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Nike EYBL Peach Jam Notebook: Saturday, July 11

07/11/2015, 11:15pm EDT

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. -- Though the Peach Jam won’t conclude until Sunday afternoon’s championship, this was CoBL's final day of coverage of Nike’s EYBL championship.

Here’s a notebook from Saturday’s action at Riverview Park Activity Center:

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Jersey forward playing with newfound confidence
There are some incredibly talented forwards in Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League.

Team CP3 (N.C.)’s Harry Giles, at 6-foot-10, is the top-rated player in the 2016 class and a likely one-and-done lottery selection. Pro Skills Academy (Tx.)’s Marques Bolden is being chased by the likes of Kentucky, while Each 1 Teach 1 (Fl.)’s Tony Bradley has North Carolina (and about 30 others) on his tail; those three are just a sampling of the high-major frontcourt players in the EYBL.

None of that means anything to Kevin Marfo.

“I’m the best power forward here,” the 6-foot-8, 235-pound Worcester Academy (Mass.) product (pictured above) said after his Boston Amateur Basketball Club (BABC) 17U squad was eliminated from the Peach Jam with a 68-63 loss in the final game of pool play.

Okay, so Marfo doesn’t have the same recruiting stock as the others, though he’s far from an also-ran: nearly 20 schools have offered him since April alone, and his total offer list sits closer to 30.

And while he doesn’t perhaps have quite the ceiling as some of the future NBA forwards he’s gone up against this week, it’s the way he’s approaching them that makes all the difference from a year ago.

“I’m more confident,” he said. “I always knew the things I could do, but now I know I can do it. I believe in myself...I didn’t really believe in myself a lot last year.”

And indeed, Marfo more than held his own against an E1T1 frontcourt consisting of the 6-10 Bradley, 6-9 wing Jonathan Isaac (a Florida State commit) and 6-8 rising junior Kevin Knox II. While Bradley finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, Marfo had 14 and seven, plus three steals and a pair of blocks.

A North Jersey native, Marfo was a member of the Class of 2015 while at Bergen Catholic until he decided to transfer up to the New England prep school and repeat his junior year.

A torn meniscus in October didn’t stop him from playing most of his junior year, and after undergoing February surgery he’s well on his way back to 100 percent. He was certainly able to show off the skills have that gotten him all of those offers: a toughness on the glass, willingness to battle through contact and the ability to pass out of the past and find open shooters when he got double-teamed.

He’s waiting to finish up the AAU season to really focus on his recruitment, but he did say that several schools were working hardest for him: Rhode Island, Saint Joseph’s, George Washington and Georgia Tech. Pittsburgh, Providence, St. Mary’s and Notre Dame had also been in touch, though that quartet was yet to offer.

“I haven’t really been thinking much about it, I’ve just been trying to play,” he said. “Whatever happens happens with schools, but I’m trying to concentrate on the bigger goal, and that was trying to win Peach Jam.”

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Cosby-Roundtree caps off impressive week
Watching Team Final’s Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree this week, it’s obvious the Neumann-Goretti (Pa.) rising junior is a high-level Division I prospect.

What isn’t as obvious is the work that he’s put in to get to this point.

“He’s the most improved player in the city,” one local Division I assistant said.

The 6-foot-8 forward’s ceiling has done nothing but rise over the last year, and his recruiting stock has risen with it.

He currently has six offers: Temple, Saint Joseph’s, La Salle, Rider, Monmouth and Old Dominion. Schools like Providence, Xavier, Nebraska and Villanova have been calling after him, waiting to see more of him this summer before potentially offering scholarships.

If he continues on his current trajectory, he’ll get them.

“(Dhamir) is probably the hardest-working kid, one of the hardest-working kids I’ve ever coached,” said Team Final’s 16U coach Aaron Burt, who was named the EYBL’s Coach of the Year in 2014 while leading the oldest group in the program. “He listens, he’s very receptive, he doesn’t talk back, he’s a leader. He does everything you ask for and he pays attention to detail.”

In four games at the Peach Jam, Cosby-Roundtree averaged 17.3 ppg and 9.3 rpg, helping Team Final to a 2-2 record.

“(It was) intense, a lot of competition,” he said after a 69-57 consolation win over the NJ Playaz, in which he had 21 points and eight boards. “It’s no different playing in front of coaches or with no coaches here, the whole goal is to try to win in every game.”

Right now, Cosby-Roundtree gets the majority of his production within five feet of the rim on both ends of the court.

He’s an above-the-rim finisher on offense, catching drop-off passes and lobs and putting everything through the hoop. Defensively, he does as good a job protecting the rim as he does attacking it on the other end, with good timing and long arms that help him block more than his fair share of shots.

But considering he’s a little undersized for a high-major post player, he’s going to have to spend the rest of the summer as well as his junior year working to compensate for his height, either by expanding his offensive range or perfecting his interior game.

“If he’s a ‘four-five,’ it’s going to be his outside touch, handling the ball on the perimeter; a five, more post work,” Burt said. “Guys down there are going to be a little bigger than him, stronger than him, so his post work has to get a lot better.”

If the last 12 months are any indication of what the future holds, by the time he hits the 17U circuit and gets the full attention of the nation’s Division I college coaches next summer, he’ll be more than ready.

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Michigan guard Winston focusing on several schools for visits
While his final five schools aren’t set in stone, there are a quintet that The Family’s Cassius Winston seems to be favoring at this point in his recruitment.

And no matter what school ends up with the 6-foot-tall, 160-pound point guard, they’re clearly getting a very talented player.

In a 78-73 win over the City Rocks, Winston scored 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting, dishing out six assists and picking up a pair of steals as well. In 14 games played during the EYBL season, he averaged 19.1 ppg and 5.2 apg, shooting 41.8 percent from 3-point range; it’s no wonder that high-major schools are lining up to bring him in.

Winston has all five of his official visits left to take, and as it stands he has a pretty good idea of where those will take place. It’s an interesting group, with two local schools, two high-academic institutions on either coast and one more high-major to boot.

“I think I’m visiting Stanford, Harvard, Michigan and Michigan State as of right now, and probably Pittsburgh,” he said. “Probably the five schools coming after me the hardest.”

Both Michigan programs have been on the Detroit native for over a year; the Spartans offered last February while the Wolverines did so four months later.

“They’re both two strong programs, both winning programs,” Winston said. “I can go there and I’ll be in a good system, close to home, so they’re both good schools.”

Stanford, located out in California, and Harvard, located just outside Boston, both bring something a little different to the table.

“Great academics,” he said. “I know if I go there I could be set for life and also have an opportunity to make something new from a basketball standpoint.”

And then there’s Pitt, who won’t have a point guard on its roster younger than a senior next season. The Panthers have a close connection to The Family, as assistant coach Marlon “Smoke” Williamson worked for the program for nine years as President of Youth Operations before spending the last two as an assistant at UMass.

“Pittsburgh’s like family over there,” Winston said. “Coach Smoke is one of my favorite coaches, so if I go over there it would be just like family.”

Ultimately, Winston said, his recruitment will come down to “somewhere I can feel comfortable, play my game and win basketball games.”

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Quick Hits
--Watched a 17U quarterfinal between Team Takeover and PSA Cardinals with the sole intent of talking to PSA shooting guard Christian Vital, a St. Joe’s target who had been enjoying a solid week at the Peach Jam. But nobody on PSA was in any mood to talk after their EYBL run ended with a 58-56 loss in overtime that saw what looked like a goaltend on a last-second shot by Virginia commit Ty Jerome go uncalled. Vital, a 6-3 guard, had five points and five steals in 20 minutes of action; he’ll be at St. Thomas More (Conn.) next year along with another SJU commit in Charlie Brown plus Villanova commit Omari Spellman.

--The only member of Team Takeover’s 17U squad who isn’t from Maryland, Susquehanna Township (Pa.)’s Bud Mack is mostly a deep reserve for Takeover’s EYBL squad. After averaging 1.9 ppg in 12.8 mpg during the EYBL season, Mack played 19 minutes in the win over PSA Cardinals, including the entire overtime. He hit two big 3-pointers in the second half, finishing with eight points and grabbing two rebounds without committing a foul or a turnover. If he can get another game like that in the semifinals on ESPN-U Sunday morning, he could add a few more mid-major offers to the one he currently holds from Towson.

--Quite a matchup of high-level 2017 forwards took place on Court 1 in a 16U quarterfinal, when the Georgia Stars and 7-footer Ikechukwu Obiagu (Southwest Atlanta Christian, Ga.) faced off against PSA Cardinals and 6-11 Mohammed Bamba (Westtown School, Pa.). While Bamba has been dominant this week, picking up a triple-double the day before, he had some issues with Obiagu, who’s perhaps the most dominant defensive post player regardless of class in the whole event. Obiagu (six points, nine rebounds, 12 blocks) and the Stars were largely in control in a 79-56 victory; Bamba finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks of his own.

--A big reason the Georgia Stars had such a big margin of victory in that 16U quarterfinal win was due to the play of Davion Mitchell (2017/Liberty County, Ga.). The 6-1, 195-pound guard had 14 points but more importantly forced four steals with his intense on-ball defense; he also dished out five assists without turning it over and pulled in seven rebounds. “I love playing defense, because that’s easy points for me,” he said. “I know after I get one steal, they’re going to be scared to handle the ball.” Tulane, Georgia, Auburn, Cincinnati, Memphis and Florida International have already offered, and he has interest from UConn, Texas, Florida, Ohio State, Alabama and UCLA.