season is approaching soon and very soon and people are asking, what do you think about the season upcoming? It’s early, yes I know but people love to talk basketball all year long in Memphis, Tigers, Grizzlies and high school basketball isn’t immune either. People just love basketball here and why shouldn’t we when this city constantly produces rich talent. So with that said, I give you, a way to early look at the top 5 teams in the city and 5 teams to watch.

 

1. East High School– State champions last season, go into the season as the favorite in Triple A. Should be number 1 on everybody’s list, across the board. Transfers Antavion “Dude†Collum and Jay Hardaway bolster an already strong roster that features Mr.Basketball Alex Lomax, TJ Moss and Chandler Lawson. With rumored additions to come, this group might get stronger.

 

2. Christian Brothers High School – Best private school team in the city with who many think is the best player in the city, William Douglas who blew up this summer and has more offers than anyone in the city including one from Tubby Smith and the Memphis Tigers.  As always though, comes the praise, you become the hunted, how will they handle it early on?

 

3. Cordova High School– Bolster one of the best guard duos in the state in Tyler Harris and Blake Williams and the most athletic player in the city, Rod Brown. I don’t think many knew just how important Jalen Dupree was to their success but he will be missed heavily especially early on.

 

4.Mitchell High School – The back to back state champions were crowned once again in Coach Turner’s first year there with a nice roster of players but they also lost a lot last season. The state MVP is gone in Tevin Ollison who came on strong late but they have 3 returners including guard Tyran Davis, a senior, Tominque Marion, senior forward and Jordon Johnson, a senior guard which will make up a nice nucleus of experience.

 

5.Houston High School – Look out for Ryan Boyce to have a huge season this year coming off a nice summer. The 6’5 with bounce might be making the transition more to the wing but he could do that with Bruce Guy, another 6’5 who can swing in between positions and be a double digit point scorer every game and sophomore Takori Rooks who will play some 4-5 as well. Transfer Carlos Sandifer gives them value at the pg position with his arrival in a guard heavy league (15AAA) His play will be counted on in a big way.

 

Others teams to watch

Southwind High School – Really close to putting them in the top 5 and I still might later on.

 

Mark Freeman, CJ Marshall and Robert Boyd give them a chance against anyone.

Whitehaven High School – Cameron Jones and Rashad Williams will leaned heavily for offense this year but others who were in support roles will have to big including Aaron Whitmore and Marquavious Lobbins.

 

White Station High School – Played well in the summer and Allen Hatchett was one of the main reasons. Aaron Strother, Adam Price and Braxton Winford are back and hoping to make people pay attention to the Spartans again.

 

Lausanne Collegiate – Took a huge blow when it was learned that Isaiah Stokes (IMG Academy) was not returning for his senior season but this is still a good team, a young one but a good one. Ashton Smith, Kobe Jeffries and Sky Forrest will have increased roles this year and all will have to play older than their grades indicate but all are capable.

 

901PrepScoopAlex LomaxAllen HatchettAshton SmithCarlos SandiferCordova High SchoolEast HighHouston High SchoolJay HardawayJordon JohnsonRyan BoyceSky ForrestTJ MossTyran DavisWill Douglass

 

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Accurate. I would maybe put southwind over houston bc houston hasn't shown us that they can win just yet even with the talent they have. Also lost Joe Cooper to OB i heard, and I dont see them being better than Marshall Freeman and Boyd just yet. 

 

The only reason Cordova isn't #2 is because we didn't see them play much in the city this summer so we dont know what to expect. Lawson mentions how big of a loss Dupree is but there any kids taller than 6'6 on that top 5 list outside of East that i can think of, so I feel that Rod Brown Will suffice down low (even though he's a wing) against most public schools outside of nationally ranked East. Blake Williams is the xfactor to this team, lets not forget that this was his team this time last year before he was expelled. 

 

On the other hand, he's absolutely correct in CBHS being #2. Cordova isn't a better overall team than CBHS, yes they have more talented players than CBHS but when it comes to positions I give it to the Brothers. Brown would probably matchup with Douglas if it ever happened but that would leave a huge void down low and the big Lyons kid would have a field day. Harris will get his but CBHS is a half court team so they wont let him kill them in the break. Nice to see the private schools finally getting love, CBHS is second to only East in the area by a small hair. Saw on their schedule that they play mitchell late in the season and houston a couple of times. If you've never been to one of their home games, the Mitchell game would be a good one to see. Both schools have rich history and alot of community support, itll be a packed house for sure. 

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Accurate. I would maybe put southwind over houston bc houston hasn't shown us that they can win just yet even with the talent they have. Also lost Joe Cooper to OB i heard, and I dont see them being better than Marshall Freeman and Boyd just yet. 

 

The only reason Cordova isn't #2 is because we didn't see them play much in the city this summer so we dont know what to expect. Lawson mentions how big of a loss Dupree is but there any kids taller than 6'6 on that top 5 list outside of East that i can think of, so I feel that Rod Brown Will suffice down low (even though he's a wing) against most public schools outside of nationally ranked East. Blake Williams is the xfactor to this team, lets not forget that this was his team this time last year before he was expelled. 

 

On the other hand, he's absolutely correct in CBHS being #2. Cordova isn't a better overall team than CBHS, yes they have more talented players than CBHS but when it comes to positions I give it to the Brothers. Brown would probably matchup with Douglas if it ever happened but that would leave a huge void down low and the big Lyons kid would have a field day. Harris will get his but CBHS is a half court team so they wont let him kill them in the break. Nice to see the private schools finally getting love, CBHS is second to only East in the area by a small hair. Saw on their schedule that they play mitchell late in the season and houston a couple of times. If you've never been to one of their home games, the Mitchell game would be a good one to see. Both schools have rich history and alot of community support, itll be a packed house for sure. 

 

Demarcus Mitchell at Germantown is 6'7-6'8 with 7 offers, so far. Barring injury he should have a good year.

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Was recently going back and forth with a buddy of mines about a topic. Is there anybody in the state better than Darius Garland if they had to play college ball right now! I didn't want to base it off of what some are projected to be.

I think Alo over at East could play in college right now but that's because of his I.Q and knowing how to run a team plus he is a heck of a defender I've never seen Garland play I heard he was the best player in the state regardless of class what is his game like
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stokes doesnt count anymore he's opted for prep ball

I know I was just talking about bigs from the city in general it's not like back in the day when you had guys like William Bedford or Lorezen or even when I played with me being 6-4 and having to play against Big CChip from B.T.W Kimbro from Kingsbury and Tamiko Dandrige from Hillcrest who all was in the 6-8 to 6-9 range their have not been to many recently to go on to D-1 and have a impact and like you said yourself really only East has real size this year
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I think Alo over at East could play in college right now but that's because of his I.Q and knowing how to run a team plus he is a heck of a defender I've never seen Garland play I heard he was the best player in the state regardless of class what is his game like

 

Imagine Alo's IQ, with longer arms he has extremely active hands on defense. I wouldnt quite compare his stroke to Tyler Harris's but he's a more efficient shooter than Alo and Tyler you don't leave him open bc he will knock down the 3s (Harris will knock them down even if he's guarded well bc we all know he takes questionable shots). I've seen Garland play around 10 times now since he was a freshman but this summer it was like his shot was barely touching the net so the precision is there. He's longer than both, more athletic than Lomax (Harris jumps out the gym to be 5'7). And i know alot of people commend Lomax on being able to manage the successful teams that he is apart of and always stand out, but I know that if he swapped places with Garland he would be more of a Trae Davis than what he is now. What i mean by that is he would just be known as the private school kid with game not garnering too much attention. Not taking anything away from Alo but being under Penny at all times really does help the kid. I dont think you could put him on Brentwood Academy's team and expect him to beat East. Garland beating East consecutively is a huge feat when you take into the head that Brentwood's tallest player is the same height as William Douglas and East has 4 guys taller than that. Yes Lomax didn't play against BA this year but the outcome wouldn't have changed Garland can consistently get his shot on any PG in the state if you do not deny him the ball. If Garland was East's PG they would be a top 3-5 team nationally and would never drop lower than that. I kinda went on a rant, but all in all I would say picture a more aggressive longer version of lomax with a more efficient stroke and all around game but just not as well built as lomax. 

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