The HoopHall Classic Review

Every year my father and I head out to Blake Arena on the campus of Springfield College to watch some of the best High School basketball players and teams in the country square off in the HoopHall Classic. Some people may not know this but the court that future college and NBA greats take to during this tournament is the site where the game they love was first invented by Dr. James Naismith. Way back in 1891 Dr. Naismith (a gym teacher) created a game for his students during a rainy day. While the game has greatly evolved (most recently by adding the arc around the basketball and the three-point line) the roots are still there. The boys and girls who play it now a day’s though would have broken many a peach baskets with thunderous dunks. The HoopHall Classic is every Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and the best games of the tournament are on the Monday holiday. The following will be my breakdown of each game and the stars of the teams.

First game of the day was the #6 team in the country St. Anthony’s High School from Jersey City, NJ versus an unranked Tift County High School team from Tifton, GA. The crowd hadn’t quite fully arrived for the 10 am tip-off but those who were there were treated to an extremely vocal and colorful Bob Hurley, Sr., the legendary coach of St. Anthony’s. To be a referee of one of his games one must show great restraint as he yells just as much at you as he does at his own kids. Hurley’s teams are always the most disciplined in the country and turn out division 1 products year in and year out. His top two players this year were Temple University bound  Josh Brown who scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds and Oregon State bound Halice Cooke who added 11 points to the 60-54 win for the Friars. Tift County was led by the #11 SG in the country who is headed to Kansas next fall, Brannen Greene. Greene was clearly not 100% since he was seen on the bench multiple times being wrapped in blankets and rubbing his chest, but still mentioned to go 4 for 6 from 3 and finished with 14 points and 5 rebounds. The star of the game for Tift was Donell Tuff who has no division 1 offers but put up 17 points and 7 rebounds. St. Anthony’s victory was their 78^th straight win and only their 9^th during that streak that was decided by single digits.

#6 St. Anthony's- Jersey City, NJ

 

Tift County- Tifton, GA

               

                The noon game was the first of 3 in a row that was aired on ESPNU and it featured the #3 team in the country, Lone Peak High School from Highland, UT taking on unranked Archbishop Mitty High School from San Jose, CA. Lone Peak was dominant while shooting lights out from 3 (13-24) en route to a 81-46 win. Lone Peak was led by BYU bound duo Nick Emery (#14 PG) who poured in 20 points on 8-14 shooting and Eric Mika (#8 C) who put up a double-double with 10 points, 12 rebounds and added 3 blocks for safe measure. The MVP for the Knights though was Conner Toolson who is ranked as the #100 SG and has no division 1 offers but went perfect from 3 (6 for 6) and scoring a team high 22 points and chipping in 7 rebounds. TJ Haws, a highly touted Junior for Lone Peak was also impressive scoring 18 points with 6 rebounds. Haws is also committed to BYU. While the game was out of hand at the half seeing Lone Peak up 44-20 the real star and attraction was Archbishop Mitty’s Aaron Gordon. Gordon is the #2 PF(#7 overall) in the country and has offers from Washington, Kentucky and Arizona. Those offers are well deserved as he put on an aerial show with numerous highlight dunks including an alley-oop off an in-bounds play in which he skied over the defender and posterized him. His pure athleticism was amazing to watch but the best part of his 27 points and 12 rebounds were the range he showed hitting a 3 and multiple baseline jumpers as well as his constant hustle and encouragement to teammates. It showed true character and while briefly speaking with him after the game I could tell what a great young man he is in addition to a Blake Griffin-esque talent on the court. Whoever gets him to attend their university while have an instant contributor and great player to coach and prep for the next level.

Archbishop Mitty High School- San Jose, CA

#3 Lone Peak High School- Highland, UT

 While the result from the noon game left a lot to be desired, the two o’clock game did not. #13 Oak Hill Academy from Mouth of Wilson, VA took on #14 Simeon Career Prep from Chicago, IL who featured the #2 player in the country SF Jabari Parker who in December committed to Duke University. Parker did not disappoint pouring in 28 points while raining in three 3 pointers and grabbing  5 rebounds. Parker’s teammate Kendrick Nunn was also extremely impressive scoring 21 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Nunn is the #16 SG in the nation and is headed to the University of Illinois in the fall. Oak Hill, who went 44-0 last season is always well coached by Steve Smith, who is a younger and redder in the face version of Bob Hurley, Sr. Smith has helped produce talents such as Carmelo Anthony, Rajon Rondo and JR Smith. His talented players this year were Sindarius Thornwell (#12 SG University of South Carolina bound), RJ Curington (#50 SG who is considering Maryland, UNC-Wilmington, UAB, and Tulane) and Troy Williams (#9 SF who is attending Indiana University next year). Williams got to play in front of his future head coach Tom Crean who was in the scouts gallery and he struggled with his shot going 4 for 12 but scored 11 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Thornwell poured in a game high 27 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. RJ Curington was also extremely exciting to watch while draining three 3s en route to  19 points. Simeon led throughout, mostly by double digits but Oak Hill just kept chipping away only trailing 56-50 after 3 quarters. But Parker’s exclamation point dunk with a little over a minute remaining sealed the 81-68 win for Simeon. With the win, Simeon moved up to #11 in the country, Oak Hill dropped 1 spot to #14.

Oak Hill Academy- Mouth of Wilson, VA

Simeon Career Prep- Chicago, IL

                The last game I attended for the day was the premier match-up which featured a rematch of last year’s national championship game between #1 Montverde Academy from Montverde, FL and #2 Findlay Prep from Henderson, NV. Montverde led by as many as 18 in that game but Findlay came charging back to win the game and the title. This game was the revenge game for Montverde but in the end it proved to be an eerie duplicate of that fateful game. While the Pilots of Findlay were led by new coach Todd Simon, he lived up to the precedent set by now NBDL Idaho Stampede coach Michael Peck and took home yet another huge win for the prestigious school. The Pilots who after the 62-59 win took over the #1 spot, were led by University of Washington bound (#9 PG) Nigel Williams-Goss who scored 18 of his 26 points in the 4^th quarter including the game winning 3 pointer as time expired. Findlay also boasts Christian Wood (#15 PF UNLV bound) who contributed with 14 points and 7 rebounds and Allerik Freeman (#13 SG UCLA bound) added in 11 points. For Montverde the biggest problem was the foul trouble to starting guard Kasey Hill (#2 PG University of Florida bound) who fouled out with just about 4 minutes to play with Montverde still leading 56-45. Findlay had no answer inside for #1 C and #12 overall Dakari Johnson who is a University of Kentucky commit and #22 PF Devin Williams who will attend West Virginia University. Johnson had 17 points and 8 rebounds while Williams had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the losing effort. Losing Hill really hurt Montverde and their backcourt could not get the ball inside enough in the end even with Miguel Cartagena hitting four 3 pointers in the 2^nd half. Overall this comeback highlighted an amazing day of hoops with unbelievable talent gracing the Blake Arena court. According to MassLive.com it was the largest single-day crowd in the history of the tournament as the 1,700 seat arena was filled to capacity hours before this matchup.

New #1 Findlay College Prep- Henderson, NV

Montverde did not stay for photos long enough to get a good one but here is Nigel Williams-Goss getting his MVP award

I hope you enjoyed my breakdown/recap of the games. If you haven’t gotten out to a tournament such as this I greatly urge you to do so as it is amazing and worth the price of admission tenfold. 

(All pictures are my own off of my phone so sorry for the quality!)