City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
--

MANHEIM, Pa. -- The first live recruiting weekend of the 2017 offseason tipped off on Friday night across the country, including with the first rounds of the Hoop Group’s Spring Jam Fest at the massive Spooky Nook Sports.

Here’s a notebook from the tournament’s opening night:

~~~

Warren preparing for step towards Saints spotlight

For a school like Neumann-Goretti which pumps out Division I talent year after year – and seven state championships in eight years in the process – filling key roles each offseason is nothing new.

With point guard Quade Green, one of the city’s most prolific point guards in recent memory, headed for Kentucky after winning four state titles, the Saints will once again be looking to fill such a void.

Enter Noah Warren.

Warren, a rising senior 6-foot guard who has been touted most notably as a shooter in his time at Neumann-Goretti, has set the course for a critical offseason as he looks to – alongside fellow classmate Christian Ings – fill the backcourt hole left by Green.

In order to do so, he’ll need to first take what he learned from the leadership on and off the court of Green, Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree and the entire graduating class at Neumann and put it into practice.

“Just to go hard, learn from what I got from them,” Warren said. “Playing against them every day, use it on the court.”

In terms of Green in particular, Warren noted that practicing with such a poised point guard also improved his abilities on the defensive end.

“Definitely defense, he made me a better defender,” he said. “Not a lot of people as good as him out there.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Warren hopes to spend this offseason developing a more diverse game.

He scored 16 points in a win over the York Ballers in 17U showcase action, knocking down four 3-pointers but also getting into the lane for a pair of layups, including a nifty floater over a defending forward.

“You’ve got to play around it, people know that you can shoot so you’ve just got to learn how to shoot around it,” he said. “Probably driving more, if people are playing the three I can try to get to the rim.”

In terms of his future outside of Neumann-Goretti, Warren referenced a handful of Division I and II schools that have been in touch, including Radford, NJIT, Drexel, Dartmouth and Lincoln (D-II).

But before he takes the next step to the college ranks, his first goal is to fill a leadership role as a senior on one of the city’s most decorated basketball programs.

“It’s really important, you’ve got to lead guys, it’s really important,” he said. “Talking a lot, saying things I know, telling them, getting them in the right places.”

~~~

York junior racking up mid-major offers

There’s no doubt that a family connection helped Antonio Rizzuto pick up his first Division I offer. After all, his first cousin, Jon Iati, is an assistant coach at Albany, the same school he played at from 2003-08 after starring at York Catholic.

But the Great Danes’ offer was clearly no mere family nicety: Rizzuto can play. And now he enters April with five offers, as Stony Brook, High Point, Columbia and most recently Mount St. Mary’s have all offered the Northeastern (York) junior.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard is also hearing from several higher-level schools, including one Big 5 institution.

“Head coach [Phil Martelli] of St. Joe’s came to three of my games during the season,” Rizzuto said. “He said he was really impressed with how I played...just keep doing what I’m doing, working hard and being a good teammate.”

Rizzuto also named Davidson and Delaware as two others that had been keeping tabs, along with “a lot of Patriot League and America East” teams.

They’re all in love with his beautiful 3-point stroke, which he’ll unleash in an instant, but now he needs to show he can expand his game off the dribble, including creating for his teammates.

He said he’s been focusing on ball-handling and defense, because “I’ve been realizing that defense, it’s not just about how many points you can put up, it’s about defense, too. When you get to college, it’s all about defense, if you can play defense.”

This past season, Rizzuto was a big reason Northeastern lost just two games all year long, making it to the PIAA 5A semifinals before bowing out to Meadville.

“It was a great experience, build our confidence like crazy for me and my team,” he said. “It was really cool to be able to do that my junior year.”

~~~

Shaughnessy delivers big opening-night win

With his Middlesex Magic squad locked in a tie game against the Jersey Shore Warriors in a big-time 17U Hoop Group Showcase League game with 23 seconds left, Thomas Shaughnessy wanted the ball in his hands.

And for good reason.

The 6-0 guard capped off a 27-point outing with a left-handed layup at the buzzer, bringing the Magic a 61-59 win over the Warriors to give them a big boost heading into Saturday’s bracket play.

“We’re still gelling as a team, so a big win like that over a really good program is huge with chemistry and the way we play together,” he said. “So definitely nice to come out of the gate strong.”

Coming out of the gate strong is important for Shaughnessy, who’s playing with plenty of confidence of his own after picking up his first offer, from Army, last month.

That came after a year where he averaged 24 ppg and helped Needham (Mass.) into the state semifinals.

“I’m amped,” he said. “I’m a pretty energetic, motivated player so just building off of that, trying to do the same thing that I’ve always done, play with energy, aggression and that’s my game.”

He looked the part of a Division I guard against a Warriors squad filled with other D-I targets, knocking down four 3-pointers during the game but also getting into the lane and getting to the lane, making nine foul shots.

That’ll leave a good impression in front of a contingent of about 20-some D-I schools watching the game, including a number of Ivy/Patriots; Shaughnessy said he’s been contacted by a list of schools that includes “Cornell, Brown, Columbia, Penn, Lehigh, Lafayette, Holy Cross (and) Loyola (Md.),” and they’re looking for him to play more on the ball than he’s used to in the past.

“I think I have to be a ‘1’ and a ‘2’,” he said. “I’ve been a ‘2’ for a while and I’m transitioning to more of a ball-handler, so I’m working a lot on ball-handling, moving off the dribble, finding other guys, if I can do that I think I should be set.”

~~~

Quick Hits
-- Really impressive showing from JB Hoops’ Joshua Samec (2018/Hazelton Area), who scored 31 points in a win over Maryland’s Finest. The 6-8, 205-pound post took advantage of being the tallest player on the court, demanding the ball on the block and finding his way to the bucket time and again, no matter what he had to do. He also showcased his range by stepping out and knocking down a 3-point shot, with a smooth mid-range jumper or two as well. “My outside shot was a little shaky, I think I might have missed one or two,” he said, “but banging inside was definitely what we needed and that’s what I was there for.” Samec said he’d only been hearing from “a couple” of Division IIIs so far, but that’ll change quickly towards the Division II level and perhaps higher with a few more outings like that. Also must mention East Stroudsburg 2018 Gregory Eck, whose buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the left wing earned JB Hoops the win.

-- Randy Rickards (2018/Cape Henlopan, Del./Team Final Black) has to do a bit of everything for his high school team, which showed on the court with Team Final Black. The 6-5 wing forward produced 18 points and quite a handful of rebounds in the win over York Ballers, getting all of that within 15 feet of the rim, though he did it in a variety of ways, including a couple of slams that showcased his athleticism, and some tough finishes to display a high level of body control through contract. He’s also a tenacious defender, coming up with several big blocks. Rickards cited interest from UMBC and Maine, and is trying to work on his shot to transition his game out to the ‘3’.