City of Basketball Love

Tyler Sandora (@tyler_sandora) &
Rich Flanagan (@RichFlanagan33)
--
The 23rd annual Philadelphia All-City Classic took place at Girard College on Friday night, with a trio of games highlighting the best young hoops talent the area has to offer.

Here’s a notebook from the evening:

--

South Jersey sharpshooter coming to Catholic League

Roman Catholic has a reputation for developing talent within its program.

Having had a sizable portion of its players come out as finished products, which has been followed by having several schools usually line up to take in the team’s games over the course of the season in hopes these players will be able to help their respective programs.

In recent years, the Cahillites have still developed talent the way they have always done but they’ve added a small ingredient that has paid major dividends: transfers. Whether it was Lamar Stevens coming over from the Haverford School in 2015 or Allen Betrand from Samuel Fels last year, Roman has benefited from transfers who have come in, gelled with the team early on and continued the winning tradition of the PCL program.

They can chalk up another one on this list, as 2019 guard Hakim Hart will be attending Roman in the fall, he confirmed Friday night. Hart previously played for Kingsway (N.J.) and developed into an impressive talent, averaging 26.0 ppg this past season.

“It’s a great group of players and I know we can win a lot of games,” said Hart, after helping the Public team secure an 87-80 win over the Non-Public side.

Being able to play at Roman is a homecoming for Hart. He grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and moved to Kingsway prior to his freshman year. The 6-foot-3, rangy guard has a smooth stroke and was the catalyst of the Dragons offense over his two seasons with the team.

Even as Hart’s skillset continued to develop, he was always keeping in touch with a close friend, current Penn State and former Roman Catholic guard, Tony Carr. Carr, a member of the Cahillites’ PCL and PIAA state title team in 2016, has been a close friend of Hart’s for much of his life and was monitoring his progress at Kingsway. He felt Hart would have a better opportunity to maximize his talent with Roman and got him in touch with Griffin.

“Tony is like my big brother. He continually said [Roman] is a great program and will help [me] out,” Hart said.

Hart noted that he will be working out with the 2016-17 All-Big Ten All-Freshman Team selection this summer in preparation for the upcoming season.

Head coach Matt Griffin did not have the opportunity to coach Carr but having a player like Hart who was molded by a former Roman standout can only benefit his team in his mind.

“[Hart is] from St. Martin de Porres parish in Philadelphia. He’s always been interested in the program by going to Roman Catholic camps. It’s kind of something that he’s always wanted to do,” said Griffin, fresh off his first season at the helm of the Cahillites (20-6).

Hart also played on the 16u Philly Pride squad this spring, which also includes rising junior and new teammate Seth Lundy. Hart said he has been in constant contact with Lundy and sophomore Lynn Greer III. Hart has “a lot of respect for them” and said he was “really talking about playing together and building something.”

Roman has a number of summer events coming up including the Villanova Team Camp (June 16-17), Temple Team Camp (June 23-24) and a July live period event in Montclair called “The Weekend.” Expect Hart to join the team for at least one of those events as he begins to acclimate himself with the rest of the team. Griffin is just beginning to see where Hart plays into the team’s plans this season but he knows it will be in a very large role.

“It’s so early but the main things we stress are defense and rebounding. We’re trying to get better as team. We feel he’ll be a great piece to the puzzle,” Griffin said.

Hart is hoping the increased exposure and level of play will add to the offers he has received so far such as Temple, Tulane and Bowling Green. He has also been receiving interest from Villanova. At this point, he’s just ready to get out there and play with guys like Greer and Lundy.

“I’m ready to get started. I’ll be working out with those guys over the summer,” Hart said.

~~~

Pinkney talks about interesting hoops background

Compared to some other high-major recruits, Archbishop Wood’s Seth Pinkney has taken a more unique path to where he is today.

Being tall his entire life, Pinkney was naturally asked by friends and coaches to play for their basketball teams, but he never really found a true love for the game until he started playing at Wood. His decision to start playing not only affected his life, but also the life of his brother, Koby Thomas.  

“I started playing basketball before him, and he was never to serious about it,” Pinkney said. “He started playing because I was. I feel like now I’m looking up to him more than he was to me because I inspired him to play.”

Thomas, a 6-5 uber-athletic wing from Imhotep Charter, will join the Robert Morris Colonials next season. Living with Pinkney, the brothers love playing with and against each other, improving their games for when the spotlight is on and the college coaches watch.

When Pinkney suits up for K-Low Elite’s 17u team in the summer, he’s the tallest member of the team, forcing him to do most of the dirty work inside. Still working on developing a face-up game outside the paint, Pinkney has established himself as a force in the paint, using his long frame to reject opponents shots with ease. He showed much of that on Friday night, as he corralled rebounds around the rim and stuffed a few shots on defense.

“I want to work on post moves and getting stronger,” he said. “I also want to work on my handles more because that will help my game on offense.”

Right now, Pinkney lists Temple, St. Joe’s, Central Florida, LaSalle, and Towson as schools recruiting him. While no visits are currently planned for the summer, Pinkney did attend a La Salle game this past season.

Going into his senior season standing 6-11, Pinkney has made countless improvements over the last few years, learning how to play inside of his long and lanky frame.

“I hope I’m done growing,” he said. “I think I’m the right height for my style of play so I’m fine if I don’t grow anymore.”

---

Kinnel adjusting to new AAU team for third year in a row

Darius Kinnel is no stranger to the All-City Classic. Having played in the event for three straight years, he sees it more as an annual reunion to reconnect with other players from across the city including a few Philadelphia Catholic League rivals.

For the class of 2018 game, he paired up with St. Joe’s Prep teammate Ed Croswell as Bonner-Prendergast’s Ajiri Johnson and Archbishop Wood’s Tyree Pickron and Andrew Funk, to name a few. For Kinnel, it was the same way the month of June has begun for him the last few years.

“This is my third year playing in this event. It’s such a vast group of talented guys. I haven’t seen a lot of these guys in a while. It’s very fun,” Kinnel said.

While the All-City Classic may be familiar to him, his spring on the AAU circuit has changed in each of the last three years. As a freshman while at Highland Regional (N.J.), he played for WeR1 and then as a sophomore when he transferred to St. Joe’s Prep, he teamed up with Philly Pride and Jersey Force. This season, he decided to play for the New York Jayhawks but he had a specific reason behind the move.

“I’ve known head coach [Jay David] since I was in eighth grade. When that spot was available, he approached me about coming over. I loved the transition,” Kinnel said. “It’s a very new experience and it’s a lot of great guys.”

The transition has been even smoother due to the fact the Jayhawks are undefeated on the 17U Adidas Uprising circuit so far this season and the 6-foot guard is continuing to build off of an outstanding junior campaign with the Hawks. He averaged 14.3 ppg this season and scored in double figures in 20 games. He helped St. Joe’s Prep (14-9) earn a berth in the PCL playoffs where they fell in grueling fashion to Roman Catholic, 56-55. Kinnel says that loss is fueling his drive during AAU tournaments and summer workouts.

“The last lost really hurt, so we’re definitely taking that with us into next season. We have a whole new group of guys with some seniors leaving. I think we’re going to be a very talented group,” Kinnel said.

Kinnel’s continued success from the regular season through AAU play has piqued interest from a number of Division I schools such as Dartmouth, Brown, Rider and Boston University. With another strong year alongside fellow rising seniors Croswell and Kyle Thompson, he’s also looking to add postseason play as an annual event.

“I’ve set the expectations very high for this team in my senior year. I expect us to definitely go to the Palestra this year as well as making a run at a state championship or possibly a city title,” Kinnel said.

---

Quick Hits

-- Justin Steers mentioned Dayton, Drexel, UMass, and Central Connecticut State as schools after his services. The 6-foot-6 slashing wing took an unofficial visit to Drexel earlier this year, and got offered while at the campus. After finishing his junior year at Tacony Charter, Steers reclassified to the class of 2018 and completed another junior year at Friends Central. Later this month, Steers plans to head up the east coast for a weekend and visit Rhode Island, UMass, and Central Connecticut State.

-- In the warm up lines for the sophomore game, Donta Scott made it very apparent that he is one of the most explosive athletes in the city. With his ability to seemingly float in the air, Scott was throwing down some entertaining slams, even getting his head close to the rim on a few. Starting on an Imhotep team which finished third in the country according to USA Today, Scott appreciated the help of the guards on his team setting up him and fellow big men for easy looks around the rim. Playing for Philly Pride’s 16u squad, Scott wants to improve on his ability to finish through contact at the rim and his outside game, he assumes he will be playing more of a guard role at the next level. St. Joe’s and Temple are the only schools to offer the 6-7 wing, but Villanova and Georgia Tech have started to reach out to the rising junior.