Top freshman I’ve seen around the state
By Dave Morrison When Morgantown’s Sha-Ron Young and Woodrow Wilson’s Elijah Redfern met at the New River CTC Invitational at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center earlier this month, it represented a first high school meeting of two of the state’s…
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Continue ReadingBy Dave Morrison
When Morgantown’s Sha-Ron Young and Woodrow Wilson’s Elijah Redfern met at the New River CTC Invitational at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center earlier this month, it represented a first high school meeting of two of the state’s top freshmen.
it was not their first hoops get together. Not even their first meeting in Beckley.
During pre-pandemic times, there were two major basketball events in Beckley. One was the Flying Eagles annual trek to Charleston. The other the annual Biddy-Biddy Tournament that annually drew teams from along the eastern seaboard.
In those days Redfern was a local phenom on the AAU circuit, Young was the same in the Morgantown area.
You only need to look at the all-tournament teams from the recent past to see a Who’s Who of the top young talent coming up.
Take the fifth grade division in 2017.
That year the Biddy-Buddy all-tournament team included Young and Fairmont’s Zycheus Dobbs, who both played for the West Virginia Chaos. Independence’s Brady Green played for Shady Elite. and tournament MVP played for the champion Ward 5 Warriors.
That’s quite a list.
And those four are among the top young freshmen players in the state.
Here is look at the top freshmen that I’ve seen in the state”
Zycheus Dobbs, Fairmont Senior, 6-3
Dobbs is a Fairmont legacy. The “Dobbs legacy.”
His father Deon starred there before going on to play at Marshall and then overseas, and his brother Zyon was an all-stater before heading to Division I James Madison and then transferring home to Fairmont State.
He is already more than living up to that legacy, averaging 15.15.2 points per game with a high game of 24 points.
He does everything well. He can score, Rebound (averaging 4.3 per game) distribute the basketball (59 assists) and play defense (21 steals).
He is shooting 51.6 percent from the field (82-159), 47.8 percent from 3 (22-46) and 79.2 percent from the free throw line (79.2) He is the second leading scorer on one of the state’s top Class AAA teams and already has 228 career points. HE is well on his way to 1,000 career points in keeping with the legacy and he is also well on his way to coaches cutting a path to Fairmont to see him play.
Here is what coach Dave Retton said about Dobbs: “He is a very mature player and young man. He doesn’t get frustrated in game situations. He can score, he can rebound and pass it. He will keep getting better if I don’t mess him up!”
Sha-Ron Young, Morgantown, 5-9
Don’t let his size fool you, the point guard is a scorer.
He has shown at every level, and he wasted no time showing it on the high school level when he poured in 17 points against then No. 1 Martinsburg on the road.
He would add four more double-figure games on a stacked Morgantown team that entered the postseason as the top-ranked team in West Virginia, including a 19-point effort against John Marshall.
He’s not just a scorer. He can rebound from his point guard position (53 on the year) and he has 22 steals. He has the athletic ability to score inside with bigger players and he also can kniock down shots from distance.
He averaged right at 10 points, and averaged 41.4 percent from 3-point range and 79 percent from the free throw line.
His coach Dave Tallman, Jr. offered this analysis of Young: “Sha-Ron is a gym rat. He wants to be a good player and he is off to a good start. He is a great kid and he has the right attitude. He’s made some freakishly athletic plays for us this year.”
Elijah Redfern, Woodrow WIlson, 6-0.
About the only ability that the point guard has not flashed this season has been availability.
Through no fault of his own, Redfern missed half of the Flying Eagles games. He missed the first four games then debuted with eight points. and four assists against Nitro. He would then mis the next six games when he was quarantined then came back against Cabell Midland.
Since returning he has four double figure games in games, including 12 twice. He has seven in that matchup with Morgantown.
An AAU phenom, Redfern possesses a slick handles, which he has shown on occasion, has outstanding court vision and can get to the rim seemingly at will.
One area he will continue working on is his shooting from distance. Redfern had four 3s. He was also 19. of 26 from the free throw line (73.1 percent).
Redfern averaged 8.1 points for the season along with 3.9 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals.
Brady Green, Independence, 6-3
Green’s initial season mirrored that of his team, up and down, but the shooter certainly has moments that will make him a must-see player for college coaches moving forward.
it seemed like every time he got heated up, a shutdown came for the Patriots, who played in the section semis without its two leading scorers, Michael McKinney and Cyrus Goodson.
He had 11 points in that game, the final one of this high school debut season.
Green, who plays for his dad Mike at Indy, and, true of a coaches son, does a little bit of everything, with the size to move with the big boys inside but also the smoothness to step out and hit the 3.
He had 18 3s on the season, a career-best three against Wyoming East.
Green averaged 7.2 points on the season, a career-best 19 against Midland Trail in the regular-season finale.
He had five double figure games for the Patriots.
Here is what his coach, Mike Green said, “Brady has played a lot of basketball since he was six-, seven-years old. He’s played on the national stage. I wasn’t worried about the moment being to big for him. The sky is the limit for him, like it is for a lot of kids on this team. It’s going to depend on what he does in the off-season to get better and I think he will.”
Ammar Maxwell, Shady Spring, 6-2
Here is a name a lot of people around the state have not heard. Yet.
That is about to change.
Like many freshmen he struggled at times but now that the postseason has started, he is shining.
Off the bench he led the Tigers in scoring in a first round sectional victory over PikeView and then added 11 in a sectional championship victory against Westside, the Tigers first section title in 20 years.
He has four double figure games on the season, that PikeView game a career high when he hit five 3s, three in the first quarter helping the Tigers build a lead.
HE had 17 3s on the season, eight in the postseason.
He said he feels most comfortable coming off the bench for Shady Spring, the No. 3 team in the the state in Class AAA.
More on the freshman to come at the state tournament in two weeks.