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Battle of the Borders: Night 1 Notebook

07/23/2015, 12:00am EDT
By Ari Rosenfeld & Josh Verlin

Markelle Fultz (above) was one of several high-major prospects on display at Battle of the Borders. (Photo: Josh Verlin)

Ari Rosenfeld (@realA_rosenfeld) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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BURLINGTON, N.J. -- The second edition of the Battle of the Borders event tipped off the third and final July live recruiting period of the 2015 summer on Wednesday night, with a trio of games between three high-level programs that attracted quite a few high-major coaches to Burlington City High School.

Coaches in attendance included Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Temple's Fran Dunphy, Seton Hall's Kevin Williard, Saint Joseph's Phil Martelli, Washington's Lorenzo Romar and assistants from UNC, Kentucky, Pitt, Miami and dozens more.

Here’s a notebook from the showcase games:

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Mohamed Bamba (2017/F-C/PSA Cardinals)
Since bursting onto the local scene upon his arrival at Westtown School last fall, Bamba has picked up offers from nearly all of the nation’s top programs.

Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, and Syracuse are just some of the schools that have offered him a scholarship, and his name can be found as high as fourth on some national recruiting rankings.

But there’s one school that has stood out for Bamba since first expressing interest a couple months ago. While Duke isn’t necessarily a favorite to secure his commitment in the event that Mike Krzyzewski extends an offer, gaining an offer from the Blue Devils would represent something of a crowning achievement for Bamba in the recruiting process.

“I want that offer as much as I have any other offer,” he said. “Although they do have a really great program and it’s sort of, I wouldn’t say like a finishing point, but it’s a great deal of accomplishment if I get that offer.”

While earning a Duke offer may be one of Bamba’s biggest on-court goals right now, it’s clear in speaking with him that he has aspirations in several pursuits outside of basketball.

An extremely intelligent, well-spoken individual who is as impressive off the court as he is on it, Bamba has previously been quoted as saying that he would like to eventually donate a science building to whatever school he ultimately chooses, as he explained further at Battle of the Borders.

“My whole thing about that, was you see how a lot of NBA players, like at Arizona for example, they have a Richard Jefferson Practice Facility, but you never see a Richard Jefferson Science Facility,” he said. “I just want to go to a school where I feel comfortable enough that it was just more than basketball there than helped me to become a man.”

With plenty of time to “ride out” his recruitment and see where things fall, Bamba is starting to shift his focus towards his upcoming junior season.

With Division I prospects Jair Bolden and Najja Hunter also returning to the Moose, and five-star 2018 wing Cameron Reddish transferring in from The Haverford School, Westtown has the look of a nationally-ranked squad. Bamba is especially looking forward to working with and mentoring Reddish through the transition to Westtown and the recruiting process, as both figure to be in a position to essentially attend their school of choice when it comes time to commit.

“Me and Cam already have a great relationship together. We text each other all the time, we Snapchat, all that kiddie-kiddie stuff,” Bamba said. “At Westtown we do a prefect situation. Hopefully I can get him and sort of mentor him and show him the ropes at Westtown.” --Ari Rosenfeld

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Stefon Fisher (2017/PF/D.C. Blue Devils)
Despite standing 6-foot-8 and weighing in just north of 230 pounds, this powerful forward found it tough to break his high school rotation as a sophomore.

That’s because he was at Montrose Christian, one of several national prep basketball powerhouses located in the Washington, D.C. area.

So Fisher had to bide his time during the 2014-15 season, getting a few chances to play extended minutes but largely flying under the radar despite clear high-level Division I potential. Instead, it was 6-10 Taron Oliver, headed to Tulane, and 6-9 Isaac Taylor (Maryland-Eastern Shore) who starred in a frontcourt that had five players standing 6-8 or taller.

“I got to battle with big guys every day, so it helped my development,” he said.

It remains to be seen if Fisher will get to complete his high school career at Montrose; the school announced this spring it is “de-emphasizing” basketball and might discontinue the team entirely.

No matter where he plays next year, Fisher looks like he’s only at the beginning of his recruiting journey towards a high level of college hoops.

Fisher picked up his first two Division I offers in April, from Rhode Island and Bryant, but coming out of a school that’s turned out NBA players like Kevin Durant and Greivis Vazquez, he’s keeping a humble approach about it.

“Just really trying to keep rolling and coming into July, just trying to play hard and build on it,” he said. “Not get too happy but just build on it, I’ve got a lot of interest and the schools just want to see me play hard and get the motor going.”

A physical post player, Fisher has a nicely-developed face-up game as well, which he showed by banging in one 3-pointer and closely missing on a few others. Maryland, Virginia, Georgetown, Virginia Tech, Clemson and more have shown interest, and plenty of high-major coaches got to see what he brings to the table on Wednesday night.

He knows that to really get his game to the next level, he has to continue to play his hardest every time he takes the court.

“A lot of times I take plays off,” he admitted, “so I’m just trying to get that motor going and just show people that I’m willing to make the extra play.” --Josh Verlin
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Kodye Pugh (2017/SF/WE R1)
With a great start to the month, Kodye Pugh has picked up new offers from Florida, Clemson, Auburn, and Seton hall in recent weeks, making 18 total offers for the 2017 wing, who decided a couple months back to reclassify and transfer from Boys’ Latin (Md.) to Blair Academy (N.J.).

In addition, North Carolina and Stanford have started expressing interest, and he also listed South Carolina and Northwestern as other schools he has been in touch with recently, with both the Gamecocks and Wildcats having previously extended offers.

Having recently moved into the rising junior class, Pugh credits his experience with the recruiting process with helping him rack up many of the high-major offers he has garnered playing with WeR1 this summer.

“I’m a little used to the process. It’s not any pressure for me; I’ve been through it all, it’s not really new to me, so I’m just relaxed and playing my game, doing what I do,” Pugh said. “I’m just playing relaxed, not really worried about coaches and stuff like that, because the offers are gonna come. I’m just playing my game, doing me, not really worried about everything else.”

For now, Pugh is focusing on getting prepared for Blair Academy, as he’ll have to adjust to the lifestyle of going to boarding school for the first time.

“It’s a whole different atmosphere. I’m not used to going to boarding school,” he said. “I’m used to private school, so it’s a whole different environment for me. Just getting used to that lifestyle, the boarding school life, I think that will be my biggest challenge most of all.” --Ari Rosenfeld

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UC-Santa Barbara, Tulsa, Memphis and DePaul look to be the four favorites for South Kent (Conn.)'s Travis Atson. (Photo: Josh Verlin)

Travis Atson (2016/SG/PSA Cardinals)
Though he made the decision to reclassify from 2015 to 2016 and transfer from Christ the King (N.Y.) to South Kent (Conn.) this bouncy 6-4 wing guard could end up at a school that offered him before that transition happened.

UC-Santa Barbara head coach Bob Williams and staff offered Atson last June, a month before Atson made the decision to go to prep school and repeat his junior season. And though several high-major programs have also extended scholarships, the Gauchos remain hard on his trail, and he’s taking an official visit to the school on August 13.

“They’ve been recruiting me for a while, I like them a lot, got a good relationship,” Atson said. “I speak to coach Williams, (assistant) coach (Ryan) Madry every day.”

Getting a player from the East Coast out to Santa Barbara wouldn’t be a first--there’s already a New York native, St. Luke’s (N.Y.) product Ami Lakoji, on the roster.

And Atson certainly isn’t opposed to the move.

“I don’t think I’m going to stay in the New York area, (so) to get away, it should be good,” he said. “Cali especially, right on the beach, it would be fun.”

Playing with the Cardinals on the EYBL Circuit, Atson enjoyed a very strong spring and summer. At the Nike EYBL Peach jam, he really broke out, averaging more than 15 ppg and shooting just above 50 percent from the floor.

He continued that strong play on Wednesday night, throwing down a big-time slam early on to wake up the coaches. He continued that effort throughout the game against WE R1, finishing with a dozen points in a 67-66 overtime loss, including a pair of first-half 3-pointers.

That play is why schools like DePaul, Tulsa and Memphis have offered this summer; those three are the others that Atson mentioned as potential official visit destinations, and he said one with Tulsa is “in the works.”

While Tulsa, Oklahoma is still a plane ride away from his New York home, it would give Atson the ability to play some games in the region, against teams like Connecticut and Temple.

“I like it a lot, I want my parents to see some games at least,” he said. “Unless I go to Cali, but they understand.” --Josh Verlin

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Markelle Fultz (2016/SG/D.C. Blue Devils)
In the past couple weeks, both Kentucky and North Carolina have extended offers to the five-star DeMatha (Md.) rising senior.

That’s standard practice for the two blue-blood programs, considering Fultz is unanimously considered one of the top 25 players in his class.

Sounds like your typical Kentucky or North Carolina recruit. But that’s about where the similarities end between Fultz and his contemporaries on national rankings.

While many such players have been lauded since before even entering high school, Fultz did not play varsity basketball until his junior season. It wasn’t until then that he exploded onto the national scene, leading Dematha to the championship game of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, widely considered the best high school league in the country, and taking home Conference MVP honors to boot.

Such heavy recruiting attention is still a bit new for Fultz, but he never doubted that he could eventually be in the position in which he currently finds himself, even before High Point became the first school to offer him last summer.

“It was one time like a couple years ago I was just wondering when my first offer was gonna come. I never doubted myself, my mom didn’t raise me to do that,” Fultz said. “I was questioning, just saying ‘When am I gonna get my first offer? What do I have to do to get it?’, and when it came in it just made me so much happier and I just kept working each and every day.”

Now Fultz finds himself considering a litany of elite programs, naming Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisville, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Washington, Xavier, and Arizona as the schools most heavily in the mix for his services.

He plans on cutting his offer list that is currently more than 30 schools long down to 10 “pretty soon”, and will then take his five official visits in the next couple months. He already has his first official planned to Arizona in August, but has yet to determine who will receive the other officials.

“Next couple months I want to get it done, hopefully before school,” he said. “I want to decide earlier rather than later, so I can just focus on enjoying my senior year and work on winning a national championship and the WCAC. Hopefully I can get it done before, but I’m not rushing so if it bleeds over I’m fine with that.” --Ari Rosenfeld


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