NORTH AUGUSTA, SC --- Just call Nerlens Noel (6-10, 205, Everett, MA The Tilton School) the Secretary of Defense. The long, lean big man, who burst onto the national basketball recruiting scene last year at the Nike Peach Jam, returned to the scene of his first nationally-recognized success Monday and turned in two dominating performances to lead BABC to a pair of wins including a stunning 63-51 shocker over Austin Rivers-led Each One Teach One in the evening session.
In a Monday morning win over the Georgia Stars, Noel delivered four points, 14 rebounds and nine blocked shots plus at least 13 deflections. Monday night, he made it impossible for Rivers (6-4, 190, Winter Park, FL) and Trevor Lacey (6-3, 215, Huntsville, AL) to get to the rack with seven more blocked shots and an equal number of deflections. Rivers, who scored 29 points Monday morning, and Lacey, who had 18, managed only 13 and 10 points respectively Monday night.
Noel's best block was a total rejection of an attempted dunk by Each One Teach One's Steve Mondu-Missi (6-6, 215, Montverde, Fl Montverde Academy). Mondu-Missi came flying in from the right wing with the ball held high behind his head for an attempted windmill jam but Noel met him in midair and got all ball.
Noel, a rising junior at The Tilton School in New Hampshire, has a four-school favorite's list headed by Florida. Also on the list are Georgetown, Syracuse and Providence.
"I really like Florida a lot," Noel said. "Coach Donovan is a great coach and they have great academics."
Noel plans to major in communications wherever he lands.
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Rivers was relegated to shooting jump shots when Noel took the paint away. He finished with 13 points but only 1-6 on three-pointers as Duke Coach Mike Kryzyzewski watched on along with Kansas coach Bill Self, North Carolina coach Roy Williams and Florida assistant Rob Lanier. Rivers also turned the ball over six times against the BABC press.
Rivers, who has Florida on his list of five favorites along with Kansas, Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky, will stay for his senior year at Winter Park High School even though he could graduate early and start college.
"You're only a high school senior one time," Rivers said, adding that part of the motivation to stay in high school rather than do an early entry in college is because he is planning to make the jump to the NBA after his freshman year in college.
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Both Lanier and UF assistant Richard Pitino were on hand for Team Final's stunning 85-82 double overtime win over New Jersey Playaz. The Florida assistants were there to watch Team Final big man Rakeem Christmas (6-9, 225, Philadelphia, PA Academy of the New Church), whose stat line read 11 points, eight rebounds and seven blocked shots. Christmas has Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Florida International on his short list.
Lanier and Pitino were also on hand to watch New Jersey Playaz all-purpose stud Kyle Anderson Jr. (6-8, 205, Paterson, NJ Catholic), who followed up a 17-point, 11 rebound and six assist performance in the morning session with 20 points, 15 rebounds and three assists in the evening. Anderson is so versatile that he evokes memories of Florida's Chandler Parsons. Anderson plays the point and wing on offense and plays in the post on defense.
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Sam "I Am" Thompson (6-6, 190, Chicago, IL Whitney Young) has a connection to Yannick Noah, famous tennis playing dad of former Gator All-American Joakim Noah. Per his mom, when Sam was much younger, he wore his hair in long braids just like Yannick and he got the chance to serve as Yannick's ball boy at a Chicago tournament.
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Lanier was on hand to watch Dorian Finney-Smith (6-8, 185, Portsmouth, VA IC Norcum) score eight points and grab eight rebounds in Boo Williams Summer League's 58-53 loss to Albany City Rocks. Earlier in the day, Finney-Smith had 13 points and 14 rebounds in a BWSL win over Detroit-based The Family.
Finney-Smith, who plays power forward on defense and point on offense for his high school team, said after the loss to ACR that he has narrowed his choices to Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Florida and Wake Forest. Finney-Smith has a 3.0 in the classroom and a qualifying 826 score on the SAT.
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