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Temple Team Camp Notebook (June 23)

06/24/2017, 12:00am EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The Temple Team Camp opened up on Friday night with half of the event’s 32 teams in action over six courts at Pearson-McGonigle Hall, each playing two games out of four evening sets.

Here’s a notebook from N. Broad St.:

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Naadhir Wood (above) and West Catholic look much improved from last year's five-win finish. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

West Catholic’s young core starting to gel

Last year, it was clear what direction first-year head coach Jason Hasson was trying to take West Catholic Prep. Though the Burrs won just five games, they played an uptempo, aggressive style that was certainly wild at times but had its stretches of effectiveness.

Watching the Burrs face off against Notre Dame (N.J.) in their first game of Temple’s camp, it was clear it’s a unit that’s figuring out how to make that pressure work quite well in its advantage.

The adaptation to Hasson’s style didn’t really kick in until after his first season, but certainly seemed to be there during a spring league at West Catholic where the Burrs went 13-1 against the likes of Friends’ Central, Cardinal O’Hara and others.

“Last year, we didn’t have this good chemistry, but now we’re all together,” rising sophomore Naadhir Wood said. “We got to know (Hasson) all season, but this summer league, it really helped us get to know him.”

Though it was the West Catholic guards who came away with steal after steal -- including many in the Irish backcourt -- to lead the way to an 81-74 win, it’s only because of the presence of Wood that they were able to play so effectively aggressive.

“You’ve got to have someone back there who can rebound and block shots,” Hasson said. “He’s really making things work because he’s rebounding at an incredible rate, finishing around the basket, he’s protecting things so we can go frantic in the full court and feel comfortable in the back.”

Wood has grown a few inches and shed a few pounds since the end of a freshman season where he scored 65 total points, and looks poised for a breakout sophomore season. Now standing 6-7, he scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds, blocking seven shots in the win.

It’s clear that he’s in much better shape, which is paying dividends.

“Got (better) conditioning for sure,” Wood agreed. “Now I can play way more minutes than I was playing last year.”

Also playing well in the win for West Catholic was senior guard Mikey Robinson III, as the former Martin Luther King guard had 16 points and three assists; rising junior Imere Harris had 19 points while benefitting from a number of turnovers. Incoming freshman Zakir Williamson, a 6-4 wing forward with nimble moves despite a large frame, showed off some flashes of serious skill while chipping in 10 points of his own.

“I think the new additions really helped with Mikey Robinson and Zakir,” Hasson said. “Those two guys are really all in for the team so that really helps everybody else.”

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Seth Lundy (above) is in high demand from colleges as he prepares for his junior season. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Quick Hits
-- Roman Catholic (Pa.)’s Seth Lundy is one of many prospects in the Class of 2019 whose phone blew up on June 15, the first day that rising juniors were able to be contacted directly by college coaches. The 6-6 wing picked up offers from UConn, VCU and La Salle that day alone, joining a group that already included Bowling Green, Penn State and Temple. A smooth, athletic wing with a knock-down stroke and increasing ability to play off the bounce, Lundy has also heard from South Carolina, Villanova, Notre Dame, Mississippi State, Tulsa, Southern Cal, Central Florida and more, and he said most of those programs have indicated they’ll be watching him with Philly Pride at the Under Armour Association championship (July 12-16) and then at the UA All-American Camp in Philadelphia (July 19-21).

“I was actually very excited for the offers that came,” he said. “I was very shocked, but I knew I worked hard for it.”

Though Lundy said he doesn’t plan on taking visits until August, he said that Villanova, Penn State, Notre Dame and Central Florida were all trying to get him on campus. This summer, he said he’s working on his one-dribble pull-up and more: “simple moves, no extra dribbles, just being efficient, getting to the rack, getting [my] jump shot better.”

-- Team St8ment (Md.) typically plays on the 16U circuit of the Adidas Gauntlet, and it’s a group with some serious high-level talent that’s come to Temple for a weekend. Impressing on Friday night even in a loss to Plymouth-Whitemarsh was 2020 St. Frances (Md.) wing Anthony Thomas, a 6-6 freakish athlete who seemed to glide up and down the court, scoring 18 points while hitting from the outside, finishing contested layups around the rim and generally opening eyes all over the court. He’s far from a secret on the recruiting trail, also: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Kansas State, Virginia Tech and Rutgers have already offered; Oklahoma State and UConn have checked in with his coaches as well. The sky’s certainly the limit for Thomas, who needs to tighten up a lot of facets of his game but has the potential to go a long ways.

-- In Notre Dame’s loss to West Catholic, Irish rising junior big man Peter Sorber showed off plenty of the progress he’s been making in his game lately. The 6-7, 210-pound post player went for 20 points and nine rebounds with a few blocks sprinkled in, and he got that production in some impressive ways, catching and finishing in traffic and through defenders; he’s got great touch with both hands and much-improved footwork as well. Since June 15, he’s heard from a mix of high-academic (Columbia, Penn, Lafayette, Holy Cross) and major-conference (Penn State, Temple) programs, but at his size he might need to expand his game to pull in offers from the latter group.

“I don’t know if I’m growing, so I’ve got to work on different spots -- handles, shot, stuff like that,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to work on throughout the spring.”

-- Germantown Academy was missing both rising junior wing Brian Basile and rising freshman Jordan Longino, arguably its two best scorers, so it was up to the Patriots’ Class of 2020 to get it done in a 57-43 win over Cherry Hill East. There were six rising sophomores who all contributed to the victory: Luke Traina (6-1), Hans Lillis (6-1), Zack Anderson (5-10), Tom McDonnell (6-2), Tayshawn Mack (6-3) and Juan Adames (5-8), and none of those contributions were miniscule -- from McDonnell’s multiple second-half 3s to Traina’s defending and creating to Lillis’ rebounding, Anderson’s ball-handling and more. There were certainly stretches where the youth was apparent, but head coach Jim Fenerty couldn’t have been upset with the effort displayed.


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