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Ty Lawson & Victor Oladipo All American Camp Notebook

07/16/2015, 3:45am EDT
By Tom Reifsnyder & Josh Verlin

Arkansas Baptist (Ark.) 2018 C Connor Vanover. (Photo: Tom Reifsnyder)

Tom Reifsnyder (@tom_reifsnyder) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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HYATTSVILLE, Md. — Just a few days after getting to show off their skills at the Peach Jam, many of the top players on Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) circuit are taking part in the 2015 Ty Lawson & Victor Oladipo All American Camp, held at DeMatha Catholic HS this week.

The first night of the second July live period opened on Wednesday night with each of the camp’s eight teams getting one game of action in front of close to 100 Division I coaches.

Here’s a notebook from the evening’s games:

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Connor Vanover (2018/C/Arkansas Baptist High School, Ark.)
At first glance, Vanover probably wouldn’t be your pick for best shooter in the gym.

Towering over defenders and teammates at 7-foot-3, Vanover defies the notion that more height means less talent, as the center from Little Rock, Ark. easily had the sweetest stroke of any player to grace the floor at DeMatha Catholic on Wednesday.

A rising sophomore at Arkansas Baptist High School, Vanover was knocking down jumpers from all over the floor in the first game of the night, scoring 16 points and even hitting the go-ahead triple to give his team a one-point victory.

He displayed a nice touch around the basket, the ability to hit high-post turnaround jumpers, and a smooth, effortless stroke from deep.

Vanover’s jumper looks as natural as any, but it’s a more recent addition to his repertoire than one might think.

“Shooting kind of got easier when I grew; I never really shot the ball when I was smaller,” Vanover said. “But when I started growing, I started shooting the ball more outside and I found out that I had that touch.”

Unlike a player such as New Orleans Pelicans center Anthony Davis, whose growth spurt saw him transition from a 6-foot-1 high school point guard to a 6-11 power forward, Vanover says he was a true post player before he hit his major growth spurt, dominating his middle school opponents as a 6-foot forward in sixth grade.

But by his eighth grade year, Vanover was a legit 7-footer with a newfound ability to stroke the ball from the perimeter.

“When I started getting even taller, it just kind of made the game easier for me, to be able to be that much taller than everybody and shoot over everyone,” Vanover said.

The 16-year-old has had quite the busy summer thus far, winning a gold medal with USA’s U-16 squad in Argentina, picking up an offer from Ole Miss during the school’s team camp, and adding two more offers from Alabama and Arkansas after a strong showing at the Nike EYBL Peach Jam last week.

The skyscraper-tall center is already showing college coaches he can compete with the country’s best, but he has a few things he’d like to work on this summer in hopes of taking his game to an even higher level.

“I think my main goal is to try to get more weight on me,” he said. “I’m trying to eat maybe about five meals a day, just put in a lot of calories to bulk up, and I also want to get faster and work on agility with trainers.”

Right now, Vanover weighs in at 210 pounds, but he’d like to be around 220 by summer’s end, and closer to 230 by the end of his sophomore high school season.

Let the summer-long feast begin. --Tom Reifsnyder

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Grant Williams (2016/F/Providence Day, N.C.)
The two schools who are going hardest after this talented combo forward present quite a contrast to each other, for a number of reasons.

Yale, a member of the Ivy League, is one of the premier academic schools not just in the country but around the globe—and the Bulldogs have become a pretty tough contender in the Ancient Eight to boot.

Tennessee, while not a bad academic school in its own right, brings with it the appeal of playing in the high-major SEC, which would match Williams up against future NBA players throughout every season.

“At the end of it, I’m going to have to decide if I’m going to a place where I play against the Kentucky’s and all those guys and show off versus the bigger names, or I can go to a Yale where I can benefit a lot (academically),” he said. “I’m still going through that to see what I want, and see how it goes.”

Though those two schools have themselves in good position right now, they're far from the only two involved in his recruitment. Williams has an offer list more than 20 long, consisting mainly schools located up and down the East Coast.

Central Florida, Ole Miss, Harvard, Wofford and Charlotte are also staying in touch, and he’s not setting anything in stone just yet. There’s no current leaders for his services, but he knows what he’s looking for that will determine his decision.

“Probably the family relationship with the coaches because I like being in a group where I can shine both on the court and off the court,” he said. “I want to go to whichever place gives me the best opportunity to go pro and also the best opportunity later in life.”

At 6-foot-7 and 245 pounds, Williams is a matchup problem of a combo forward, with a tough interior game and strong body that allows him to work his way through the paint, but he’s not a stiff out on the perimeter.

It looks like he’ll have an opportunity to play both spots at the next level due to his versatility.

“(Colleges) are recruiting me as both a ‘3’ and a ‘4,’ because I can guard both and I’m a mismatch problem for either,” he said. “On a ‘4’ I can step out and take them, and a ‘3’ I can post them up.”

In his first game of the camp, Williams scored 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, adding in five rebounds and three steals. He knocked down one of his two 3-point attempts as well.

“Showing a little bit of my outside game as well as my inside game, and trying to show coaches that I’m a versatile big,” he said. --Josh Verlin

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Nehemiah “Bud” Mack (2016/G/Susquehanna Twp., Pa.)
At Peach Jam, the pride of Susquehanna Township finally got the opportunity he’d been waiting for.

After serving mostly as a deep reserve for Team Takeover through the four stops on the EYBL in April and May, Mack got plenty of court time in last week’s championships down in North Augusta, S.C.

“I was trying to force things a little bit,” said the Indians’ star guard, a first-team all-PIAA Class AAA selection as a junior, of his early offseason action with the AAU team consisting mostly of Maryland and D.C. stars. “I didn’t want to let myself look bad, so I had to calm down a little bit.”

His best performance camp in a quarterfinal win over PSA Cardinals, when he scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting in 19 minutes, playing most of the second half and overtime session to boot. He followed that up with six points in the semifinals; those 14 combined points were more than he scored in the rest of EYBL play combined.

“It gave me a lot of confidence, because during the regular EYBL season, I wasn’t really getting that much time,” he said. “I found my way in towards the end and knocked down a couple of shots and got more time, so it helped out.”

The 6-foot-tall guard has held an offer from Towson in his pocket since last summer, and he’s still waiting for another school to throw its hat in the ring. Right now, Louisiana Tech, Rider and Quinnipiac are in touch, and Quinnipiac had an assistant coach watching Mack at the camp.

Working with Victor Oladipo, a DeMatha grad running his camp here for the second consecutive year, actually isn’t brand-new to Mack. Oladipo, a Takeover alum, was with the team during its recent Peach Jam run, eating meals with the high schoolers and sitting on the bench during games.

Obviously, getting the opportunity to work with an NBA pro is one that doesn’t come often to ballplayers from the middle of Pennsylvania.

Mack is trying to soak up as much as he can.

“Just learning from him and being around him for two weeks, it’s a lot and I’m learning a lot more, like ball screens,” he said. “He was working with us, he was talking to us after the games, when we were eating...just correcting us on some stuff we were doing.” --Josh Verlin

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Quick Hits

--One of the standouts of the first game was Muburak Muhammad (2016/Impact Academy, Fla.), who finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds in an impressive overall effort. The 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward was a force to be reckoned with on the glass, and converted everything he saw within a few feet of the hoop, but what was especially impressive was his ability to handle the ball in short spurts and even step out and hit a 3-pointer—and the Nigeria native only been playing basketball three years.

“What I’m trying to work on is to watch a lot of tapes because i want to get my basketball IQ as high as I can,” he said. “I’ve been working on (shooting) all summer, during the high school season, because we work out every day at my school. Just trying to get everything into place.”

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Muhammad was his offer list, which currently sits at zero. Arkansas, Alabama, Auburn, Troy and Sam Houston State have been in touch, but all are waiting to see more of him from the live periods. Whoever is the first school to offer him will certainly make a big impact: “It would mean everything,” he said. “I’ve been in the gym thinking about these open periods and these offers; I go out every day just hoping to get offers.”

--Another Nigeria native that was tough to miss was 6-foot-11, 240-pound center Sam Ibiezugbe (2016/Masters School, Conn.). Ibiezugbe, who plays with the NY Lightning, is a wide-shouldered post who clears out a lot of room under the bucket and fights for every rebound. Though he has offers from Stony Brook and Monmouth, plus interest from schools like Temple and Stanford, his ambitions go far beyond basketball.

“I want to be a peace ambassador, I want to work with the UN. I did a 5K to raise money for anti-human trafficking, I’m working with a couple of NGOs (non-government organizations) to see what I can do as a human being first, and not just a basketball player. I’m involved in local charity works to help little kids as a mentor for little kids.”

--At 6-foot-9 and 230 pounds, Arnaldo Toro (2016/St. Benedict’s, N.J.) already has the requisite body to be a Division-I power forward. The rising senior from Hormiguero, Puerto Rico was a force to be reckoned with on the glass and inside the paint Wednesday night at DeMatha against some highly-touted big men. Toro, who plays his AAU ball with the Albany City Rocks (N.Y.), recently took an official visit to George Washington, where he toured the campus and met with the coaching staff.

“It was very nice. They treated me well and I like it over there. We couldn’t see the court because there was graduation, but I saw the campus and where all the classes are held so it was pretty good stuff. The coaches were all there with me to show film and all those things.”

In addition to GW, Toro has an offer from Penn State, and lists Sienna, Santa Barbara, and Monmouth as schools that are showing high interest in him. He plans to visit Santa Barbara in August.

--Ako Adams (2016/Bishop O’Connell, Va.) showed off a lethal stroke from behind the arc on Wednesday night, even knocking down a half-court heave with time running out to end the first half. Adams has been on a good run of late, leading his DC Thunder squad to the championship game in the silver bracket at Adidas Gauntlet last week in Atlanta, Ga. and picking up three new offers at the event: George Mason, Rice, and East Tennessee State. The 6-foot-2 scoring point guard is also receiving some high-major interest from the likes of Miami, Stanford, Virginia, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Temple.

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