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TEAM TAKEOVER DC WELL STOCKED AT ALL LEVELS; PLAYAZ SPRING FLING RECRUITING NOTES

By Matt Whitfield

Last summer the Team Takeover 17U squad led by Keith Stevens took home the inaugural Nike Elite Youth Basketball League championship by capturing the Peach Jam Championship. This year the 16U team in the Takeover family looks poised to follow the same championship path with a collection of supreme athletes that really grind it out on both ends of the floor. Watching on Saturday at the Playaz Spring Fling to kickopff the 2011 AAU travel season I couldn’t believe how many skilled athletes the team had. In their 2 P.M. games versus Positive Direction, the DC-area squad jumped out to an 11-1 lead and then built a 27-9 halftime lead, despite being thrown together as a team just this weekend literally.

As impressive as the score was, the most impressive thing I thought was how many kids could flat out play, and score, if they had to. This was a well-balanced machine where it was not just a handful of kids controlling the rock all game, it was a team effort.

“Their playing hard,” said Kenneth Johnson the coach of Team Takeover’s 16U squad. “They have a good connection, but I feel like we have four high major guards. They kind of push our team, we got nice wings…It’s always a little bit difficult when you come up here for your first tournament it’s a running the clock type situation. You got 12 players trying to gel. A lot of our guards just finished up their high school season. We have a few guys that played for DeMatha they just finished two days ago. We had to come up here for our first tournament, so we haven’t thrown too many of our sets in. Next week is our training camp and we’re going to have to tighten things up with our offensive sets and get our defensive concepts down.”

One of the best player’s on the squad is Will Ferguson, a likely high major guard, who has already drawn a lot of attention from high-majors as a fast-rising player in the Class of 2013.

“Will Ferguson goes to Bishop O’Connell. He’s a high major guard,” said Johnson. “He’s got a lot interest up and down the east coast, ACC and Big East schools. He’s a dynamic point guard that has the ability to score when need be, but he’s also a great distributer.”

Another high major recruit on the team is Stan Robinson, a 6-foot-4 wing.

“Stanford Robinson, left-handed kid. He attends Paul VI,” said Johnson. “He’s got Louisville, Maryland, Georgetown, Villanova, Pittsburgh and Rutgers; NC State too. A lot of schools are interested in him, similar to Will, up and down the east coast.”

The team’s center is Denard Freeman who is currently some interest from NCAA Tournament darlings from the CAA such as George Mason and VCU, among others from the (so-called) mid-major conferences. Expect his recruitment to rise as he is just beginning to scratch the surface of his potential.

“Denard Freeman he goes to St. John’s high school. The funny thing about Denard is actually this is first year playing with this grade because he’s actually so young. He just turned 15 in December. So sky is the limit for him as far as what he’s going to do. He plays hard. He’s a great competitor. “

Jairus Lyles a guard from DeMatha also has high major interest.

“He’s the starting guard for DeMatha,” Johnson said of Lyles. “Same thing, high major offers up and down the east coast.”

Carlton Carter is also an impressive player who is being shown some mid-major recruiting interest early on.

“[Carlton Carter Jr.], he’s the heart and soul of the team. He comes off the bench for us. He’s a spark plug,” said Johnson. “He’s actually the district player of the area in high school in his area. He plays hard as you see. He sets the tone for us defensively. That’s one thing we believe in, that’s our first principal really in basketball is pressure defense and he does a great job for us with that. [Schools that have shown interest are] low to mid major schools, we’re just getting started with him. He goes to a public school down in Virginia, so he’s getting there. I see him in a Colonial, maybe MEAC, or possibly some A-10 schools. I think the NEC, Patriot league would love him because of his grades.”

While the collection of talent is very impressive on Team Takeover the thing that may set them apart is their ability to share the ball.

“One thing about us is I feel like our guys are always prepared to go to college,” Johnson said. “We’ve had 49 guys in five years who received division one scholarships and I feel like they all go to school where they have an opportunity to one day be all conference. A lot of our guys don’t get as much notoriety or the rankings that they may deserve because we share the basketball. It’s very rare that anybody on our teams is going to average more than 13 points a game because they share the basketball.”

All in all Team Takeover’s squad is very impressive. And watch out because they might go undefeated. As Coach Johnson claims they don’t plan to lose.

“We don’t plan on losing any games all year long.”
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More recruiting notes…

Kavon Stewart, the NJ Playaz PG who attends Hudson Catholic listed Seton Hall, Rutgers, Virginia and Xavier on schools interested.
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Jared Hall, a sophomore guard out of Newark (NJ) Tech teams with Stewart in the Playaz backcourt. Hall says he is receiving interest from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, UMass and a few other schools.
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Javion Ogunyemi, a sophomore at Troy (NY) High School is a 6-foot-8 F with the City Rocks AAU program. He has received early recruiting interest from Providence, Siena, Albany, Penn State and Iowa State He has taken trips to get a look at Fairfield, Siena and Penn State already.

“I can play many different positions,” said Ogunyemi Saturday. “I can post up and I can shoot the ball. [I] describe myself as a] 3 or a 4.”

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