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Hoop Group Summer Jam Fest: Day 3 Notebook

07/21/2015, 12:00am EDT
By Teddy Bailey & Josh Verlin

Teddy Bailey (@TheTeddyBailey) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

MANHEIM, Pa. — There’s no crazier tournament all year long than the Hoop Group’s Summer Jam Fest at Spooky Nook Sports.

The continent’s largest indoor sports facility hosts a few hundred AAU teams from 13U up to 17U for what amounts to 48 hours of insanity, with every team guaranteed at least three games on the facility’s 26 basketball courts, which only make up part of the 700,000-square-foot, two-story facility.

Here’s a notebook from championship Sunday:

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Tournament Champions
17U Spooky: USAD (Conn.)
17U Nook: Born Ready Elite (N.Y.)
16U: NJ Playaz (N.J.)
15U: Nike Baltimore Elite (Md.)

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Kachelries brothers square off for “first” time
It’s typical for David and Matt Kachelries to go head-to-head on the basketball court.

After all, the identical twins from the Lehigh Valley play games in their driveway on a regular basis, and practices for their high school team mean they need to guard each other often as well.

What they’d never done before Saturday was get the opportunity to play against each other in live game action, which they did when Sports U met York Ballers in the 16U semifinals.

“I knew for the whole weekend if they won all their games to the semifinal and we made it to the semis, we would play each other,” said Matt, who plays with the York Ballers. “I was looking forward to it.”

It was David who got the win, with Sports U moving on to a finals where they would lose to an in-state rival team, the NJ Playaz.

Matt missed the first six weeks of their sophomore season after undergoing surgery last summer for a cartilage issue in his knee, but returned in mid-January and averaged around six points per game for the 12-13 Hornets.

“It’s been like six or seven months (back),” he said. “I feel good now.”

Both guards stand an inch tall of six feet, with lanky frames that suggest they should creep over that mark by the time they’re done growing. Both are solid athletes--David maybe a little moreso, which is understandable given Matt’s injury--and are fearless scorers who won’t back down from a challenge.

David, who had been on the Division I radar for a year already, averaged 14 ppg, and lately his recruitment has started to heat up.

Both Dartmouth and Lafayette offered David last week (Matt is currently hearing from D-II East Stroudsburg); Fordham offered him last year with its old coaching staff, but the new one has not resumed the recruitment.

Though all David knows about Dartmouth was based on the phone call he had with head coach Paul Cormier, he’s a little more familiar with Lafayette, whose campus is only a half-hour from high school.

“I went to a game there, and that’s all,” he said. “I’ve talked to the coaching staff, I know them pretty well, they offered me at Elite Camp, at Hoop Group, that was exciting...I like the coaching staff, they’re all very nice people.”

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Ryan enjoying the challenge with Middlesex Magic
Times are a-changin’ for Cormac Ryan. The 2018 6-foot-3 guard has taken his talents to Middlesex Magic’s (Mass.) 17U team, relishing the opportunity to play amongst some of the best rising seniors around.

Furthermore, the rising sophomore is on the move to Massachusetts, from New York, but it seems as if his basketball game is only becoming more polished as the days go by.

Ryan was instrumental in his team’s run to the 17U quarterfinals at Hoop Group’s Summer Jam Fest on Sunday afternoon. The lone 2018 player on Middlesex Magic’s roster, he’s starting to understand not only where his game can take him, but where his game can take others.

“It’s a challenge,” Ryan said of playing 17U rather than 16U. “I like it a lot. I like playing with these guys, especially with this type of team and atmosphere. It’s better to be part of a team than be an individual with the team name on your shirt. Playing up is a great experience and it’s really fun.”

The Middlesex Magic 17U squad features an unusual style of play for a premier AAU team - a style and philosophy that is more featured on high school teams.

“The program as a whole prides themselves on playing a different brand of AAU basketball,” Ryan said. “It’s not typical to see ball movement, screens, cuts and playing for each other. If you play together to win games, everyone’s going to get looked at and end up where they want to.”

The Magic used that philosophy to march to the 17U quarterfinals before falling to the eventual champions, USAD (Conn.) in a close game. Overall, however, it was a solid weekend for the 17U squad.

“As a team, I thought we had a good weekend,” Ryan said. “Elite 8, not bad, but I think we could have done better. It’s the second week of the summer for us and we’re starting to get to know each other a little better. I think it was a decent weekend for us.”

The future Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts native began his very early recruiting process with an offer from Penn on July 11th - the early offer caught Ryan by surprise.

“It was kind of surreal,” he said. “I didn’t believe it at first. It’s really good that I’m getting noticed this early and I couldn’t have done it without these guys. It was definitely surprising and exciting. I’m grateful about that.”

The very unselfish youngster, with an offer already on the table, is also focused on helping the older players on his AAU team as much as possible.

“I’m just trying to do as much as I can for myself and the team,” Ryan said. “College is a while down the road for me, and a lot of my teammates are going into their senior year. I’m playing for them, mostly.” --Teddy Bailey

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Team Philly’s 15s have strong weekend
Slowly but surely, Kyle Sweeney is seeing his team get better over the course of the summer.

The head of Team Philly’s 15U squad saw the next step in that progression this weekend, with a run into the semifinals of their bracket that represented the deepest advancement of any CoBL-area team during the weekend in the three oldest age groups.

“We’re really starting to gel, it’s taking a little while for them to get to learn how they play with each other,” Sweeney said. “But they’ve been coming together and playing as a team, which has been a lot of fun.”

Like quite a few other teams on the 15U circuit, the biggest issue coming into the summer season was general inexperience.

Aside from Shipley guard Sam Sessoms and West Catholic’s Keyohn Maddox, most of the players under Sweeney’s watch played junior varsity or freshman basketball last year, at some of the more well-known area programs.

“Obviously the level of competition goes up a lot when you start playing these really good teams on the circuit,” Sweeney said. “We took our lumps in the beginning a little bit, but guys have really responded well the last couple of tournaments and they’ve been a pleasure to coach.”

Dymir Montague, 6-1 shooting guard, didn’t have a chance to break a rotation at Neumann-Goretti that included future Division I players like Lamarr Kimble, Quade Green, Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, Zane Martin and more.

Also desperately needing experience was the team’s starting center, Seth Pinckney, who had a talented group of upperclassmen ahead of him at Wood, led by all-league forward Luke Connaghan.

But lately, Sweeney is seeing the switch flip for the lanky 6-foot-8 post, who certainly has Division I potential if he works hard for the next few years.

“He’s really starting to play hard and it’s been a lot of fun watching him do that,” Sweeney said. “He had a play yesterday where he ran someone down from behind, poked the ball loose, grabbed it, threw it ahead to Sam for a layup--and I nearly had tears running down my face, because at the beginning of the year he wouldn’t have done that.”

The other big piece of Team Philly’s future who didn’t play varsity basketball last year is Montague, who has good size at 6-foot-1, with a more mature body for his age group that allows him to attack the bucket and score at will.

Though the Saints return no fewer than four Division I prospects from last year’s state championship team--the team’s fifth in six years--Montague will push for time sooner rather than later.

“I think he’s going to help them next year,” Sweeney said. “Obviously they lost (Kimble) but they still have Quade, still have Vaughn Covington, still have some players. But I think he’ll be able to hop in in their four-out (offense) and be able to do well.”

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Mosely with a laundry list of schools
It was a tough weekend for the Philadelphia-area AAU programs in Manheim, however the New Jersey Playaz Basketball Club 17U’s were able to reach the semifinals before falling to the Blue Devils out of New Hampshire.

According to 6-foot-4 2016 guard Jagan Mosely, the semifinals were a little disappointing despite being shorthanded.

“We came out of Peach Jam wanting to win a tournament,” Mosely said. “So to lose in the semifinals is probably a disappointment for us. I think I played well this weekend - we’re missing four of our guys tonight so I had to be a leader this weekend.”

Mosely led, no doubt. The St. Anthony (N.J.) guard was integral to every facet of his team’s success. He worked well with fellow high school teammate Kaleb Bishop, a 6-foot-7 forward, as well as 6-foot-8 Sam Friday.

A speedy, yet muscular guard, Mosely is relentless in driving to the basket and working the ball around the court. It’s why the rising senior has garnered 20 offers in his recruiting, most notably high-majors Northwestern, Minnesota, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Rutgers.

Recently, Mosely picked up a Temple offer in mid-June, and Owls head coach Fran Dunphy was there to see him in the Playaz’s semifinal loss.

“It’s a great program,” Mosely said of Temple. “[Temple guard] Josh Brown goes there, he’s my man, we played together when I was a freshman in high school.”

Amongst many more offers, Mosely has also grabbed the attention of high-academic schools such as Penn, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, and more.

“My parents and I, we want to balance athletics with academics, so it fits well with what I’m looking for,” he said.

Mosely says that Georgia Tech, Boston, Harvard, Xavier, SMU and Minnesota have been looking at him the hardest.

“I’ll probably decide before my senior year,” he said. “I’m thinking around September, maybe October.” --Teddy Bailey

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Knight leads Blue Devils to 17U title game
The DC Blue Devils, out of New Hampshire, surprised a few in Manheim this weekend by reaching the championship of the 17U bracket.

It may have been slightly surprising, however the Blue Devils' roster is filled with Division-I talent - most notable Geo Baker and 6-foot-8 forward Nathan Knight.

Knight, a rising senior, was the heart and soul of his team down in the paint. The Blue Devils, similar to the Middlesex Magic 17U team, play a style of basketball that features role players. Knight was able to finish down low at will - which led to the championship appearance.

“I knew that me and my team could do it," Knight said. "We worked really hard in practice and our coaches have said that success would come if we kept playing this hard. We were surprised that we came this far, but not that much.”

The Blue Devils were able to benefit from each other, knowing their strengths and limitations. Baker, a potent outside threat, and Knight, a gritty, fearless big-man, worked well together to create consistent high-percentage scoring opportunities.

“The best thing about this team is that we have a lot of role players," Knight added. "We don’t really have any superstars, everyone just has their role. Our big men can box-out and rebound, Geo of course can do everything, everyone has a role and that’s what I love about this team.”

Knight has seen his recruiting exponentially grow since last summer, and the output of his improvement is offers from some strong mid-majors. He holds offers from James Madison, Drexel, Lafayette, William & Mary, Boston U and Robert Morris. Knight says that his college choice will be much more than the school's basketball team.

“I do want to get out of the area that I’m in," he said. "But I want to find a school that fits my personality. Not only as a baller, but as a person and as a student as well.”

“I’ve seen myself improving. I started from two offers at the beginning and now I’m at 14. I’ve been working hard with our coach and am definitely improving.”

While there's still a good amount of time left in the final summer of his recruiting process, Knight has one school that has mutual interest.

“Stony Brook is being really nice to me right now," Knight said. "I don’t know if I want to pick a school before my senior season starts, so I can just go through the season and keep improving.” --Teddy Bailey

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