By JOHN PAVIA
Special to ZAGSBLOG
NEW YORK – The futures of Long Island Lutheran junior forward Marvin Prochet and sophomore guard Devonte Green (pictured) look very bright after their impressive performances in a 64-58 win over New Jersey power Linden on Monday at the Big Apple Basketball Invitational at Baruch College.
Prochet, a 6-foot-7 wing who transferred from Boys and Girls and is about as versatile as they come, took home MVP honors after putting up 17 points, 10 rebounds and four assists while providing some hard-nosed defense as well.
Green, a 6-2 combo guard who transferred from St. Mary’s of Long Island and is the younger brother of the San Antonio Spurs’ Danny Green, made several big shots down the stretch to ice the game for his LuHi team; he had 11 of his 16 points in the second half, including a back-breaking lay-up very late in the fourth quarter on which he was fouled.
“‘Both can play high-major if they continue to work hard on their games,” LuHi head coach John Buck told SNY.tv.
Prochet spoke after the game about his coaches viewing him as LuHi’s version of a swiss-army-knife, able to play anywhere on the court.
“That’s what coach has me out there for,” he said. “He sees that I’m versatile. I can play the guard and I can play the big. I can play down, I can bring the ball up, I’ve got passing ability [and] energy every game.”
Buck agreed and promoted that stance even further.
“Marvin can just do so many things,” Buck said. “He can guard one through five in high school and probably one through four at the next level. He rebounds, makes shots [and] he finds the open guy. When you have guys like that, it makes coaching so much easier.”
When asked if several more high-major schools might knock on Prochet’s door by the end of the year, Buck’s answer was simple, “I think they should…I think as he gets stronger, in the offseason we’re going to work with him a lot on his vertical explosiveness. Once he puts that into his game, you know, I think he can certainly play at a high major school.”
“Devonte obviously can score the ball at a very high rate,” Buck said, before discussing what he’d like Green to work on going forward. “Just consistency. Saturday, he had a great game. Today, it was a good game, not his best. He’s just got to work on consistency for 32 minutes. He brings us a dimension that is really tough to match.”
Green disclosed the advice his older brother Danny had given him on this season and his future.
“Just to keep my head in the game and if I play my game that I’ll be fine,” he said.
It should come as no surprise that these two are being heavily recruited right now. Prochet listed Quinnipiac, St. Bonaventure, Iona, Seton Hall, Dayton and Minnesota as the current list of schools interested in him with offers from Quinnipiac and St. Bonaventure. When asked about a potential favorite, he replied, “Minnesota is looking at me hard.”
Green mentioned UConn, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia and Duke as interested schools at the moment with many more sure to come. Given that his brother Danny played at North Carolina, his first and only response when asked about a favorite was very surprising.
“Duke is up there right now,” he said with a laugh.
Photo: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke | Newsday
