Richwoods Shootout This Weekend

[tornado]

Game start this Saturday morning at Richwoods HS, at 9AM...
Several of the top local teams will be competing such as...
Dunlap, Limestone, Woodruff, Richwoods, Central, PND, Peoria Christian. Also some fine out-of-town teams...
Springfield High, Moline, South Elgin, Decatur MacArthur, Geneseo, Schaumburg, Lincoln, Naperville North and Bloomington.

I will likely be attending and can file some reports to those who are interested....

[mrcoachdude]

Game start this Saturday morning at Richwoods HS, at 9AM...
Several of the top local teams will be competing such as...
Dunlap, Limestone, Woodruff, Richwoods, Central, PND, Peoria Christian. Also some fine out-of-town teams...
Springfield High, Moline, South Elgin, Decatur MacArthur, Geneseo, Schaumburg, Lincoln, Naperville North and Bloomington.

I will likely be attending and can file some reports to those who are interested....

hope to catch some of those games as well....

[Deadguy35]

I would enjoy reading your thoughts on Manual, Central, and Richwoods.

I'm especially curious about some of the younger players at Manual (Stokes, Roddy, Farmer,) and am interested to hear how Andrew Jordan meshes with the team. I don't know if Romeo Johnson will be there, or if he will play for Manual in the future, as I've heard he moved to Mississippi.

For Richwoods, I would be curious about the younger players as well (Parish Mason, Jack Murphy, and Jared Dehm). I would also like to hear about how David Anderson and Tony Frazier fit in with the team after their off the court issues from last season.

This article says both Frazier and Anderson will be back, but Davis is still recovering:

http://www.pjstar.com/preps/x2122532758/Reynolds-Richwoods-piecing-it-together

[tornado]

there are no guarantees of who will and who will not be playing with their teams, as injuries, AAU events, and other issues often cause a kid to be absent from his team's shootout games.......
but I will try to scope out the local teams and Springfield teams

[tornado]

mrcoachdude....here is a brief report, as I don't have a lot of time, but I'll PM with more..

Richwoods and PND were the best teams I saw, Pekin, Manual, and Lincoln right behind.

-Richwoods....solid five starters then drops off....Deal is the real deal and could be a D-I player
I know Coach Mo was looking at him...

-Notre Dame....twin towers Bielfeldt (6-7) and Blumenshine (6-8 ) will help PND win most of their games, but they have really good guards, too, and Rochford was out with injury.
Les hits at least 50% if you leave him open. And Justin K is solid..

-Lincoln...good system, consistently good teams, they humiliated a pretty decent looking Dunlap team with great all around play, shooting, passing.

-Springfield Lanphier...waay small...nobody over 5-11 but really quick and good...should be OK

--Manual has a ton with three guys who are 6-5, 6-6, 6-7 including transfer Andrew Jordan (6-7) who is D-I material.

-Pekin - good shooters and Lohmann is a solid post player and held his own vs. Bielfeldt

-Woodruff....quick with a huge guy in the middle (6-8 ) but shot poorly

-Washington should be OK..nobody stood out but they have some solid football-type big guys who patrol the middle

-Metamora - sub .500 for sure...kinda got whalloped by Manual

-Limestone didn't have Donivine and struggled vs. Richwoods' JV but finally pulled away late.

Boooo to the teams that submitted their rosters witout any uniform numbers...
made it really hard to know any of the players!

if anyone has specific questions....PM me

[Da Coach]

Peoria Notre Dame won the Richwoods Shootout. They beat Richwoods 57-50 in the title game. Ty Les was the hero as he hit 5 three-pointers to lead PND with 24 points.

http://www.pjstar.com/preps_basketball/x702341400/Richwoods-Shootout-crown-to-Irish

[tornado]

anyone who says Tyler Les doesn't have D-I potential has preset biases...the kid can play..
he played PG because Rochford was hurt, and he nailed well over 50% of this 3-pointers.
He also passes well and drives...
as far as creating his own shot, he does a better job than some of the local scorers who just stand and nail set shots and wide open shots...Tyler can be a great addition to any D-I team.
There was talk that he's already getting attention from a few D-I head coaches other than the obvious one.

[mrcoachdude]

I think most folks that questioned his level of play were looking at the "hobbled by injuries" Tyler....with those things behind him, he should do very well......

[tornado]

Just a few other thoughts from observing many games, in random order.......

-Limestone without Donivine Stewart struggled at times...even against the Richwoods JV they had a little trouble.
I don't think they'll be at the same level as PND, Richwoods, and Washington

-Geneseo, who usually have a good team, looked very weak and couldn't score

-Bloomington HS has good guards and shooters, but no size and struggled at times

-Moline had one kid who was really talented, but as with numerous other teams, didn't have numbers in the program that match anything being worn on the court, so it was impossible to identify them all..
But the kid's name, I believe, was Jamari Atwater, and he was 6-1, and amazingly quick, explosive, and athletic. Moline went undefeated on the first day but couldn't compete vs. teams like Pekin that had some size...

-Richwoods doesn't have a lot of really big players, as TJ Cole (Bil Cole's brother) at 6-4 is about as big as they get..
but they also have a couple other bigger guards and kids who athletically play bigger (Mason Alwan, Tylon Deal) and a really solid kid Tony Frazier, 6-3.

-Terry Riggs (TJ) is just a junior at Bloomington, and is D'Mitri Riggs' bro, and played very well...he's 6-1 or 6-2 and has D-I potential.

-Dunlap had a lot of pretty big and athletic kids...several solid 6-3 to 6-5 kids but were in complete disarray, and did not play well.
They looked like a team who have never practiced together.

-E. Peoria's Dylan Sparkman (Jr.) is the biggest kid around, 6-9 and at least 260, but he needs to work on mobility
Sr. Alex Cline (6-6) is likely to be their scoring leader, he has a nice outside shot.

-Lincoln, as always, simply played good team ball and played well.

-Naperville North also had a huge kid, 6-9 Matt Hasse, but again not very mobile.
He is a senior, but getting a little bit of attention up north - he is #42 in white in these clips

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4842957/12916885

it is odd that most of these highlights are screens, and rebounds...and almost nothing offensive
Here is a pic and a story about him

http://basketball.dailyherald.com/story/?id=96169

-I did not see Nick Rochford play all weekend for Notre Dame, so he was obviously injured

-Washington has a lot of good young players. Their junior high teams have made it all the way to the championships the last couple years with some talented young players.

-here's a player to watch....Nathan Taphorn of Pekin.
Yup, another Taphorn, the son of Pat Taphorn who was a star at Pekin HS, then at UW-Green Bay.
Nathan is a very young and slender 6-3, but he is undoubtedly going to grow and already has a lot of skills.
He is not a starter but did get some decent minutes...
He may be the best area player in the Class of 2013 (next fall's freshmen)
BTW--father Pat Taphorn was helping Dave Mott coach the Pekin kids this weekend, and I had a chance to talk with him and say hi..
Nathan is also a pretty good golfer and a good pitcher, but is going to give up baseball and concentrate on golf & basketball.
Pat is in-laws with the Crouch's and has become a great BU fan as a result (many will recall seeing Pat Taphorn at Carver Arena the past several seasons), and so if Nathan turns out to be a player, then I think BU would have the inside track!

[Bballnut]

Tornado:

I did not get to games so I am clueless as to who Washington brought to the tourney. Did the Underwood brothers play? Was Izaguirre playing? He was starting late last year but had a pretty serious back injury that set him on the sidelines for the tourney. My guess is they will be playing allot of sophs/juniors this year. Not sure if any freshman have the talent to move up. Comments appreciated

[tornado]

the senior Colton Underwood was a force down low, built like a linebacker (probably is one!) as was Sam Ryan...but the younger Underwood didn't play as much...
The bigger guys just cleaned up on the low post moves and put backs....
they simply played well together as a unit, grabbed rebounds, got the loose balls, and scored enough to win most games.
One thing a lot of people noted was what appeared to be "tight rims" as everyone's short shots & layups were missing..

But I don't think it had a thing to do with the rims, it was just everyone out of practice...
I think Izaguirre did not play, but I didn't see all their games.
They were using a lot of younger kids who were wearing numbers that were not in the program...so I wasn't sure who they were...
but they looked familiar so I had probably seen them within the past couple years in a junior high game.

[midstateknowitall]

Here is my thoughts on the Richwoods Shootout. I was there both days all day long. I thought the talent was down from past years. Obviously, because they had some new teams in it and injuries to some of the Top Players.

Teams that impressed me:

PND: (Have all the pieces to make a state run, Matthews has never made it out of the Regional though)

Manual: (My opinion, better than last years team. They played harder and a lot more unselfish then last years team) 2A State Champs???

Richwoods: (Getting Anderson and Fraizer back definitely changes the dynamic of there team)

Washington: (Brown proved why he is the best coach in the area. Young unexperience team and yet played extremely tough all weekend.)

Springfield High: (Playing without there 2 best players, still had a strong showing at the event, will be a dangerous team this year)

Lincoln: (Team plays great together, w/out there PG all weekend but still showed well)

Teams that did not impress me:

Woodruff: WOW, YUCK ... All i can say

Lanphier: Besides, Madison not much there

Geneseo:

South Elgin:



Players That Impressed Me:

Max Bielfeldt: He is a big S.O.B. Tough and great finisher. Liked him alot

Andrew Jordan: A new player since transfering to Manual. Showed why he was so hyped as a freshman.

Tylon Deal: Tough quick athletic strong guard.

[tornado]

thanks mskia...nice assessment........

[midstateknowitall]

Here is my thoughts on the Richwoods Shootout. I was there both days all day long. I thought the talent was down from past years. Obviously, because they had some new teams in it and injuries to some of the Top Players.

Teams that impressed me:

PND: (Have all the pieces to make a state run, Matthews has never made it out of the Regional though)

Manual: (My opinion, better than last years team. They played harder and a lot more unselfish then last years team) 2A State Champs???

Richwoods: (Getting Anderson and Fraizer back definitely changes the dynamic of there team)

Washington: (Brown proved why he is the best coach in the area. Young unexperience team and yet played extremely tough all weekend.)

Springfield High: (Playing without there 2 best players, still had a strong showing at the event, will be a dangerous team this year)

Lincoln: (Team plays great together, w/out there PG all weekend but still showed well)

Teams that did not impress me:

Woodruff: WOW, YUCK ... All i can say

Lanphier: Besides, Madison not much there

Geneseo:

South Elgin:



Players That Impressed Me:

Max Bielfeldt: He is a big S.O.B. Tough and great finisher. Liked him alot (PND)

Andrew Jordan: A new player since transfering to Manual. Showed why he was so hyped as a freshman.

Tylon Deal: Tough quick athletic strong guard. (Richwoods)

Lawrence Alexander: Did a little of everything for Manual. Unsung Hero!

Alex Cline: Tall, pretty athletic G/F that can really shoot the ball (E. Peoria)

Ben Brackney: Tall Shooter that did everything for Lincoln


Izzaguire (Washington) Did play
Rochford (PND) Did Play

Here is my opinoin on Tyler Les right now:

Tyler has yet to show me that he is a D1 player. Can he shoot the ball, Yes. Did he have a good Championship Game... My thought was he had a good second half, 21-24 pts scored during that half. They do not win the game without Les taking over. Richwoods best defender (DEAL) was guarding Rochford in the second half. Tyler did show me he looked a tad quicker and more confident with the ball.

But for all the people that talked about his performance in the Championship how bout his lack of performance in the Final 4 Game against Manual. He made 1 shot from the field. That was the 3 to tie it in regulation which he missed the first look, Bielfeldt tapped it out to Rochford and passed it to Les again which hit the second look. That was his only FG from the floor. Manual absolutely abused Tyler when he was on Defense. For the last 4 mins of Regulation every possession Manual had Coach Booth would yell to whoever Les was Guarding to come get the ball and go 1 on 1. 3 straight buckets for Marvin Jordan, Flopping foul on Les, 2 assists for Jeff Stokes (Keke, Soph.).

There is alot more to Basketball at the D1 level than just shooting. Doesn't mean anything if you can Score at one end and come down and get scored on at the other end. Now am I saying he wont be D1, no Im not ruling it out. However, I have yet to see it .

Lets Remember:

Sean Johnson- D3
Josh Edmonds- D2
Billy Molinari- D1 (Dads the head coach)


Those were 3 pretty **** good Scorers in this area over the last couple years that can compare to Les a little bit. And 1 of them is D1 because his dad is the coach.

Just my thoughts right now

[tornado]

Izzaguire (Washington) Did play
Rochford (PND) Did Play

Did you mean they did NOT play?

and I think Sean Johnson is kinda proving that maybe some D-I coaches missed the boat...
he might just have been good enough to play somewhere at D-I.
In his soph season at IWU, Sean averaged 12.5 ppg, 40.2% 3-pt shooting, and 3 apg, 2.4 rpg, and 1 spg.

Here's another guy that I think could have done better than some D-I kids...but never got an offer
Eric Hobbie...now at McKendree averaging as a soph..14 ppg, 8 rpg

http://athletics.mckendree.edu/roster.asp?playerid=1134&sport=5