Justin Robinson to Virginia Tech
Justin Robinson, a 6-foot-1 point guard from
Justin Robinson, a 6-foot-1 point guard from
Derrick Jones, a 6-foot-7 wing forward from
NEW YORK — Anyone hoping to see an Isaiah Briscoe-Rawle Alkins showdown in the Sharette Dixon Classic Saturday night was disappointed because Briscoe is on his official visit to Missouri.
But Alkins tried to make up for it by putting on a show of his own.
The 6-foot-5 2016 Christ the King guard went off for 34 points en route to MVP honors as the New York upperclassmen topped their counterparts from New Jersey, 103-93, at the Gauchos Gym.
The most impressive two points of Alkins’ night came on a fourth-quarter play that went slightly awry.
Tony Delk has a message for Kentucky and their nine McDonald’s All-Americans as they embark on a season in which they are widely expected to compete for the program’s second NCAA championship in four years.
“What you need to do is sacrifice,” Delk said Friday on ESPNU as the network was broadcasting John Calipari’s NBA Combine which brought in 90 NBA personnel and scouts.
Delk knows a thing or two about sacrificing to win.
During the 1995-96 season, Delk played on a Rick Pitino-coached Kentucky team that featured six first-round NBA Draft picks, inluding Antoine Walker, Delk, Walter McCarty and Ron Mercer.
Kentucky is hosting 90 NBA front office personnel and scouts for basketball practice on Friday, and head coach John Calipari said he may make the combine an annual event.
The scouts will stay for two more practices on Saturday and one or two on Sunday.
Calipari said he will shut down his practices to NBA personnel for at least 2-3 weeks following this weekend, but wanted to show his players he had their backs by showcasing them early to pro decision-makers.
“They gotta know I got their back,” Calipari said on ESPNU. “That you can still play 20 minutes and accomplish your personal dreams as we try to do something unique. So by doing this right away, that was part of it.
“The other part of it was, what do I have to do to help these young men get where they’re going?”
When the Sharette Dixon Classic sophomore game tips off at 6 p.m. Saturday evening at the Gauchos Gym, some of the top young talent in New York and New Jersey will be on display.
The New York Sophomores team is highlighted by Sidney Wilson of St. Raymond’s and Jordan Tucker of Archbishop Stepinac.
“I’m excited to compete with the Jersey guys,” said the 6-foot-7 Tucker. “The talent over the bridge is really good. It’s gonna be a war [Saturday] night.”
Tucker recently added offers from Syracuse and UConn to ones from Villanova, Dayton, Xavier, Providence, Oklahoma, Fordham and Manhattan. He is set to visit Syracuse Oct. 17 for Orange Madness.
The 6-foot-6 Wilson is a long, athletic wing who recently picked up offers from St. John’s and Minnesota and has drawn interest from Syracuse and others.
If Jahlil Okafor ends up leading Duke to a Final Four or an NCAA championship in his freshman season, we may all look back at Coach K’s comments on the young man from Chicago as prophetic.
But in the meantime, the Duke coach has just amped up the pressure on the 6-foot-10 Okafor, and placed a giant bullseye right on his No. 15 jersey.
“With Jah, you’ll see,” Krzyzewski told Gary Parrish of CBS Sports.com, which named Okafor their Preseason National Player of the Year. “He’s good. And he’s been accepted pretty much right away [by his teammates] … because there’s nobody like him. There’s no comp.”
No comp?
