ESPN RISE has issued a list of 25 Athletes and Teams of the Year from around the country and Brooklyn’s Lance Stephenson, Michael Gilchrist of Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick (pictured) and Derrick Favors of South Atlanta (Georgia Tech) were among those honored in their respective regions.
Florida State-bound Michael Snaer of Rancho Verde High School in Los Angeles and Brandon Knight of Pine Crest (Fla.), the top point guard in the Class of 2010, were also honored.
EPPS, THOMAS, WHITE TO PREP TOGETHER?
Isaiah Epps, Shaquille Thomas and Aishon White could all play together next year at the Kiski School, a prep school in Western Pennsylvania.
The trio are all friends from New Jersey who compete for the Playaz Basketball Club.
“It might be a possibility that we all three might go there because we all want to play together,” Epps, a 6-2 point guard head to Pittsburgh, said Monday night by phone.
Room and board at Kiski is $36,300 for next year, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The school does not give athletic scholarships, but does give financial aid based on need.
The three players visited the school Monday night and Tuesday and will then make a decision about their futures.
“We’re walking around looking,” Epps said. “I’m going to be talking with my mom and I’ll call and let you know.”
Epps, 19, committed to Pittsburgh out of Plainfield (N.J.) High School but will be too old to play New Jersey high school ball next year.
Anthony Cheatham, the new boys basketball coach at the Kiski School, told the Post-Gazette “there is a strong chance” Epps will enroll at Kiski.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon recently told me he wasn’t sure where Epps would end up.
If the 6-6 Thomas ends up at Kiski, it would be his fourth school in as many years. His uncle, NBA forward Tim Thomas, pulled him out of Paterson Catholic last fall and briefly enrolled him at Montclair (N.J.) High.
Thomas would have had to sit a year before being eligible for hoops there, though, and ended up at Mountain State in Beckley, West Virginia.
White is a 6-3, 170-pound guard from Union High in the Class of 2010.
Kiski also worked out a 7-2 player from Serbia, according to the Post-Gazette.
“Kiski’s issue is we want to be excellent at everything,” Bill Ellis, Kiski’s associated head master for enrollment, told the paper. “Basketball is not something that is going to run the school. But just like everything else, we want to be the best.”
U16 NATIONAL TEAM INVITES
Several players have been invited to play try out for the USA U16 Men’s National Team that will compete in the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship For Men, which will be held June 17-21 in Mendoza, Argentina.
Among the sophomores invited are Gilchrist, Anthony Wroten, Marques Teague, Quinn Cook, Sterling Gibbs, Brad Beal, Brandan Kearney, Chasson Randle, Kevin Ware, Adonis Thomas, James McAdoo, Mike Shaw, Johnny Bryant, Kyle Caudill, Norvell Pelle, Angelo Chol and Pete Drummond.
The invited freshmen include: Perry Ellis, Kyle Anderson, Justin Anderson, Tony Parker and L.J. Rose.
