Articles by Category
By: LARRY VAUGHT
BENTON — A few notes, quotes and random thoughts from the first night of the Marshall County Hoop Fest as I get set to watch Thon Maker, Josh Jackson, Miles Bridges and others play tonight.
— ESPN national recruiting director Paul Biancardi worked two games shown by ESPN here Thursday night. It was his first visit to the Marshall County Hoop Fest, but maybe not his last.
“This was great,” he said. “It’s a beautiful facility and just a great venue for basketball. Games this weekend are going to be super, too. It’s one of the best high school events each and every year. It’s pretty remarkable what they do talent-wise and the support they get.”
He also got a chance to eat Patti’s Restaurant in Grand Rivers.
“You can’t forget Patti’s. Those pork chops were unreal,” Biancardi said.
— Duke signee Jayson Tatum of St. Louis Chaminade had 25 points and 14 rebounds in Thursday’s loss to Oak Hill and its roster of Division I players. Tatum led a furious second half comeback after picking up three fouls in the first half.
“This is not just my team. We have a lot of great players but they look for me to lead and that is my job to do that and to hit tough shots and talk players up,” Tatum, who had Kentucky among his final four college choices, said. “We had a lot of fun in this event. We don’t see competitiion like this at home. This will help us.”
Tatum complimented Kentucky for the way the coaching staff handled itself when he picked Duke.
“It went pretty well. I don’t think I led anybody on that they felt like I was wasting their time. That is the one thing I did not want to do was not respect their time,” Tatum said. “I know they have a lot of other players to recruit. I knew when I knew the school I wanted, I wanted it out there as quickly as possible. But they were all class acts at Kentucky. They probably were upset I didn’t pick them, but nobody said anything but nice things to me and I appreciated that from them.”
KSR Twitter Feed
vBulletin Message