City of Basketball Love

By Sean McBryan (@hooplove215)
—

MANHEIM — The final Hoop Group boys’ tournament of the summer took place at Spooky Nook Sports this weekend, the Summer Finale bringing a good number of the Hoop Group Summer League squads as well as a few Nike, Under Armour and Adidas programs together for a couple days of brackets and showcase games.

Here’s who stood out to the CoBL staff on Sunday:

~~~

Summer Finale Coverage: Day 1 Standouts | Day 2 Standouts | Notebook Pt. 1 | Notebook Pt. 2

~~~

London Jemison (2025 | Expressions EYBL 17U)

Jemison, a 6-8 wing, brings athleticism and versatility not commonly seen in a player of his stature; he reclassified into the 2025 class and will join St. Thomas More (Conn.) after playing three seasons with Northwest Catholic, where he led the Lions to back-to-back state championship appearances.

“I’m talking to high-majors now after reclassifying,” Jemison said. “My recruitment has picked up a little bit more since the 15th. Everything’s been going good.”

Jemison averaged 17.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists last year and showed that diversity over the weekend during the Hoop Group Summer Finale.

He had 18 points and eight rebounds in a win over Wildcat Select and 14 points and four rebounds in the second half of a win over Crown Saturday, which he finished off with a windmill slam.

“I had to,” Jemison said with a smile.

An offer from Temple followed shortly after. The inside-out potential had already brought in offers from Brown, UMass, Fairfield, Yale, Rhode Island, St. Joe’s, Rice, Boston U, and George Mason.

“I’m just looking for a place that’s going to help me develop,” Jemison said. “I want to be a pro. A place that feels like home. But I’m fine with leaving Connecticut.”

Jemison said he’s also heard from Marquette, Notre Dame, Penn, Siena, SMU, Virginia Tech and Xavier as he prepares to continue making waves during the summer and into his high school season with St. Thomas More.

“My main focus is my strength and conditioning,” Jemison said. “Also consistency of shooting and finishing through contact.”

~~~

Tajae Jones (2025 | LABC 17U)

The 6-7 forward has a relentless motor that was on full display Sunday for LABC in its 53-47 victory over York Ballers in the 17U Platinum 1 Championship.

Jones had 16 points and 13 rebounds, the latter of which he constantly left the floor with full exertion while also doing the same to affect shots on the defensive end. The reason he still had energy? Winning.

“I just wanted to win the game,” Jones said. “When you have a passion for the game you want to win every time. You do whatever it takes. That’s what it was. I tried to get some buckets on the offensive side and then defensively get blocks and rebounds to help my team win.”

Jones attended Notre Dame-West Haven (Conn.) last season where he also did a lot of winning; he had 24 points and 15 rebounds in the Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC) championship game — the Green Knights’ second title in a row — before deciding to reclassify into 2025 and transfer to St. George’s (R.I.).

“We won a lot [at Notre Dame-West Haven],” Jones said. “We won our division and league championship. I feel like the school I’m transferring to — St. George’s — is a great opportunity to play against college competition in order to make it to the next level. It was just a better opportunity and position for me personally.”

Jones’ Notre Dame-West Haven teammate Mekhi Conner, who won tournament MVP after the SCC title, saw his recruitment pick up after deciding to do a postgrad year and impressing during AAU events throughout the summer.

After Jones picked up his first Division 1 offer from Northern Illinois in June, he’s hoping his recruitment interest continues to build.

“I’m trying to improve everything really,” Jones said. “You can never be too good. My ball handling, my shot, my body strength to go up against grown men at the next level. I’m not really looking to get any specific offers. Just wherever fits me the best.”

~~~

Josh Rivera (2027 | NJ Scholars EYBL 15U)

Rivera’s 2027 classmate and NJ Scholars teammate Munir Greig burst onto the scene this summer and received a ton of attention after picking up his first D1 offer from Villanova in late June; turns out NJ Scholars has another 2027 with D1 potential.

Rivera’s been in contact with Bryant and Manhattan and with more performances like Sunday the interest will continue to flow in.

The 6-6 rising freshman who will attend Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains, N.Y. led Scholars with 18 points, including three 3s, in a 62-51 victory over Philly Pride Sunday in the 15U Platinum 1 Championship.

“It’s good,” Rivera said about playing up. “I’m just learning and getting better over time. Learning from different point guards and teammates makes me a better player overall. I’m just trying to improve. Then when I play with my class, I’ll be a step ahead of everybody. It improves my defense because kids are older, stronger, faster so it makes me have to guard better too.

“Ian Williams, RJ Smith, and a bunch of different people have been teaching me a lot about being a point guard. We play different positions — I just started playing more point guard recently — but with those two behind me it helps a lot because I need someone to teach me what to do”

Rivera will also be able to learn from a group of talented guards at Archbishop Stepinac, which returns top scorers in rising senior Boogie Fland — who limited his top eight offers to Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, UNC, Maryland, UConn, and St. John’s Monday — and rising junior Danny Carbuccia — who has Big East interest and more.

“As a freshman I just want to get better,” Rivera said. “You always want to get better as a person and a player. It’s good having older guys around to help.”

~~~

Dillon Tingler (2024 | Wildcat Select 3SSB 17U)

Tingler, a 6-7 wing from Huntington Prep (W.V.), hit a growth spurt his freshman year that took his game to a new level; he had always been a guard and those skills remained once he got taller.

“I’ve always been a guard growing up,” Tingler said. “My freshman year I grew five or six inches. The guard skills translated as I got taller.”

Those skills were evident in Wildcat Select’s 62-57 win over Philly Revolution Saturday as Tingler scored 19 points — on drives to the rim and shots from both the foul line and 3-point range — and handled the ball. His length and wingspan allowed him to grab nine rebounds and steal three passes on defense. 

“With my length, I’m able to alter a lot of shots and force a lot of bad ones,” he said. “If they come to the cup, I’m going to be there to help, block shots and make plays so my teammates can get out in transition.”

Tingler holds offers from Akron, Bucknell, Illinois State, Marshall, New Mexico State, Ohio, Marshall, Akron, Bucknell, and New Mexico State; he’s been on visits to Illinois State, Marshall and Ohio. He said he doesn’t plan on reclassifying and looks forward to committing in the near future.

“I’ve been in contact with a bunch of other schools, but nothing official yet,” he said. “I’m looking forward to taking some more visits.”

Some of the additional schools he’s heard from include Mercer, Dartmouth, Bowling Green, UMass, William & Mary, IUPUI, Santa Clara, Lafayette, Brown, Towson, Harvard, and Wichita State.

Tingler said he’s working on showing schools he can guard every position and and consistently hit his jump shot.

“I think that’ll take me to the next level,” he said.

As Tingler navigates the recruiting process he’s also gearing up for his senior season at Huntington Prep, which won the prestigious Chick-Fil-A Classic with a 21-point blowout win over IMG Academy back in December; Huntington defeated Oak Hill Academy (Va.) and Calvary Christian (Fla.) on its way to the title.

“That was huge for us,” Tingler said of winning the Chick-Fil-A Classic. “It was the first time our program ever won that (Huntington appeared in the championship in 2015 but lost 93-85 to Oak Hill). We beat IMG, Oak Hill, those kinds of teams. We had a pretty good season. We had a lot of pieces, there wasn’t really a ‘top guy.’ We all had to play our role and we knew we had to do that every game.”

The victory propelled Huntington Prep into MaxPrep’s National Top 10 rankings and sparked more buzz for the players including fellow 2024 Larry Johnson, who won Most Outstanding Player, transferred to Southern California Academy for his senior season and generated offers from Cal, Illinois, Indiana, Oregon, Virginia, and more.