City of Basketball Love

Teddy Bailey (@TheTeddyBailey) &

Ari Rosenfeld (@RealA_Rosenfeld)

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READING, Pa. -- Many of the country’s top 2018 and 2019 prospects came to The Hoop Group’s final camp of the summer, the Future All-American camp, from Aug. 2-5 at Albright University.

Here is a notebook featuring several area players and some top national names to know from the camp:

Chase Audige (Hill School ‘18)

Over the years, the Hill School has been known to produce its fair share of Division I basketball players.

Most recently, the Pottstown independent school has sent John Carroll to Hartford and James Fives to Loyola (Md.), both of whom starred on the Rams’ 2013-14 team that won the PAISAA state title.

But the best may be yet to come for head coach Seth Eilberg’s program, as incoming transfer Chase Audige looks like he could end up being the best prospect that the school has produced.

Audige, a rising sophomore coming in from New York power Archbishop Molloy, shined all week at Future All-American, displaying an exciting brand of basketball that should bring a welcomed spark to the Hill School lineup. At about 6-foot-4, he has the ability play both guard spots, and he excels in the open floor, getting all the way to the rim for big dunks or spotting up for three.

He found his way to Hill School through one of his coaches in New York, whose son graduated from there in 2002 and who was still in consistent contact with Eilberg.

“I went to Molloy last year, and I went there for one year. It didn’t really feel like it fit me, like I would want to be there for the next few years,” Audige said. “Then I went to visit Hill because my coach knew Seth, and my coach came with me. They said they really liked me and then Coach Eilberg came to one of my games and said he liked the way I play, so they accepted me and I ended up going there.”

At first, Audige was a bit trepidatious about making the move, as the New York native has never attended boarding school, always living at home and going to school in his home state.

But his visit to Hill’s campus sealed the deal, as Audige felt he had found himself the perfect fit.

“The moment I got there it felt like it was something different. Different than a city school, different than Stony Brook where I used to go,” he said. “I could see myself being there for the next three years. The kids there are really nice, the basketball team is really good and all my teammates are cool, and I like the coach. I feel like it’s right for me.”

Audige’s athleticism will provide a change of pace to Eilberg’s lineup, as Hill generally features guards who are more methodical, but a bit less athletic, than Audige prefers to play.

Eilberg does, however, feel like Audige needs to reign it in just a little in order to maximize his impact on the Rams this season.

“He just wants me to be comfortable and play the way I play,” Audige said. “He always tells me, ‘Simplify,’ because sometimes I try to do too much, so he says, ‘Simplify and that will make the game a lot easier and it will make you look way better on the court.’ That’s what I’m trying to do here.” -Ari Rosenfeld

Jonathan Kabongo (Huntington Prep ‘18)

Kabongo is not new to the recruiting process, by any means. The 6-foot-3 2018 guard has been around it for years, whether it be his brother Myck’s recruitment to Texas, or the past year spent at highly-touted Huntington Prep in West Virginia.

Or maybe it’s the three high-major offers that Kabongo has received either during, or after his freshman year of high school.

“I would have never thought this,” Kabongo said. “I never would have thought that I would have three high-major offers going into my sophomore year. I guess a lot of players get anxious when they get offers at this age. To me, it means nothing. I’m going to keep working, I have a long way to go.”

The point guard opened his recruitment with an offer from Virginia Tech back in early January, and since the Hokies extended a scholarship, Kabongo has been greeted by offers from Indiana in July and Washington State this past week. There’s an early connection to the Hoosiers for Kabongo - incoming Indiana freshman Thomas Bryant was a teammate of his at Huntington Prep this past season.

The Canadian native says that Bryant’s presence, in an environment such as Huntington Prep, has fast forwarded his development.

“He taught you where you have to be,” Kabongo said of Bryant. “I saw it first hand. I know what it takes to be a good leader and how to be a high-motor player, Tom was a great example. Huntington Prep has helped me develop as a player because it’s just a high-level environment, with the schedule. The talent is unreal and it takes my game to a higher level. It helps keep my motor up because I have to give it my all.”

Kabongo’s game is based upon the outside shot, but he’s your prototypical point guard in terms of distribution and ball-handling. He is surely one of the most polished point guards in the 2018 recruiting class, and that was on full display this past week - Kabongo was playing side-by-side with ESPN’s second-ranked player in the class of 2018, 6-foot-8 forward Silvio De Sousa.

“It was so great,” Kabongo said of De Sousa. “I get to play with one of the top big men in the country. I could throw it anywhere and he would catch it, it’s so much fun. It’s very good competition, game in, game out, you play some good players that are here. It’s just a good way to finish off the summer.”

It has been a fantastic summer for the Kabongo family. With his brother, Myck, recently taking home over $100,000 in The Basketball Tournament this past week, and Jonathan finishing off his summer with an appearance in the FAA Top 20 All-Star game, everything has gone pretty darn right as of late. The elder Kabongo has certainly been a mentor to his younger brother.

“I was so happy for him when I heard about him winning,” Jonathan said of Myck. “I was almost as happy as he was. He’s told me to just enjoy it, he said that it’s important to enjoy the process and have fun doing it. You don’t want to put a lot of pressure on yourself, it’s better to just enjoy it.” -Teddy Bailey

Bernard Lightsey (Imhotep Charter ‘18)

In a city known for a unique brand of guard play, Bernard Lightsey looks to be breaking the mold.

Though he’s a combo guard from the City of Brotherly Love, Lightsey isn’t necessarily your prototypical ‘Philly guard’. While that moniker generally refers to the off-the-bounce abilities of the city’s guards, combined with their innate grit and will to win, it more often than not also indicates a lack of a strong outside shot.

While Lightsey has all the positive qualities that being a ‘Philly guard’ encapsulate, he also bucks the trend with his sweet stroke from deep. Lightsey came out firing in his first game at Future All-American, knocking down four consecutive triples in the second half along with a few other deep jumpers.

He knows his abilities as a long-range sniper are what could earn him big minutes for Imhotep this season.

“Just take open shots and play defense,” he said of his role on the team. “I’ve just been working on [my shot] in the gym, and I’m gonna keep working on it.”

The Panthers starting backcourt is set, with two Division I prospects in Jaekwon Carlyle and Daron Russell sharing ballhandling duties, but Lightsey projects to be a key contributor off the bench at both guard spots.

Imhotep’s head coach, Andre Noble, is in attendance this week-- he actually coached against Lightsey in the game referenced above-- and has liked what he’s seen from his young guard.

“We’ve obviously got really good backcourt play, with Russell and Carlyle, and Bernard’s gonna add depth to that backcourt play,” Noble said. “I’m really proud of how hard Bernard has worked this offseason, because you can see it, that he’s a much better basketball player. I think he’s gonna be important for us during the season.”

Right now, it’s Russell and Carlyle’s presence that is hindering Lightsey from seeing big minutes, but he’s still taking advantage of the opportunity. Not every rising sophomore has two D-I guards to learn from everyday, and Lightsey is soaking up everything he can from his older teammates.

“It’s getting me better because I’m picking up from them,” he said. “I think I’ll be able to compete with the bigger and better players because I played with two good guards.” -Ari Rosenfeld

Luther Muhammed (Hudson Catholic ‘18)

Muhammad can certainly talk the talk. He openly admits it, shows it and knows it.

If Hoop Group’s Future All-American camp is any indication, the future high-major guard can walk the walk as well.

It’s his style of play that has become heavily scrutinized in today’s day in age. It’s his confidence, his swagger, and his emotions that have been questionably turned into negative attributes for an athlete.

The 6-foot-2 guard from Hudson Catholic (N.J.) was visibly animated in a game against Roselle Catholic’s Rodrique Massenat during team play at the FAA camp. The pair of 2018 guards were going back-and-forth, competitively jawing with one another. According to Muhammad, it was Massenat that started the battle, and it was Muhammad that ended it.

“I know him personally,” Muhammad said of Massenat, “So he started talking and I had to turn it up a notch. I had to let him know that I’m still on top.”

It’s that mentality that is seemingly synonymous for the game of basketball. That mentality, according to Muhammad, can come back to haunt you if you can’t back it up on both ends of the court.

“I take pride in playing defense,” he said. “I’m a trashtalker, you can’t be talking trash if you can’t play defense. It makes the game more fun and more intense for me.”

It’s been an impressive summer for Muhammad’s SportsU’s 15U team - champions of the UA Fab 48 Tournament in Las Vegas this past July. In addition to Muhammad, the squad features Jahvon Quinerly, Nazreon Reid, Atiba Taylor Jr., among others.

“This summer gave me so much more confidence in my game,” Muhammad said. “We won the UA finals, we took that, that was a big one, we wanted that bad.”

Muhammad also plays with Quinerly for Hudson Catholic; in the duo’s freshman season, the Hawks went 24-4 (10-0) and made a run into the state semifinals before falling to St.Anthony.

"Going into my sophomore year, right now I think my role is to try to be a leader and score,” said Muhammad. “My AAU coach told me no matter where I go and who I play for, I’m always going to have to be a leader.”

 The high-flying, outgoing guard is one of those do-it-all players. Muhammad is an above-average jumpshooter that gets up-and-down the court extremely well. His athleticism, and sheer motor, allow for acrobatic and impressive drives to the basket.

It’s those attributes that have caused Rider, and Pittsburgh to offer the 2018 standout so early. Muhammad’s recruiting is expected to endure a high-major spike as he gets closer to graduating high school

“Academics first.,” he said. “I need academics in a school if basketball doesn’t work out. “Every kid’s dream is to go to a big school. I’ve been told that Pitt fits me a lot, they play like my style of play.” -Teddy Bailey

Myles Dread (Gonzaga College HS ‘18)

For most players in the 2018 class, it’s a bit early to start generating large amounts of college offers.

College coaches do watch rising sophomores in 15U AAU action throughout the summer, but it’s certainly not their priority, as they tend to focus more on their top targets in the rising senior class and in identifying who those targets will be in the rising junior class.

So it’s not uncommon for a player like Myles Dread to be offerless, but what is a bit less frequent is for a rising sophomore to have the laundry list of high-major schools expressing interest that the DMV-area prospect does at this time.

Dread claimed interest in the form of letters or calls to his coaches from Cincinnati, George Mason, West Virginia, Stanford, Maryland, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, and Wake Forest, and he certainly plans on putting in the requisite work in order to parlay that interest into some offers over the next year.

“Just being in the gym every day, no rest. Just working when you’re tired and working when nobody’s watching,” he said of his plans for his sophomore season at Gonzaga. “As of right now I feel like the biggest aspect of my game that I need to work on is my ballhandling and my physical condition. I feel like I could be in better shape and I have to be stronger with the ball because I’m gonna be playing the guard at the higher level.”

Dread will be a big piece for Gonzaga this season, as the Eagles seek to defend the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title, competing in what many feel is the best high school league in the nation.

Having started last season as a freshman, Dread will team with classmate Prentiss Hubb and rising junior Chris Lykes-- both high-major prospects in their own right-- to form a three-headed monster on the perimeter that will surely give opposing coaches fits.

“I’m very excited for school,” he said. “Chris Lykes, Eddie Scott, and Prentiss Hubb, those are my friends, I love those dudes. They push me, I push them, and I feel as though next season we are going to have a very, very strong team and I think we’ll have a good chance to defend the title.”

For now, though, Dread has a bit of time to just relax before the start of the school year and basketball season. He took advantage of that opportunity on the last day of Future All-American, using the Top 20 All Star game as a chance to engage in a light-hearted one-on-one battle with the aforementioned Muhammad.

“I’ve been playing with Luther since I was 10. We’ve played against each other, always had battles, always in a dog fight,” Dread said of the matchup. “We always have fun with each other off the court, so I felt this was an off-the-court basketball game, where we could just have fun with each other.” -Ari Rosenfeld

Eric Dixon (Abington ‘19)

There was a misprint on Hoop Group’s Future All-American camp rosters that caused for a little confusion amongst scouts and media members.

Rising freshman Eric Dixon, a 6-foot-6 forward, was listed as going to Hatboro-Horsham in the fall for his first season of high school basketball.

“That was just a misprint,” Dixon said. “I’m going to Abington.”

There was never any decision between the two public schools in suburban Philadelphia, just a simple misprint on the roster. Dixon had gone to Abington Middle School prior to the transition to high school.

It’s a transition that Dixon is eager to make. The powerful forward is exceptional in the post, not being afraid to do the dirty work for his team down low. While his shooting and ball-handling are still developing, the post-play, the tenacity and the rebounding are all there. The rising freshman was extremely impressive at Future All-American camp - and that impression landed him onto the “Fab Freshman” All-Star game roster.

“I just played hard,” Dixon said. “I focused on playing physical and playing in the paint to help my team win.”

Dixon currently plays for WeR1’s 14U squad, and recognizes that this summer is an important one for his development and maturity as he nears his high school debut.

“I’ve really just been trying to get in better shape,” he said. “I have been working to improve my off-ball game and work on my shooting and ball-handling.”

The Galloping Ghosts of Abington are coming off of a 26-4 (16-0 SOL) campaign that led to not only the league title, but the District 1 Class AAAA title as well. The Ghosts, led by head coach Charles Grasty, were bounced in the first round of the PIAA State Tournament by J.P. McCaskey, the cinderella of the tournament that almost knocked off state champion Roman Catholic in the state semifinals.

The talent that got Abington that far in 2014-2015, however, is mostly gone. One of the best guard duos in Pennsylvania last year have moved onto bigger and better things. With Matt Penecale off to West Chester, and Amir Hinton playing up at Lock Haven, as well as the graduation of six other seniors, Dixon is expected to play right away for the Ghosts.

“I should probably have a lot of time on the varsity team right away,” Dixon said. “Hopefully I can make as big of an impact as possible.”

Abington, for the past two seasons, was known for raucous environments with impressive student sections. As a middle schooler in the Abington school district, Dixon is finally able to play in those types of atmospheres.

“I went to a lot of games last year and saw the crowds,” he said. “The student sections. I was like, “wow, that could be me next year.

It will be him next year. -Teddy Bailey

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