Prospect Spotlight: Tyler Powell 2021
Last season, Ribet Academy jumped on the Los Angeles high school basketball scene with a fury. They went from winning only one game the year prior, to winning a state championship. A big reason for their major turnaround was the…
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Continue ReadingLast season, Ribet Academy jumped on the Los Angeles high school basketball scene with a fury. They went from winning only one game the year prior, to winning a state championship. A big reason for their major turnaround was the arrival of Tyler Powell.
Powell was a transfer from St. Bernard, and his presence gave a huge boost to the Fighting Frogs. He had 18 points and eight rebounds against Silverado High School to lead Ribet Academy to the CIF Division 4A championship game.
He followed that up with 15 points and five rebounds against Immanuel of Reedley to lead the Fighting Frogs to the state title. It was quite the experience for the young forward to be able to seamlessly transition into a new environment with new teammates.
“It felt great,” Powell told Prep Hoops. “It’s just the feeling of being there, playing at the Golden 1 Center, our home crowd and the opposing team’s home crowd there. It was just a great experience overall.”
A new school and new teammates aren’t the only transitions that Powell has had to make. Since middle school, he’s played primarily as a big man operating in the paint. At Ribet Academy, he’s been asked to adapt his game a little bit and play either guard position.
He’s used this summer to try and fine-tune that part of his game so that he can play either guard position. At various events during the summer, he looked comfortable with the ball in his hands, setting up the offense, and making plays for himself and his teammates.
“I can improve on ball-handling for sure. I’m working on that transition from a big man to an actual guard,” Powell said. “I’ve been playing as a big from at least my seventh-grade year, so I’m still learning a bunch of things that point guards do.”
It’s a delicate balance when playing guard, especially at the point. A good floor general needs to have that ability to know when to act as a facilitator and create easy looks for their teammates, and when to look for their own offense.
It’s been a tough adjustment for Powell but one that he’s confident that he’ll be able to master.
“It’s not easy. I’m still adapting to the point guard playing style,” Powell said. “It’s a hard transition, but we’re going to get it through.”
Recently at the Pangos Best of SoCal Showcase, Powell showed off his ability to run the floor and score in transition. He’s very athletic and he looks to finish with authority around the rim. He can draw contact and get himself to the free-throw line. He’s also got improving range out to the three-point line.
He’s spent this summer playing with Team WhyNot on the AAU circuit as well as helping Ribet Academy win the War on the Floor tournament back in June at Burroughs High School in Burbank, CA. He’s also been at a few top showcases such as the Pangos Premier 80 and Earl Watson’s Fantastic 40.
Powell has used these events to really work on his game and be that floor general and lead guard that Ribet academy has asked him to be.
“I want to get all the hard work in, I want to help my team get whatever they need. I want to benefit by playing AAU while other people benefit too, I want to help others as well as myself,” Powell said. “It matters because I want to help. I’m not the type of player to think of myself, I think of my teammates. That’s off the court too.”
This upcoming season, Ribet Academy will have the main core of their state title team back in place. Powell will be a junior along with senior point guard Snookey Wigington, senior forward Emmanuel Rodriguez, and improving sophomore guard Barrington Hargress.
With plenty of other talented players around him, Powell is really looking forward to settling into his new role of being the player who makes everyone else around him better.
“My goal is to help other people, while I get the looks I want to get. I want to do things that I haven’t done before,” Powell said. “I want it to be something different this season for me, I want to get something big out of it.”