Stacey Poole put forth a big effort at the NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp in Charlottesville, Va., last week and new interest is coming for the 6-foot-5 swingman from Andrew Jackson High School in Jacksonville, Fla.
Poole said his father Stacey Sr., who played at Florida in the 1980s, took calls from Louisville and Georgia Tech since camp ended this past weekend. He hopes to attend the two teams’ elite camps this summer and that he’s wide open, with offers from Clemson, Indiana, South Carolina, Xavier.
Poole was aggressive and efficient with his scoring at camp, leading everyone in points per game by the end of pool play.
Through the four games leading up to the playoffs, the wing was atop the scoring leaders with 16.5 points per game. Brandon Knight, the Gatorade National Player of the Year and another Florida native from Pine Crest in Fort Lauderdale’s, was second at 16.3 points per game. The Sunshine State boys shared 24-point games, the second highest totals behind J.T. Terrell’s (Burlington, N.C./Cummings) and Kyrie Irving’s (Elizabeth, N.J./St. Patrick’s) 26-point games.
Poole was happy to be voted an all-star and also thankful to have played with a camp team that meshed quickly noting Jelan Kendrick (Atlanta, Ga./Westlake), Adreian Payne (Dayton, OH/Jefferson), Reggie Bullock (Kinston, N.C.) and Derrick Wilson (Lakeville, Conn/Hotchkiss School). The team knocked off the No. 1 seed in the playoffs after also playing them the night before.
Knight came in with a target on his back as he took challenges from other top guards Irving and Joe Jackson (Memphis, Tenn./White Station) on day one, Josh Selby (Hyattsville, Md./DeMatha) and Cory Joseph (Henderson, Nev./Findlay Prep) on day two, and Joseph again in the playoffs.
He finished third at the end of camp in scoring, behind Selby and Poole, but his team went winless in six games.
He was also the leading vote-getter for the all-star selections made by the players. Knight continues to keep things quiet as to when and to who he’ll make visits, but did list Connecticut, Clemson, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Kentucky, Miami and Syracuse.
In the post, 7-footer Fabricio de Melo of Weston’s Sagemont was ready for his first big camp, having sat out this past season due to transfer rules following his arrival from Brazil.
It didn’t take him long as he scored in double figures his first two games but had his week cut short when he rolled his ankle in his third game. That didn’t stop him from being voted by the players as one of the camp’s Top 24 and making a strong case as the top true center in his class.
His list remains Louisville, Syracuse, Connecticut, Miami, Florida and Florida State.
Not forgetting the committed prospects, Florida verbal Patric Young of Jacksonville’s Paxon School and Florida State-bound Okaro White of Clearwater also kept their stock up.
Young was particularly strong, looking like a Top 20 player in the senior class and being named an all-star.
RECRUITING WRAP
* Doron Lamb, a 6-5 shooting guard from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., by way of Brooklyn, N.Y., visited Kentucky after the NBPA Camp while Tobias Harris, 6-9 power forward from Half Hollow Hills West of Long Island, N.Y., visited Georgia Tech.
* The Midwest’s best Harrison Barnes, 6-6 small forward from Ames, Iowa, visited both North Carolina and Duke following NBPA Camp.
* Three from the Midwest made commitments this past week with NBPA camper Alex Rossi, a 6-5 small forward and 3-point specialist from New Trier in Winnetka, Ill., pledging to California.
Donnie Hale, a 6-8 combo forward from New Albany of Indiana, committed to Purdue, and Darwin Davis, a 5-9 point guard and 2011 prospect from Bloomington South in Indiana, committed to Xavier.
* Down South, 6-9 combo forward and one of the best in the nation C.J. Leslie from Word of God in Raleigh, N.C., visited North Carolina before heading to NBPA Camp.
* Richard Peters, 6-10 center from Sagemont in Weston, Fla., by way of Ontario, Canada, committed to Oklahoma. He will transfer to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H. for next season.
* Two from Baton Rouge, La., made commitments with 6-5 shooting guard Brian Williams of Glen Oaks committing to Oklahoma State and 6-3 combo guard Langston Galloway of Christian Life Academy committing to St. Joseph’s.
* Julien Lewis, 6-3 shooting guard from La Marque in Galveston, Texas, committed to the in-state Longhorns. Lewis is a 2011 prospect.
