City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Ari Rosenfeld (@ARosenfeldDVHR)
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MANALAPAN, N.J. -- The Elevate Hoops’ Memorial Day HoopFest concluded on Sunday with the championship rounds in its 13U through 17U divisions, though every team who participated in the tournament got at least one game after playing two the day before.

Here’s a notebook from the 15U, 16U and 17U championship rounds:

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Parker, Warriors cap weekend with two titles

Last year, Okoye Parker didn’t play a lick of AAU basketball.

Despite leading the state of Delaware in scoring during his sophomore season at Caravel Prep, the 6-foot-3 wing couldn’t find the right fit on the summer circuit, so he spent the offseason focused solely on self-improvement.

This year, after scoring more than 31 ppg and leading Caravel Prep into the DIAA state championship game, Parker knew it was time for him to get some serious exposure. So he tried out for the Jersey Shore Warriors, and has become a valuable member of a program that’s become a fixture on the area summer hoops scene.

Parker certainly left his mark on the Elevate Hoops Memorial Day HoopFest, as he capped off a strong Sunday by helping to lead the Warriors’ 17Us to a dominant, 82-46 win over the NJ Roadrunners in the championship game. Minutes later, the 15Us capped off a 43-42 title game win.

Though he flashed plenty of ability in March and April during his first few appearances with the Warriors, Parker was at his most well-rounded in the championship game -- knocking down 3-pointers off the catch, getting into the lane and creating for his teammates, going after rebounds and pushing the tempo without playing out of control.

“I’m definitely more comfortable than I was before,” he said. “[The team] bonding together [in] hotels and stuff like that, it brings us all together and helps us become stronger together.”

Parker is still waiting on his first collegiate offer of any level, though he said he’s been hearing from in-state schools Delaware and D-II Wilmington U., plus Cornell and a few others.

Right now, he’s focused on adding muscle to his 165-pound frame, with a goal to get up to 180 or 185 pounds, a lofty number he plans to hit by “drinking protein shakes and lifting weights -- and after you lift weights, go in the gym and shoot it out, don’t want to mess up your shot.”

The focus ahead is on bringing a state title to Caravel after falling one win shy this year. The loss to Smyrna in the DIAA state championship game represented a big step forward for a program that only the year before broke a 10-year-plus playoff drought, and with all but two members of the team returning next year, expectations are as high as possible for Parker and crew.

“Getting to a state championship...I’ve dreamed of playing at the Bob, and me getting a chance to do it, I felt i had to do everything I could to get there,” he said. “[Now we’re] trying to get that ring.”

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Deng looms large as Yellow Jackets make semifinal run

The first-ever tournament for the brand-new Team Yellow Jackets went about as well as could be expected, as the group which formed about a month ago made it to the semifinals of the 17U division before bowing out to the NJ Roadrunners.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, considering two things: first, four of the team’s nine players attend high school together at Valley Forge Military Academy; second, it always helps to a have 6-10 center with multiple high-level Division I offers.

Valley Forge rising senior Abraham Deng was certainly a presence in the paint for the Yellow Jackets all weekend long, and the South Sudan native looks like he’s taking another step forward in his progress as a prospect. At 6-10 and 210 pounds, he’s a lean, athletic big man who runs the floor like a deer, getting back in transition to block shots multiple times over the course of the weekend.

Offensively, he’s still mostly limited to dump-offs and put-backs, though he did knock down a smooth 14-footer in the quarterfinals, when he posted six points, 10 boards and a trio of blocks in a win over The Firm (N.Y.). It’s still quite a long ways away from when he first arrived at Valley Forge before his sophomore year in 2015, just two years after he first picked up the sport.

“When I [first] came here, everything was so different, so I wasn’t used to everything,” he said. “Now, at least, I’m used to U.S. basketball, I feel totally different.”

Deng is the only member of the Yellow Jackets with a current Division I offer, and he’s got four: from Temple, Old Dominion, St. Joe’s and Hampton, all of which came in at various points last year. He said all four are still involved in his recruitment -- he’s unofficially visited Temple and St. Joe’s -- but a number of high major schools are involved; UConn, Maryland, Clemson, VCU and more have kept tabs on Deng since he played last summer with WeR1.

A visit to Maryland was supposed to happen last weekend, but Deng got sick and had to postpone.

He’s not too worried about his recruiting at this moment, mentioning that he’ll know where he wants to go to school “by next year,” but is more worried about improving on Valley Forge’s finish from 2016-17. The Trojans won the District 1/11 Class 3A title and made it to the PIAA 3A quarterfinals before losing to Del-Val Charter; it was Valley Forge’s first trip to the state playoffs.

With fellow rising seniors Arion Lewis and Marius Ntwari plus rising junior Rye Ahronson also all on the Yellow Jackets, it’s a great opportunity for them to continue to build over the summer.

“It’ll help, it’ll help a lot,” Degn said. “Because the way we play together right now, when the [pre[season comes, in August, it’s going to be easy for us to play together and do some good things.”

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Atlantic City wing Bethea shines for Jersey Force

So far, there have been four programs to offer Atlantic City wing Ray Bethea: Howard, Stony Brook, NJIT and St. Francis (Pa.).

And while all are in pursuit of the athletic 6-foot-4 guard, there’s one school who’s gone a little above and beyond.

“With Stony Brook, I’m their No. 1 recruit in my class, so they really like me and really want me to come to their school,” he said. “It feels good, they’ve got a lot of confidence in me.”

Though the Seawolves have made Bethea a top priority, they’re likely going to have to fight off quite a few more schools once the July live recruiting periods roll around. Atlantic 10-level programs like UMass and Rhode Island are among those who are keeping track of Bethea, and he’ll have his opportunity to prove he can play there with a strong month.

Bethea had a strong outing in Jersey Force’s 17U semifinals loss to the Jersey Shore Warriors, dropping 19 points, mostly from slashing to the hoop and getting it done through contact around the rim, though he did hit a 3-pointer as well.

That’s the trait that colleges love most about him: “they’re saying they want me to be that slasher, get to the basket, be that extra point, be scrappy on defense,” he said. “They want me to be aggressive at all times.”

Bethea is less than a week away from his first unofficial visit, to Howard; he’s also planning on seeing NJIT before the Rumble in Bronx tournament early next month, and further visits are in the works. He’s in no rush for his recruitment.

“I might wait it out to probably until next season [to commit],” he said, “just to see if I can get more [offers].”

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Quick Hits

-- The 16U championship was taken by Jersey Force, who took out Jersey Shore Warriors’ 16s 61-46 in a game they controlled the entire way through. That was in large part thanks to a pair of guards, Marc Dennis (2019/Long Branch) and Jon Delgado (2019/Hudson Catholic), plus wing Coley Holton (2019/Middle Twp.). Dennis, a speedy 5-10 point guard, played the game at a high gear and had a terrific ability to get into the lane and dish; Delgado, the backup to 5* prospect Jahvon Quinerly, has a knockdown 3-point stroke and is strong off the bounce as well, while Holton, a 6-4 wing, might be the best prospect of the group, with a great motor and intriguing inside-out abilities. None have offers yet; all three look the part.

-- Though the Jersey Shore Warriors’ 16U’s group of sharpshooters mostly seemed to run out of legs in the championship game, Archbishop Carroll rising junior Luke House showed why he’ll be a valuable member of the Patriots’ this upcoming season. The 6-foot-5, 170-pound wing guard got some minutes off the varsity bench as a swing varsity/JV player as a sophomore, but has an idea of where he’ll be this season, as he’s been starting all spring long in the Penn Wood league. A terrific knockdown shooter who was making tough jumpers from all over the court, including turnaround catch-and-shoots and pull-up 3-pointers, House’s next step is to improve his handle to become a true guard, even as he grows closer to his older brother’s 6-7 frame. “I’m just trying to get ready this summer,” he said. “Work on my ball-handling, drive it to the rim, keep shooting well.”

Also impressing for the Warriors’ 16s was Anthony DiCaro (2019/Cherokee), as the 6-3 guard was all over the court in three games on Sunday, including the shot of the tournament, a turnaround 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Warriors past Team Final in the semifinals; Pat Kernan (2019/Shawnee) and Alex Capitano (2020/Episcopal Academy) were also consistently strong all weekend, while 6-5 forward Jonathan Post (2019/Pennridge) put in a quality effort on the glass.

-- It was at Sportika just last month that French-born Abdoul Mounir Mohamadou-Hima made his United States debut, playing with the NJ Roadrunners 15U outfit in Elevate Hoops’ Spring Showdown event. The 6-foot-10 freshman, who goes by his middle name, has already made waves in his short time in the U.S., and showed today why he has the potential to be a top-100 level recruit in the 2020 class.

Mohamadou-Hima moves like a guard, operating mostly on the perimeter right now due to his slender frame, and despite his relative lack of experience, displays a strong feel for the game already. While he’s no slouch on the offensive end, his defense is still where he makes the biggest impact at this time, as he sports a scary combination of length and instincts to affect shots around the rim, but also has the ability to stay in front of smaller players on the perimeter. Attending St. Mary of the Assumption in Elizabeth, expect Mohamadou-Hima to turn plenty of heads come July when college coaches get their first extended look at the young big man.

-- In a matchup that was fit for a championship game, the 17U semifinal pitted two of the area’s strongest unsponsored teams against each other: Jersey Shore Warriors and Jersey Force. While there were plenty of Division I prospects on the floor, the best matchup came on the block, where Ryan Young (2018/Bethlehem Catholic) and Jared Kimbrough (2018/Neptune HS) both showed why a number of mid-majors have been pursuing them this spring. Despite different styles--Young is more of a back-to-the-basket space eater, while Kimbrough is a slender, athletic rim-runner--both posts make their presence felt at all times, whether scoring inside or crashing the glass. They played essentially to a draw this afternoon, with Young posting 10 points and nine rebounds and Kimbrough scoring eight points to go with eight boards and three blocked shots.

Both players elevated their stock during the April live periods, and it appears Young’s recruitment has begun to hit high-major territory. Although his offers come from programs throughout the Atlantic 10, CAA, and the academic conferences, he has begun to receive interest from Stanford, Notre Dame, and Michigan in recent weeks. Those programs haven’t offered yet, but he plans to visit all three schools next month and they all intend to evaluate him further come July.