NATICK, Mass. – When Andrew Mirken lined up all the kids to put teams together for the afternoon portion of the Boston Best 40 on Saturday, he suddenly realized something: he had a few more kids than he expected.
The count: 91 kids. It’s hard to believe that just a couple of short weeks earlier, the coach at the Rivers School, site of the event, was hoping to find more kids, as if even getting 40 was going to be tough. Ranging from late middle school to high school sophomores, the event brought in far more kids than expected.
The event started out with the young players getting an engaging talk from Bo Ruggiero, head coach at Cohasset High School and a member of the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He went over a few simple fundamentals for the kids to take home with them about balance, passing and shooting. Once that was over, it was time for stations to close out the morning to further instruct the kids on various aspects of the game.
The afternoon session was game time, with each team playing one game apiece, then two all-star games. One was with the youngest players, all clearly at a different physical stage of development than the older players, hence the separate games. While it’s too early to assess the true potential of every player here, a few showed that they will be worth following over the next few years.
Rene Castro, a sophomore guard who played at Milton (MA) High last year but is headed to Beaver Country Day School this year, has potential but at times can leave an observer shaking their head. He has talent, especially with the ball, and some physical gifts, but also a maddening tendency to not play hard or to go too much for show.
Dimitri Flores, who will enter Merrimack (NH) High soon, won’t make the highlight reels with athleticism but has some offensive talent.
Ramone Gibbons, who will attend Charlestown (MA) High School, already has a terrific body. Built like a football player, he’s very athletic, and this wasn’t his first rodeo as he was recently the MVP of the Basketball Spotlight Classic in New Jersey.
Carlin Haymon, an incoming freshman at Rivers from the Mission Hill section of Boston, had some good moments at the point guard spot. He’s already shown a lot of potential at several events over the past few months.
Kaleb Joseph, who has shown his potential at a few other events in the last few months, was also among the participants. He is long and not done growing yet, and here he made several nice drive-and-dish plays.
John Powell, a lefty who is set to enter his sophomore year at Ashland (MA) High), showed some promise here. Although at times he tried to do a little too much and needs to improve his touch shooting the ball, he was active and got his share of rebounds that led to run-outs.
Jacquille Taylor was the big man with the most promise here. He’s very long and has a slight frame, so it’s clear he’s a long way from being finished physically. From a basketball standpoint, he doesn’t have a great touch in close or much feel for the game, but he doesn’t lack a motor, so there’s reason to think he will develop over the next few years.
Jared Terrell, who is about to begin his high school career, is a well-built athlete who impressed on a few occasions. While his scoring certainly caught our eye, his ball-handling was also noteworthy.
