Everything in Texas is big, including the number of basketball prospects, so it's easy to be overlooked. At 6-foot-3, Lamar Hurd is a combo guard who plays primarily the point position for his Heritage Christian High School team in Cleveland, Texas, and is one of the more interesting rising seniors.
Hurd's numbers reflect his unselfishness at the point position and his all-around game. He averages 9 points, 9.7 assists and 8 rebounds per game, along with about three steals and two blocked shots.
Hurd sports a 3.8 GPA and a 960 SAT, and has been attracting interest from Houston, Northwestern and Baylor, as well as having other schools starting to call. More schools will be calling as Hurd had a standout showing at the recent National Academy Tournament in Houston. Hurd led the tournament in assists (24 vs. 6 turnovers) and was the top rebounding guard, playing before a crowd filled with college coaches.
Heritage Christian is a small-school powerhouse in Texas and its been getting good play from 6-8, 220-pound power forward Marlon Pompey, a native of Toronto, Canada. Pompey averages 11 points and 8 rebounds per game, and has showed marked improvement and physical play since relocating to Texas. Schools showing interest at this point include Auburn, Connecticut, UNC-Charlotte, Houston, Wichita State, Kansas State and Oklahoma. This list is likely to change greatly by March, of course.
Heritage Christian head coach Jerome Tang has a talent-laden roster with two seniors already committed to colleges. The 6-5 slasher/shooter Cedric Hensley has been averaging 20 ppg. Hensley drew national attention last season when he scored 101 points in a game on the same night that Dajuan Wagner also went for 100 (note: Hensley's high game this season is 34).
According to Tang, some pretty high-profile college coaches have been praising the play of 6-6 senior small forward Tim Mays, who just might be one of the top sleeper recruits in the class. Mays, who is a big-time athlete with 3-point shooting skills, would probably be an SEC, Big 12 or ACC recruit right now, if he hadn't signed a national letter of intent in November with UNC-Wilmington. He's playing extremely good basketball right now, averaging 20 points on the balanced Heritage Christian squad.
An unsigned senior whose recruiting is expected to pick up is Heritage Christian's 6-3, 175-pound combo guard Jahson Watson. Already a full-qualifier, Watson is athletic, has a very good handle and can create his shot off the dribble. He's averaging just nine points on a loaded team, but he's also Tang's No. 1 on-ball defender. Watson held Indiana-bound Bracey Wright, the 6-3 shooting guard from The Colony High (The Colony, Texas) to 10 points and he "held" one of the best players in Houston, 6-2½ scoring machine Kendrick Davis (Clements H.S./Sugar Land, Texas) to 28. Davis, who has been on fire this season (he's been over 40 points on three different occasions), needed 31 shots to tally 28 against Watson.
The top underclassman for Tang's program is a fast-rising 6-10 center Elijah Miller. Miller, a long, lean athlete who can really run the floor at 210 pounds, is averaging seven points and rebounds a game. He's a shot-blocker with a nice face-up shooting touch. Miller has impressed coaches from Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Houston, SMU and Rice in recent games.
Despite having to share the spotlight with his talented teammates, Miller has had some strong recent games. He had 19 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots against Lee High School in Midland, Texas and he went for 14 points and 11 rebounds against The Colony.
Senior Demarshay Johnson (Christian Faith Center/Creedmoor, N.C.) is a native of Oakland, Calif., but the 6-9, 200-pounder is taking a post-graduate year, and will get his core and is on the verge of receiving a qualifying test score, according to Christian Faith Center principal Calvin Timberlake. Johnson is an athletic 'tweener who is currently averaging 8 points and 4 rebounds a game for CFC. Wake Forest, Oklahoma, Miami, Fla., and Florida State have been showing the most interest in Johnson thus far, whose recruitment is wide open.
Kelly Whitney (Christian Faith Center/Creedmoor, NC), a 6-8 player who was CFC's primary big man, has left school after receiving a qualifying ACT score. However, Whitney still has to graduate from high school and is back in Chicago, where he will finish his high school graduation requirements. Whitney had originally made a verbal commitment to Michigan, but wound up signing with Seton Hall.
Under the title of, "You can go home (which home?) again but you can't come home (which home?) again," we have the story of Luol Deng, who left New Jersey and went back home to London, England over the Christmas holiday break. While on break, he played for Sudan's Junior National Team in an international tournament in Europe where he was named the MVP.
Set to board a plan in London to return to the United States on New Year's Eve, Deng was not allowed to get on the plane. In response to the Sept. 11 terrorist bombing, the State Department has put into place a 21-day screening process for Sudanese citizens (Deng holds a dual British and Sudanese passport).
"It's really a shame," said Blair head coach Joe Mantegna. "Luol was having his best academic year by far and school started on Monday. We have a rigorous academic program at Blair and it's not a place where its easy to catch up. We appreciate and understand the increased security measures, but it's pretty obvious that he's no terrorist. He and his family are Christian and his dad is a former diplomat, who has worked with the United Nation's peacekeeping forces."
At 6-8, 210, Deng (Blair Academy/Blairstown, N.J.) is one of the more talented prospects in the junior class (2003). Deng is a combo forward who can post, rebound with a passion, slash and shoots the three as well (41 percent). This rising junior was averaging 25 points and 13 rebounds per game.
Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Texas and Villanova are just some of the high majors that have sent coaches to Deng's games. And he's had plenty of scholarshi offers. Blair Academy has made inquiries through diplomatic channels to hasten Deng's return to school. Until then, they wait.
Editor's Note: We mistakenly mentioned in our last column that Brewster Academy was building a new fifty million dollar facility. They are building a new 50,000 square foot facility at a cost of up to $8 million.
David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. E-mail at: hoopsusa@mindspring.com or call (818) 783-2244 or (818) 783-2212 for subscription information.
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