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Elevate Hoops Showdown Notebook: Sunday, July 12

07/13/2015, 1:45am EDT

By Tom Reifsnyder & Ari Rosenfeld

Friends' Central (Pa.)/Philly Pride 2016 SF DeAndre Hunter. (Photo: Tom Reifsnyder)

Ari Rosenfeld (@realA_rosenfeld) &
Tom Reifsnyder (@tom_reifsnyder)
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PHILADELPHIA -- The Elevate Hoops Showdown wrapped up its final day at Philadelphia University on Saturday, with teams from all over the East Coast competing at the 15U-17U levels.

Several schools from the CoBL coverage area came back for day two, including the entire City Six, as well as Delaware and Penn State.

The championship game results were as follows:

17U- Philly Pride 55, We R1 43
16U- Philly Pride 49, Sports U (15U) 41
15U- Team Takeover 38, Team Final 28

Here’s a notebook from the final day of the event:

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DeAndre Hunter (2016/Philly Pride/Friends’ Central, Pa.)
In his team’s second game of the day, DeAndre Hunter (pictured above) and his Philly Pride teammates matched up with a fellow highly-touted local AAU program in Team Philly.

Tons of Division I coaches and passionate fans draped the sidelines while the two squads went to battle as only a group of gritty, talented Philadelphia high school basketball players could.

“It’s fun playing against other Philly teams because most of us know each other, and we just like to compete and see who’s better,” Hunter said of his team’s 63-55 semifinal win over Team Philly.

Hunter was relatively quiet in the contest, scoring just six points, but the Friends’ Central small forward had something special in store for his most important game of the weekend.

Coaches and fans once again showed up in full force as Philly Pride took on We R1 in the 17U championship game, and Hunter was unquestionably the star of the show.

The smooth, but explosive 6-foot-7 wing scored a game-high 16 points in Philly Pride’s 55-43 championship victory, dazzling spectators with a bevy of silky pull-up jumpers and tough, contested layups and dunks.

One of the many coaches on hand to watch Hunter’s team throughout the day was Saint Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli.

“They said I’m one of their top priorities for this month and they’re trying to be at all my games, so it’s a good feeling,” Hunter said of St. Joe’s. “It makes me feel better [that they’re watching].”

“It means I got to prove to them that I’m good, so I just go out there and play.”

Hunter lists recent offers from Rutgers, Tennessee, and UNLV, which he picked up at Under Armour All-America camp this past week, and mentions Miami and St. Joe’s as the schools recruiting him the hardest.

For Hunter, his interest in St. Joe’s goes beyond just a local connection, as his Philly Pride teammate and close friend Charlie Brown is committed to attend the Big 5 school in 2016.

“He doesn’t really try to recruit me there, but knowing that he’s going to St. Joe’s, I’m open to the option,” Hunter explained.

The two may be close on and off the court, but they admittedly haven’t put a great amount of thought into playing together at the next level.

“We haven’t really talked about it,” Brown said of teaming up with Hunter at St. Joe’s. “That would be crazy though. I’d love to play against him, too.”

The latter is also a possibility, considering Hunter has offers from two other Big 5 schools in Temple and La Salle.

Hunter and Brown are around the same height, play the same position, and have very similar skills, so it begs the question: would it work as teammates in college?

“Yeah, but then again, no because we do the same things and both like getting the ball, so we might be in each other’s way,” Brown said. “But either way, we’d make it work.” --Tom Reifsnyder

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Myles Douglas (2017/Team Takeover/Friends School, Md.)
While Myles Douglas, a DMV-area forward, has seen his recruitment expand to high-major schools across the country in recent months, he’s long been seen as a lean towards his hometown Maryland Terrapins.

However, one Big Five program is putting in hard work to stay involved.

Temple offered Douglas a scholarship in June, after having expressed interest for months, joining Xavier, Georgia Tech, and West Virginia as schools to have offered just in June. He has already traveled up I-95 to North Broad a number of times in the last year, and looks to be one of the staff’s top targets in the 2017 class.

“Temple calls every few days. I’ve been to Temple I think three or four times. I came for a game then I came for an unofficial visit, then I just came there recently for their team camp,” Douglas said. “I’ve gotten real familiar this year, they’ve expressed a lot of interest and they came to a lot of games. They tell me they love me, they love my game.”

While several other high level programs are also frequently in touch (Maryland, USC, and Miami have also offered, with Villanova and Louisville having expressed interest), Douglas was thrilled with what he saw from Fran Dunphy and his staff during his unofficial visit in October.

“I think Temple is a great college,” he said. “You’ve got a great campus, great city. They’re building their basketball team up and they’re gonna be good. You’re gonna see them in the tournament in the next few years.”

At 6-foot-8, Douglas possesses the size and versatility to play both forward spots, and he said some coaches could even see him playing a bit in the backcourt at the next level. Right now he’s working on keeping his motor up at all times, as he tends to blend in a little too often for a player with his skillset.

“I could do better on a lot of things, just mental things. Make sure I’m staying aggressive,” he said of his play during the first live period, before going on to name the things he’s working on most right now heading into his junior season: “My jumper, being consistent, finishing through contact, and just making good decisions in making plays for my other teammates.” --Ari Rosenfeld

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Matt Bullock (2016/Sports U/Roselle Catholic, N.J.)
At first glance, it could appear as if Matt Bullock is playing the wrong sport.

At 6-foot-4 and a hulking 225 pounds, Bullock has the body of a prototypical linebacker. However, anyone who thinks he might be out of place being on the court instead of the gridiron is quickly proven wrong as soon as he Bullock gets the ball in his hands.

The combo guard has a consistent outside jumper, but his strength comes when he puts the ball on the floor and attacks the basket, as his size allows him to finish through contact and he’s athletic enough to rise up and dunk over unsuspecting defenders.

With his unorthodox body type for the backcourt, it’s no wonder that Bullock used to play more down low, and is in fact still transitioning to the guard spot.

“It’s been going well,” he said of the adjustment. “I’ve just got to get used to getting familiar with that position. It’s been struggling a little bit, but I should get it by the end of the year.”

Bullock’s recruitment has stagnated a bit lately, as the offers that he holds (Rutgers, Monmouth, Rider, and Creighton) have all been on the table for quite a while, and there’s no new programs expressing interest recently. As a New Jersey native, he’s highly familiar with the first three schools listed, but is hoping to expand the scope of his recruitment in the next couple weeks.

He admitted that this will be a stressful month as he looks to impress college coaches for the last time during the final two live recruiting periods.

“Yeah, it’s a lot of pressure. Me not getting the recruits that I want just makes me play harder. It’s just frustrating that I can’t get it,” he said. “I’m hoping to get to a bigger school, but I’m satisfied with what I’ve got. Offers are offers.”

While a higher profile program may appeal to him, Bullock also sees staying home in New Jersey as an attractive option, though he acknowledged that there could be some drawbacks to going that route.

“If I could stay in Jersey then I would,” he said. “I could go home anytime I want, people know me already from Jersey so they might visit the school or come see me play. I think it would be better, but at the same time, it won’t be…I just want to meet new people and see new stuff.”

If all goes well for Bullock and he gets some offers he likes, he mentioned that he’s targeting December as a potential decision time. --Ari Rosenfeld

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Richmond Aririguzoh (2016/WeR1/Trenton Catholic, N.J.)
There’s a cliché amongst scouts and coaches alike that big men tend to develop late, and it looks like Richmond Aririguzoh is becoming the latest young post to fulfill that prophecy.

The 6-foot-9 center appears to have added a bit of bulk to his frame, but more importantly, his offensive game has finally started coming along after an extended period of time over which his production consisted almost exclusively of drive-and-dish dunks and putbacks.

During both the Elevate Hoops Icebreaker earlier in the week and the Showdown over the weekend, Aririguzoh showed a more advanced back-to-the-basket game and was more aggressive attacking the offensive glass. One play in particular encapsulates his development: after catching an entry pass while posting up in the short corner, Aririguzoh made a quick spin towards the baseline before hammering down a reverse slam, sending his teammates into a frenzy.

“[My offense has] come along, definitely come along a long way from last year. I feel like I have more offensive weapons than I did last year and my game is a little more polished, but it’s still a long way to go,” he said. “I just keep getting in the gym and working on new stuff everyday, just trying to expand my game and trying to be more aggressive on the court, because the pieces are always there, I’ve just got to put them together on the court.”

Right now, Aririguzoh only offer is from Drexel, with the Dragons having offered during his junior season. An outstanding student, he said he’s hearing from several Ivy and Patriot League programs, noting Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, and Colgate as “the main ones."

With Drexel being his only offer for several months, Aririguzoh hasn’t had a chance to visit yet (he said he plans to soon), but has done a fair share of research into Bruiser Flint’s program.

“I think it’s a good program for me. I feel like they will really develop me as a player, especially because I’m a young player,” he said. “Some of [Trenton Catholic’s] alumni went there actually, Frantz [Massenat] probably the most significant one, and he told me it’s a really good program and I’ll probably like it.”

When it comes time for him to make a decision, academics will certainly play a big role in Aririguzoh’s ultimate destination, as he’s looking for a school that will not only develop him as a player, but will put him in a good position to pursue a career in medicine.

“It’s really what fuels my decision because I really want it to be a high academic school,” he said. “I plan on majoring in pre-med and entering medical school, so I’d like a high-academic school.” --Ari Rosenfeld

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Quick Hits

--David Beatty (2017/Philly Pride/Conwell Egan, Pa.): Beatty was spectacular against Team Takeover in the 16U semifinals, knocking down a go-ahead jumper with 18 seconds to play and scoring a game-high 19 points en route to 55-54 tightrope victory. After the game, he told CoBL that he intends to transfer from Archbishop Carroll to Conwell-Egan Catholic for his junior year. If this does indeed come to pass, the move would certainly be good news for an already formidable Conwell-Egan team that took home the Class AA state title this past season. Beatty is close with both members of Egan’s starting backcourt, rising seniors Stevie Jordan and Lapri-McCray Pace, who play a year above Beatty in the same AAU program, Philly Pride.

--Sedee Keita (2016/WeR1/22 Feet Academy, S.C.): A four-star power forward with over 20 high-major offers, Keita noted Temple, Penn State, LSU, USC, and UNLV as the schools in touch with him the most right now, with LSU and USC being his most recent offers. Keita will decide on where he will take his official visits after the live periods. As for the schools that the Philadelphia native has visited unofficially, Keita enjoyed both Temple and UNLV; he noted that Temple grants him the ability to play in his hometown, while he was particularly impressed with UNLV’s facilities and would love to play with former WeR1 teammate Derrick Jones, who will be a freshman for the Runnin’ Rebels this season. Keita cited immediate playing time as the most important factor in his decision.

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Photo credit: Tom Reifsnyder/City of Basketball Love