City of Basketball Love

Tyler Sandora (@tyler_sandora)
& Owen McCue (Owen_McCue)
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CONSHOHOCKEN -- The first round of the Donofrio Classic concluded on Tuesday night at the Fellowship House, with two more games taking place in the 58th edition of the annual high school all-star tournament.

Here’s a roundup of the action with recruiting notes, quotes and more:

Game One: Even scoring across the board powered LVBR past Cool Hoops in the first game, 112-77. Northwestern commit Ryan Young (2018/BeCaHi), Dahmir Faison (2019/Hazleton), and Ryan Smith (2018/Lampeter-Strasburg) all scored in double figures to boost the Lehigh-Valley based squad. Ohio State commit Luther Muhammad (2018/Hudson Catholic) added 10, as did Chase Audige (2018/Hill School). For Cool Hoops, Robbie Heath (2018/Abington) had 19, and Lucas Monroe (2019/Abington) finished with 13. LVBR will take on Team Philly on April 10.

Game Two: It looked like Positive Image II might be running away with this one, but the Road Runners flipped the script in the second half to earn a 79-75 win. Doug Edert (Bergen Catholic/2019) led the Jersey squad to victory with 34 points. Jason Larranaga (Bergen Catholic/ 2019) and Zegary Scott III (St. Mary/ 2018) joined Edert in double figures with 10 apiece. Darnell Ransom Jr. (Eastern Academy Charter/2019) poured in 23 points, knocking down five threes in a losing effort. The Road Runners will play Raw Sports on April 10.

Heath finds a home on the West Coast

Up until two weeks ago, Robbie Heath was planning on spending his college days at either Drexel or Hartford.

But a familiar face got hired as the head coach at University of California Riverside on March 14th; Heath’s family friend David Patrick.

Heath has known Patrick since he was five years old, as Patrick, a native of Australia played professionally down under with Heath’s father. So when Patrick got the job out in California, Heath was one of the first guys he went after.

“He got hired and wanted me to be his first recruit,” Heath said. “It was perfect timing because I was picking between Drexel and Hartford, but UC Riverside was the best fit for me.”

So six days later, Heath announced he would be spending his college days with coach Patrick in suburban San Bernardino, which is closer to Heath’s hometown, Melbourne, Australia..

Heath had so much trust in Patrick to commit to his new program, even though he’s never been to the Riverside campus.

“I trust the campus, and I trust the coach,” he said. “I’ve known him since I was five and I will get to play with a coach who has my back.”

Patrick has a rich history of working with talented players, which is something that sparked Heath’s interest. He’s coached NBA players like Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova, both natives of Australia. He also is credited with recruiting current Sixer Ben Simmons, Patrick’s God-son, to LSU in 2015. He spent time as a scout for the Houston Rockets, and was an assistant coach at TCU the past two years.

Last season, UC Riverside went 9-22 (4-12 West), but won four of its last eight games when interim head coach Justin Bell took over.

Chance Murray scored 12.7 points per game for the Highlanders last season, but has since graduated, giving Heath some optimism of seeing lots of time next year.

“I’m coming in and right away make an impact,” Heath said. “Haven’t seen [them play], but west coast basketball is run and gun, so it will be fun.”

Heath led Abington to the quarterfinals of the PIAA 6A state tournament, and back-to-back District One championships as well. While he still hasn’t been to the campus -- he plans to visit next week -- he sure does have a lot of confidence to play for Patrick at his new school.

“I kept in touch with him since forever,” Heath said. “He followed me through my high school career, how my numbers have gotten better, and how I played in the playoffs. My senior year I really stepped up my game and he offered me.

“It was like a dream come true.”  --Tyler Sandora

Jersey guard chooses Ivy

Cornell coach Brian Earl knows exactly the type of coaching Dean Noll got during his high school career.

Earl spent his high school days at Shawnee (N.J.) in the mid-1990s, playing under coach Joe Kessler. His newest recruit, Noll, just wrapped up a career playing for Kessler as well.

The relationship between Earl and Kessler was a big reason the Shawnee senior guard committed to Cornell on March 24

“It’s pretty cool,” Noll said. “Kessler is super close to him, so he helped out a good amount. And he came to a couple games.”

Noll had offers from Division II programs Caldwell and USciences, but he wanted to play at a Division I school.

While he said he was talking to a couple of Patriot League programs, the offer came from Cornell. Playing at an Ivy League institution sold the deal for the 6-foot-1 guard, who plans on starting in the communications school but hopes to eventually transfer to the business school.

“It’s Ivy League, great education pretty much and it’s Division I, so it’s the highest level I could play at,” Noll said.

Noll averaged about 22 points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists per game this year, earning South Jersey Player of the Year honors as Shawnee won the News Jersey Group 4 state title.

The Big Red went 12-16 overall and 6-8 in the Ivy League this past season. They finished fourth in the league to earn in a spot in the Ivy League playoffs, where they lost to Harvard in the first round.

Playing time might be tough to find next year at Cornell as the Big Red bring back seven of the eight top players in their rotation.

“They like how I create shots for people,” Noll said. “I’m pretty good off the dribble, and Kessler’s a really good coach, he teaches team defense really well, so I can bring that.” -- Owen McCue

Guadarrama headed to New Hampshire

Perkiomen School senior Nick Guadarrama knew since December that New Hampshire and coach Bill Herrion were interested. However, up until mid-March his only two offers were from Division II programs Adelphi and New Haven.

Guadarrama waited patiently for New Hampshire’s season to end. When he got a call from Herrion a few weeks back he made his decision quickly though, waiting just a week and a half before committing to the Wildcats on March 25.

 “He really seemed interested, really wanted me to come and look, really pushed for the visit really fast and I really liked it,” Guadarrama said.

“I didn’t want to wait,” he added. “You never when the opportunity is going to disappear.”

Guadarrama played for the Puerto Rican 19U team last summer. He averaged about 17 points and eight rebounds this season for the Perkiomen School this past season to help the team advance to the PAISAA semifinal, where they fell to the Haverford School.

The 6-foot-6 forward should be a good fit at New Hampshire, which graduates its top three post players from last season, including top scorer Tanner Leissner.

“I’ve gotta earn my spot obviously coming in as a freshman,” Guadarrama said.  “They’ve got a couple upperclassmen, but they’re losing their three best bigs, so I’m just going to come in and make an impact.

“Toughness, energy and leadership, that’s what they’re hoping I can bring to their campus,” he added. -- Owen McCue

Quick Hits:

-- After playing a key role for a Hazleton squad that reached the semifinals of the PIAA 6A state tournament, Da'mir Faison hopes to up his stock this summer playing for WeR1 on the Under Armour Circuit. A 6-5 guard, Faison has the speed to attack and finish at the basket, as well as hit the mid-range shot. Faison hit for 12 points on Tuesday night, showing his ability to score and make athletic plays on the break. With a good summer on the circuit, don’t be surprised to see Division I schools get involved with Faison.

-- One of the only true big men in the first game was Zach Sabol, a 6-8 junior forward from Emmaus. Sabol scored eight points, and looked more comfortable when he faced up to the basket in the paint and made a post move. He even got up for some big rebounds at 240 pounds, and was physical in the paint on both ends of the floor. When guards facilitated, Sabol positioned himself well to grab the ball and put it up for two.

-- Phelps School senior guard Jailen Jamison scored six points in Positive Image II’s loss to the Road Runners. Jamison said he currently has interest from three Division III schools: Susquehanna, Kean and Arcadia. He already took visits to Susquehanna and Kean and plans to visit Arcadia on Friday. The speedy point guard is a terrific playmaker at the lead guard spot, using his quickness and handle to get into the paint to score or distribute.