Noteworthy 17u Tennessee players at LakePoint: Friday Night

The massive warehouse of a gymnasium, recently home to incredible players (B.J. Boston, Anthony Edwards, Matthew Murrell, [player_tooltip player_id="537060" first="Keon" last="Johnson"], D.J. Jeffries, Tyler Harris, Antonio Thomas) and dominating teams, felt uncommonly spacious and necessarily spread out due to social distancing practices. Players competed, but the typically fiery, boisterous parents were more quiet, respectful, and mask-covered. Digital cameras and phones scanned and captured the action more often than usual. No Tennessee-based teams competed, but several TN-based players showed up. How did they play? How did they look on the court? Any number to the left of a player’s name is their current PrepHoopsTN ranking within their grade.   <img class="alignleft" src="http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/1/4/6/11971185311926706097Gioppino_Basketball.svg.thumb.png" alt="Gioppino Basketball clip art" width="17" height="17" />#9 [player_tooltip player_id="775542" first="Matthew" last="Sells"] (Pro One Select 17u) With Pro One Select, [player_tooltip player_id="775542" first="Matthew" last="Sells"] operates off the basketball where he is most naturally a scorer. I only got a cursory evaluation on Sells tonight. His team won two games by enormous margins and they were honestly not challenged. Sells mentioned that he hit the weight room pretty hard in the intervening months, realizing it was the perfect time to bulk up a bit. In a postgame interview with me, Sells guessed he weighs about 175. Bigger shoulders, bigger arms. Always athletic and scores in a variety of ways. <img class="alignleft" src="http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/1/4/6/11971185311926706097Gioppino_Basketball.svg.thumb.png" alt="Gioppino Basketball clip art" width="17" height="17" />#16 P.J. Smith (Pro One Select 17u) P.J. Smith enters July quite a reputation for on-court leadership. With Pro One Select, Smith did what he does best...pass and create. The need for outside shooting was relatively small for Pro One Friday evening. The defenders couldn’t keep many of Smith’s teammates out of the lane and high percentage shots came without much extreme effort. Smith put on some good weight in the last five months. Obviously, the weight room and training on a personal basis is paying off. Smith is more physically foreboding and probably better able to handle the natural physicality of the college game. Refs were letting the 17u men play and though falls were sometimes called plenty of clattering occurred. Smith was much better than any opposing guards Friday night. Their opponents simply did not have much college talent. Look for P.J. to showcase his gifts and skills in the coming days at LakePoint. <div class="club-team"> </div> <img class="alignleft" src="http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/1/4/6/11971185311926706097Gioppino_Basketball.svg.thumb.png" alt="Gioppino Basketball clip art" width="17" height="17" />#36 [player_tooltip player_id="537310" first="Darwin" last="Randolph"] (North Metro Elite 17u) <a href="https://twitter.com/DarwinRandolph1">@DarwinRandolph1</a> Friday night [player_tooltip player_id="537310" first="Darwin" last="Randolph"] (East Hamilton) and North Metro Elite 17u played two basketball games. Both were challenging. In the first game, NME met a short bench, but a deeply talented unit. For 26 of the 32 minutes of action, North Metro Elite played within 3-5 points. In fact, the blue and white owned a small lead numerous times. Late in the game, the gap opened up as a Florida-commit Kowacie Reeves Jr. hit shot after shot. Darwin’s game is advanced in several aspects. He is a tenacious offensive rebounder when he crashes, particularly after any layup miss of his own. Randolph explodes off the floor better than most elite players. His second-jump is also exceptional. Randolph loves to play defense and creates turnovers a significant amount. Friday night, Randolph was a solid on-ball defender. In the first game, he forced consecutive airballs from his man. Randolph made outside shots challenging. Perhaps because opponents were rusty, few players Randolph guarded directly hit their three-point attempts. Randolph doubled down successfully repeatedly. With his strong arms and hands, Randolph slapped down on the basketball a couple times to knock it loose. The sight of the bulky guard doubling must be daunting. Teammates of Darwin’s that will see college recruitment include: Kristian Ford, Kevin Taylor, [player_tooltip player_id="983688" first="Marcus" last="Long II"]. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinTaylor06">@KevinTaylor06</a>. <div class="club-team"> </div> <img class="alignleft" src="http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/1/4/6/11971185311926706097Gioppino_Basketball.svg.thumb.png" alt="Gioppino Basketball clip art" width="17" height="17" />#31 [player_tooltip player_id="983688" first="Marcus" last="Long II"] (North Metro Elite 17u) High-flying wing. Friday night, [player_tooltip player_id="983688" first="Marcus" last="Long II"] worked to find his groove. The wing position for North Metro Elite is deep and competitive. When he hit the floor, Long II capably competed at the fast tempo. Nobody outran him or blew by him with regularity and yet Long II typically got his most threatening touches around the basket. The ceiling for Long II is high, but he didn’t or perhaps was unable to given the touches and opportunities he was given show the full bag of tricks at his disposal. Saturday is another day. Long II put together a strong weekend last weekend and rebounding seems to be an area he consistently contributes. <a href="https://prephoops.com/tennessee/rankings/2021-rankings/">Peruse the complete 2021 rankings</a>. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewForce8">@AndrewForce8</a>. DM <a href="https://twitter.com/PrepHoopsTN">@PrepHoopsTN</a> to state your case to be ranked in 2022.