OT: Best H.S. basketball team you've ever seen
The other day I was checking out the highlight tapes of one of OSU's incoming bball recruits, Mickey Mitchell out of Plano West H.S. in Texas. I noticed that his teammates looked pretty talented as well. Turns out, as a Top 100 recruit, he's just the 3rd highest rated player on his team. His teammates, D.J. Hogg and Tyler Davis, are both borderline top 25 guys. Needless to say, they won the Texas state championship (although by only 2 points, at the buzzer).
That brings me to my question - what's the best high school basketball team you've ever seen? For the sake of fairness, I'm not going to count prep schools like Brewster (where Mitch, JaKarr Sampson, and a few others were on the same team) or Findlay Prep, who basically exist to send kids to play college ball.
Film below of the West Plano team.
Ranked No. 18 nationally by USA Today and No. 1 in the state, Plano West (33-2) were heavy favorites with an all-star lineup featuring Hogg, a Texas A&M signee, another A&M signee in 6-10 Tyler Davis, 6-6 Ohio State signee Mickey Mitchell and UCLA running back signee, guard Soso Jamabo. A&M coach Billy Kennedy was a visible sideline spectator for his future player's championship effort.
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April 16th, 2015 at 11:54 AM ^
And now I am sick, thanks for bringing up osu recruits...
April 16th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^
His tapes look filthy good. I assume he's not much of a jump shooter, though, since he's only ranked around 100 despite his passing/ball-handling skills for a 6'7" guy.
He dropped considerably after tearing his ACL his junior year playing football. He ended up missing that entire basketball season. Prior to the injury, he was a top 25 player according to 247. To be honest, he has shown glimpses of being the player that he was from an athletic standpoint but seemed to be playing "not to get hurt" at times.
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Yea, Mike Mitchell. As Roughneck pointed out, he is back at home. He was a 5 star coming out of high school and transferred to Texas Tech and sat out last year. Will be able to play this year.
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Will he be more annoying and dislikable than Aaron Craft?
April 16th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
BV-Flint Northern at Northern in 94 or 95 was the best game I've ever seen in person. BV had Terrance Roberson, Chester Surles and Shedrick Murrell. Northerns starting 5 was Mateen, Antonio and Robaire Smith, Dionte Harvey (who committed to Michigan but had some off the court issues and ended up at Southern where he led the country in scoring) and Torrey Gist. That game was 20 years ago and I will never forget it.
nevermind. mateen cleaves is way older than I thought.
April 16th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^
Yeah, they look pretty good, but for the life of me I just couldn't stop thinking about that terrible headband-shaggy hair look
April 16th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^
Mine. If coach had put me in we definitely would have won state.
I could shoot a three over those mountains.
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April 16th, 2015 at 11:57 AM ^
Country Day teams of the early 90's were the best I saw. (at least here in Michigan)
Webber was a giant playing against teams whose tallest player was often 6-5 or shorter. I don't remember anyone else who was on those teams. In Class C or whatever it was, Webber was a player they could have put with four guys from gym class and still won the State Championship.
year they competed at Class C, but they were class B his Junior and Senior years and beat some pretty talented teams. They beat the Saginaw Buena Vista team mentioned above and some pretty good Class A teams.
They didn't beat the BV team mentioned above. Webber was a few years older than the BV team mentioned above. They beat a different BV team that wasn't quite as good. Country Daydidn't play the best schedule and they were run out of the gym by Detroit Southwestern.
Eh, don't crap on class C. Sure top to bottom, it's nothing spectacular when you're comparing to D1 recruits, but the top teams in the class (Detroit Consortium, Southfield Christian, Flint Beecher) are pretty good.
Webber was a monster in high school, but his teammates were nothing special. Jalen's Detroit Southwestern squad OTOH was a machine.
April 17th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
Webber's Country Day squad vs Ypsilanti. Which was in 1990 or 91. Ypsi had a guy named Shannon Williams (?) who was a D1 talent and had the size to match up with Webber. The two big fellas opened the game going shot for shot, first with a dunk each then with matching 3's. That gym was crazy.
The first quarter matched the hype that had been built up and then they decided to let the guards play and CD was a better team. Ypsi made it interesting in the end but Webber was too much. CD won by 1 or 2 IIRC. Ann Arbor community access television replayed that game for years.
Williams had some D1 schools looking and was set for EMU but never did have the grades to ever play in college.
April 16th, 2015 at 11:58 AM ^
Jalen, Voshon Leonard, Howard Eisley --- one team. And imagine if Webber went the Southwestern route instead of Country Day!
April 16th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^
That SW team was so much better than just its NBA-bound stars. They were a team of highlights. Whoever downvoted you probably was born post 1995.
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April 16th, 2015 at 12:10 PM ^
Another team that was really fon to watch was the 2009 Word of God team: John Wall, Dez Wells and CJ Leslie.
April 16th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^
WUT?
April 16th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^
I watched a game on ESPN between McGary's HS (is that Brewster?) against Nerlens Noel's prep school (I can't remember the name). At this time, McGary was the big name and Noel was still up and coming, and he outplayed McGary by a long shot. Anyway, the entire starting 5 for both teams were D1 bound, and Noel's team was the more stacked of the two.
HOWEVA, since you said those don't count - the best team I've watched in person is Drew Neitzel's Wyoming Park team, probably his sophomore year. He was playing our school (Forest Hills Northern) and we, like most years, had a very good basketball team. Neitzel absolutely lit us up, hitting shots from everywhere on the floor, but had enough other options that we couldn't just triple team him. That team was really good and I think they won the state championship that year, albeit Class B.
April 16th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^
Although Park was good and Neitzel was an outstanding player, I don't think they were great. They lost in the semi-finals to Detroit Renissance and did not even make it to the championship game.
and some of the other South Christian players. I still think Matt Stegienga was the best player to ever come out of that school. He was like the Chris Webber of West Michigan during that time.
Oh, without a doubt. He's probably the best high school player* in West Michigan history. That guy was good.
*Chris Kaman is obviously the best pro to come out of West Michigan, but as a high schooler many have been better. He was just huge.
April 16th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^
Detroit Southwestern in 1990 had 3 NBA players on it - Rose, Voshon Lenard and Howard Eisley.
The Indiana high school that had Conley and Oden was pretty good.
Conley and Oden's team was good, but it was pretty much all them and noone else. Gary Roosevelt when Glen Robinson played there was a great team. I got to see them against Alan Henderson's team in the Hoosier Dome for the state title. One of the most well played high school games I have seen. Glen Robinson was on another level.
Another great Indiana state championship was in 2000 when Zach Randolph and the Marion Giants beat Sean May & Jarred Jeffries and the Bloomington North Cougars.
April 16th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^
teams from early 1980's. Flint NW 1984 Rice, Grayer, Nunn, Rison, and Pendleton or Flint Central team with Harris, Turner...
April 16th, 2015 at 12:10 PM ^
Flint Basketball was was so good, from 1970-1995, Flint teams won 9 Class A state championships in 25 years!
Flint Northern: 71, 72, 78, 95
Flint Central: 81, 82, 83
Flint Northwestern: 84, 85
Flint Beecher also had several Class B state championships during the same period.
Another Port Huron native?
the best one I ever saw in Michigan. Eric Turner and Mark Harris were pure entertainment--for two guys who didn't do great things at the next level--for different reasons.
April 16th, 2015 at 12:29 PM ^
Coached by the legendary hs coach Grover Kirlkand, they won 60 straight games and back to back State Championships. These teams were highlighted by the likes of Jeff Grayer, Glenn Rice, Anthony Pendleton and Andre Rison.
I rememember them selling out the IMA (now Perani's) for Flint City Basketball and it was a site to behold.
Honroable Mention: 81-83 Flint Central was also dominant winning 3 straight state championships.(Eric Turner, Mark Harris & T. Greene).
Flint Nothern team with Mateen Cleaves and the Smith brothers was pretty damn good too.
