By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Dan Hurley, the highly successful coach at St. Benedict’s (Newark, N.J.), lost one of his best players in the first game when 6-6 rising senior Dominic Cheek dislocated his finger and was done for the week. The only problem is that Cheek is the No. 1 returnee at national champion St. Anthony (Jersey City, N.J.), which is coached by his famous father, Bob Hurley. It was more than a day later when Dan finally called his dad and gave him the bad news. “It feels like I’m back in high school again,” he sighed.
With a steady diet of incoming foreign players, Hurley says St. Benedict’s, “will be better than last year (when it suffered only one defeat). We won ugly last year. We’ll be more athletic.” He told MaxPreps that he will be getting four transfers. Two are 6-5 rising senior Lamar Patterson, from Lancaster, Pa.; and 6-3 rising sophomore Andris Misters, from Latvia. Two others yet to be announced are a 6-8 player from Lithuania and a 6-9 player from Canada. Both are juniors.
* Not to be out-done, Mike Jones says his DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) Stags “will be good for the next three years. We’ll be as talented as we’ve ever been. We’ll have 12 guys that legitimately we need to get on the floor. James Robinson, a 6-1 freshman, is phenomenal. His poise is unbelievable.”
* The injury bug also sidelined superstar Xavier Henry, a 6-6 rising senior from Putnam City (Oklahoma City, Okla.). He came to the camp with a bad ankle and was able to play in only the first two games….Rising 6-4 junior sharpshooter Doron Lamb is transferring from Bishop Loughlin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) to Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.).
* An NBA player told MaxPreps that he believes the camp’s two best pro prospects are rising juniors Brandon Knight, 6-3 point guard deluxe from Pine Crest (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), and Tristan Thompson, the silky smooth 6-8 forward from St. Benedict’s (Newark, N.J.)
* Two retired NBA performers were playing a game of H-O-R-S-E with a pair of grade school boys. A little guy made a reverse layup and the ex-pro missed it. Then the little guy hit a short baseline jumper and the ex-pro also missed that one, giving him two quick letters. Suddenly, he walked off the court. Asked by a spectator if he “was hanging it up,” he quipped, “I hung it up a long time ago.”
CAMP EPILOGUE
“Nobody ever has drowned in sweat:” --- Houston Kennedy, camp coach from Birmingham, Ala.