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2017 Spring League Roundup/Standouts

07/10/2017, 12:15pm EDT
By Ari Rosenfeld & Josh Verlin

Andrew Funk (above) and Archbishop Wood were one of many players/teams who impressed this spring. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Ari Rosenfeld (@ARosenfeldDVHR)
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Over the last couple months, between the April and July live recruiting periods, several spring/summer leagues have taken place throughout the Philadelphia area, and CoBL Scouting Director Ari Rosenfeld took in multiple nights of action at various leagues each week.

The Northeast Basketball League at Mayfair Rec Center has become a staple of Philly spring hoops, annually attracting some of the top teams from the city and suburbs (including South Jersey) alike. The Plymouth-Whitemarsh league featured just six teams (Archbishop Ryan, La Salle, Lower Merion, Penn Wood, Pennsbury, P-W) but each group brought a strong roster to the table. Entering his second year at West Catholic, head coach Jason Hasson put together a two-week league featuring the Burrs, Friends Central, Cardinal O’Hara, and some lower-division Public League teams such as Dobbins and Lincoln. Finally, West Chester University’s league brought in several of the top team’s from the Pennsylvania suburbs and was littered with scholarship-level prospects from all over the area.

Listed below are the winners of the four leagues, as well as some standouts from the action and storylines that emerged during the spring and early summer that we will surely be paying attention to when the high school season gets started.

P-W Winner: Plymouth-Whitemarsh (def. Lower Merion)
NEBL Winner: Imhotep Charter (def. Neumann-Goretti)
West Chester Winner: Penncrest (def. Boyertown)
West Catholic Winner: West Catholic (13-1 record)

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League Standouts
Greg Barton (2018/Downingtown West) -- One of the more intriguing prospects around is the 6-foot-6 Barton, who won’t turn 18 until several months after his high school graduation. A small forward with an advanced feel for the game, Barton makes his biggest impact as a ballhandler on the wing and as a versatile defensive presence. While his jumper is still a work in progress, he showed signs of a capable stroke playing in the West Chester summer league. He’s considering a post-graduate year, and is a potential Division I player should he join the class of 2019.

Dahmir Bishop (2019/Imhotep Charter) -- Perhaps no prospect in the area boosted his stock more this spring than did the 6-foot-4 Bishop, who played sparingly for an Imhotep team ranked in the top-5 nationally last season. Bishop went from having a couple low-major offers to a bona fide high-major recruit, with a Penn State offer in his pocket and interest from the likes of UConn, Cal, and SMU. He was the most consistent piece for the NEBL champion Panthers, drilling shots from beyond the arc and knifing into the lane to set up his abundance of talented teammates. Bishop is certainly a name to look out for with the K-Low Elite 16U team this July.

Rahsool Diggins (2021/Archbishop Wood) -- When Diggins made his debut for Wood as an 8th grader about midway through the NEBL season, it was immediately clear that he’d be difficult for coach John Mosco to keep on the bench this upcoming season. Sure enough, by the time playoffs rolled around, the defending PCL champs were trotting out the rising freshman point guard in the starting five. He was clearly up to the challenge, having numerous strong games late in the spring and looking comfortable running the Vikings’ potent offensive attack. The upside for the lanky 5-foot-10 guard is through the roof, but he looked this spring like he’ll be ready to be thrown into the fire of the Catholic League right away.

Eric Dixon (2019/Abington) -- Both in the NEBL and several team camps with the Ghosts, the 6-foot-7, 255-pound Dixon routinely proved that there’s no one in the area who can stop him on the block. Even when it didn’t feel as though he’d played that well, a look at the score sheet after the game would show that he’d scored well over 20 points. Already a high-major recruit, it will be interesting to see how much higher Dixon can raise his stock playing with WeR1 the rest of the summer.

Votangoe Donzo (2018/Penn Wood) -- A complete unknown after seeing limited minutes on a senior-laden squad last year, Donzo emerged this spring in the Plymouth-Whitemarsh league as a potential small-college star. Standing at a lanky 6-foot-5 with great length, he’s one of the more unique players you’ll see, with the ability to protect the rim defensively and handle the ball in the open floor. He’s still very much learning how to play and ironing out the kinks in his game, but is the type of player who could contribute much more in college than he ever does in high school.

Andrew Funk (2018/Archbishop Wood) -- One of the steadiest and most consistent players around, Funk showed he’s ready to be the go-to guy for the Vikings after the loss of Villanova-bound Collin Gillespie to graduation. His knockdown shooting ability is still the strongest part of his game, but throughout the spring he looked increasingly comfortable as a primary ballhandler, either next to or without the young Diggins. Funk will be tracked closely by a number of mid-major programs this month, including Drexel and Delaware, who’ve already offered.

Imere Harris (2019/West Catholic) -- In leading a resurgent Burrs squad to a 13-1 record in their own league, Harris showed off the electric scoring ability that led to him averaging nearly 15 points per game as a sophomore last season. A 5-foot-11 combo guard with good quickness and a silky smooth jumper, expect him to continue to lead the way for a West Catholic team that appears ready to win some games in the PCL next year.

Collin MacAdams (2018/Central Bucks West) -- A very consistent spring in NEBL play has placed MacAdams squarely on the Division I fringe, with an offer from D-II Kutztown and interest from several other PSAC schools and Division I’s Lafayette and Colgate. Standing at 6-foot-5, MacAdams has a very versatile game that allows him to play anywhere from ‘1’ through ‘4’ for the Bucks, and throughout the NEBL season it seemed as though no one could keep him out of the lane. He’ll be one of the more interesting prospects to track this month, running with an East Coast Power squad that should win its fair share of games in live period play.

Naheem McLeod (2019/Plymouth-Whitemarsh) -- After not contributing as a freshman, McLeod had some big games in an inconsistent sophomore season last year. Playing in the P-W summer league, though, he looked prime for a breakout junior campaign as the 7-footer continues to refine his low-post game and defensive skills. He’ll need to continue working on his consistency, but with further reps, the sky is clearly the limit for the budding young big man after what’s already been a strong spring.

Tyler Norwood (2018/Penncrest) -- We’ve written the phrase “Norwood leads Penncrest to victory” quite a few times on this site, and we get the feeling it’s going to happen a few more before Norwood’s senior year is done. Coming off a season where the 5-10 guard powered the Lions to a 5A championship, Penncrest continued its winning ways with a championship in the West Chester Summer League, and it was Norwood at the center of it, as he averaged 26 ppg during his team’s run to the title. It doesn’t matter what opponents throw at them defensively, Norwood’s handle and ability to shoot from anywhere within 30 feet make him a nightmare to guard.

Donta Scott (2019/Imhotep Charter) -- Clearly one of the more promising area prospects in his class since the beginning of his freshman year, Scott is now starting to stake his claim as the top dog in the area, though he’s got some serious competition for that honor. At 6-7, Scott came up as a wing forward but now is clearly more of a wing guard who’s starting to make more and more plays with the ball in his hands; he can push it in transition and find his teammates or attack the rim, hit pull-up shots off the bounce and defend just about all five positions. He could find himself pushing 5* status by the end of the summer if he keeps it up.

Malik Slay (2018/Downingtown East) -- When Downingtown East jumped out to a 10-0 start last season, a big reason why was the play of its junior guard, who burst onto the scene with some high-scoring outings. Though Slay cooled off a bit in the middle of the season, he finished strong and has ridden that momentum into a high-level offseason. The 6-2 scoring guard impressed in front of the CoBL staff, dishing out as many assists as he got buckets, and played strong defense as well; Millersville became his first D-II offer this June. The Cougars graduated quite a bit from last year, so Slay will have to maintain that high level of play throughout his senior year for them to be a factor in the Ches-Mont.

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Spring Storylines
Imhotep the team to beat
If there was one consistent theme from the entire spring, it was Imhotep winning, and Imhotep winning big. After finishing in the top 5 of most national polls this past season, the Panthers showed they won’t miss a beat this winter despite losing Daron Russell (Rhode Island), David Beatty (South Carolina) and Koby Thomas (Robert Morris) to graduation. Riding a loaded rising junior class with no fewer than four future Division I players, Imhotep won in blowout fashion nearly every time it took the court, going as many as 11-deep and using a pressing, uptempo style to smother opponents. Most impressively, the Panthers did so against top competition, beating Neumann-Goretti (twice), Archbishop Wood, and Roman Catholic in NEBL play and at Villanova’s team camp. Entering the season, this is clearly the top team in the area, and most likely the entire state; the only question is whether they’ll be able to build the same national resume as last year’s squad.

Strength of 2019 class
In a city with as much basketball talent as Philadelphia, every few years there’s bound to be a special class of high school players that comes along. Though it’s still relatively early in the process, it certainly looks like the current rising junior class (2019) fits that bill. At this stage, there look to be no fewer than 10 future high-major players in the greater Philadelphia area in the 2019 class alone, with at least a dozen others who could be great fits at the mid-major level.

Even within such a talented crop of players, there is a smaller group of three who have separated themselves as the most consistently productive: Abington’s Dixon, Imhotep’s Scott, and Roman Catholic wing Seth Lundy, who didn’t play in any spring leagues but shined in a number of team camps with the Cahillites. While there may be a small handful of others who could claim to have a slightly higher upside than that triumvirate, there’s no doubting the production they’ve put forth both locally with their high school teams, and on the national level with their respective AAU teams. Both Scott and Lundy, who play for Philly Pride’s 16U team, and Dixon, who suits up for WeR1, were rewarded for their strong springs with invitations to the prestigious Under Armour All-American Camp taking place next week at Jefferson University.

Deep 2018 class
Although the 2018 class features one of the best prospects to come through the area in some time, it doesn’t have nearly as deep of an elite group as the class immediately below. Westtown and Team Final’s Cameron Reddish is a consensus top-5 recruit nationally, with the potential to hear his name called with the first pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. However, there isn’t another Philadelphia-area native who could be called a surefire high-major prospect at this point.

Despite the relative lack of talent at the top, the local 2018 class has proven to be very deep with mid and low-major Division I prospects. Programs in the Atlantic 10, CAA, and MAAC have begun to prioritize a number of local recruits, and while a handful of others are still waiting on their first offers, many are sure to be handed out over the next several weeks as players truly begin separating themselves during the July evaluation periods.

Wide-open Catholic League
Ask five people who they think will win the Catholic League next season, and you’re bound to get five different answers. Entering the season, the state’s most competitive league will be as wide open as ever, at least half of the league’s 14 teams being able to viably stake their claim for the top spot. Perennial power Neumann-Goretti loses two top-100 recruits, including McDonald’s All-American and Kentucky recruit Quade Green, but as always has plenty of talent in the pipeline to remain competitive. Roman Catholic, St. Joseph’s Prep, and particularly Bonner-Prendergast all bring in high-profile transfers who will make an impact from day one, coupled with some strong returning talent. La Salle will look to make a leap this year behind a strong junior class, while Archbishop Ryan’s junior-laden group will try to build on two straight Palestra appearances. While defending champs Archbishop Wood lose Villanova-bound guard Collin Gillespie, plus starters Keith Otto (D-III Moravian) and Matt Cerrutti (D-II Lock Haven), the Vikings have a legitimate shot to repeat led by a group of four senior Division I recruits: Andrew Funk, Tyree Pickron, Seth Pinkney, and Karrington Wallace. Wood was the most consistent team this spring, but with so many teams working in new pieces and/or developing young talent, things could look a lot different by the time league play rolls around in December.

Suburban-One Intrigue
While no league in the state features the talent from top-to-bottom that you’ll find in the Catholic League, there looks to be an intense three-way battle brewing at the top of the Suburban One League. Both Abington and Plymouth-Whitemarsh stood out in their respective summer leagues, running things through rising junior big men Dixon (Abington) and McLeod (P-W). The two budding posts are both surrounded by a solid crop of guards, most notably Robbie Heath and Lucas Monroe at Abington, and the Williams twins (Ahmin and Ahmad) and Ish Horn at P-W. Also entering the fray, behind the growth of rising senior Jack Clark--he’s literally grown 4-5 inches since the start of last season--and a talented group of upperclassmen will be the Cheltenham Panthers. With each team featuring one star and a deep crop of talent alongside them, there’s sure to be some heavyweight matchups within the SOL this season.


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