Bona & Canadian Players

[wgt]

September 11th, 2014
St Bonaventure Looks to Reload with Canadians

Tariq Sbiet,
@tariq_NPH

The NCAA recruitment period opened earlier this week, and the St Bonaventure Bonnies have wasted no time getting busy North of the border.

SBU has a long history of recruiting Canada – from Norm Clarke, Barry Bungar, and Radcliffe Llewellyn to most recently, NBA first round selection Andrew Nicholson (Orlando Magic), Chris Johnson and Matthew Wright.

Head Coach Mark Schmidt, along with recently hired assistant coach, Canadian Jerome Robinson have been in town this week evaluating talent north of the border.

SBU offered big men Kyle Alexander (2015) and Kalif Young (2016) in addition to having previously offered 2015 G Jalen Poyser and 2016 PG Nelson Kaputo of St Mikes as the Bonnies look to reload with Canadians, after losing Martingrove alumni Matthew Wright (16 PPG, 3 RPG, 3 APG).

-and the North has never been hotter than it is today, as a product of Canadian players’ success at the NCAA level.
Earlier this week, high major programs like Michigan and Oregon, among others were in Toronto to evaluate their targets.
This trend will continue throughout the 2014-2015 season.

Stay tuned on the #NPHPulse to find out who’s in town and follow @northpolehoops for updates on latest Canadian basketball action!

[Deleted]

Somebody needs to tell Tariq the bungar preferred to go by Mungar! Rob Samuels was another good Canadian for SBU.

[jh]

We have offered at least 4 of the players on this team - perhaps the #1 Prep team in North America


Sep 10, 2014
NCAA recruiters visit Orangeville to scout Thon Maker and Co.

By Chris Halliday

It doesn’t get much bigger than Thon Maker.

Less than a week after the 7’1” baller decided to play the upcoming high school season in Canada, NCAA recruiters from Kentucky, Michigan State, Oregon, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Old Dominion and Washington State visited town to scout Maker and his teammates Tuesday (Sept. 9).

“We had a fantastic team coming into the last week of August. Thon and his brother (Matur) put us up a couple steps,” said Jesse Tipping, president of the Athlete Institute Basketball Academy. “It’s just going to be an exciting time for Canadian basketball.”

Considered one of most highly coveted prospects in the world, Maker’s decision to play the 2014-15 high school season in Orangeville stunned the basketball world last week.

Future NBA star?

Many hoops analysts across North America have touted Maker as the No. 1 ranked recruit in the high school graduating class of 2016.

Some have even gone so far as to project his skill set to that of current NBA players Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant.

“I think he is going to be a class of his own,” said Larry Blunt, head coach for the Athlete Institute’s Orangeville Prep squad.

“He is going to be someone that people just compare others to him at some point because he is very unique.”

The NBA prospect can handle the rock fluidly, plus he shoots well from both inside and beyond the three-point arc.

Maker’s most admirable trait may be his competitive spirit, according to Blunt.

“He doesn’t like losing at anything,” he explained. “He doesn’t take short cuts. He is one of our harder workers, if not the hardest. He embodies the total package.”

Why skip the US for Orangeville Prep?

Both Thon and his brother, Matur, will go to Orangeville District Secondary School (ODSS) and play for Orangeville Prep.

So, why did they choose the Orangeville prep program over others in the United States?

Part of that answer lays in the local basketball academy’s extensive strength and conditioning program.

“He sees it as a part of his game that he needs to improve on,” Tipping said, noting the program has full-time nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches, academic advisers and more. “You would think that is in a lot of programs, but it is not really.”

There will also be fewer distractions for Thon and Matur in Orangeville than in the United States, according to their legal guardian Edward Smith.

“At the Athlete Institute, we can cross the border, play the best, come back home and get back to work,” he told The Banner. “It also takes the boys out of the whole “hype” world that enables players at a young age.”

The backstory for Thon and Matur begins in Sudan. Their family moved to Australia before Smith became their guardian and brought them to the United States.

Thon and Matur recently left Carlisle School in Virginia where they helped lead the team to a state championship last season.

While he spoke glowingly of Carlisle’s program, Smith found there were few bodies large enough on the American school’s roster to compete with Thon’s size during practice.

That won’t be a problem in Orangeville, Smith said, as the Athlete Institute boosts a wealth of big bodies such as Kyle Alexander (6’10”), Dante St. Louis (6’8”) and Khalif Young (6’9”).

“This is something we did not have at Carlisle last year and it allowed Thon to bully his teammates because after Matur we dropped to 6’6”,” Smith. who has accepted an assistant coaching position with Orangeville Prep, said. “I hold to the belief that competitive practices and tough games prepare a player better for success down the line.”

Although Thon had considered a move back to Australia, Smith said he “fell in love with Toronto” after visiting last year. The fact Canada has a cultural perspective similar to that of Australia didn’t hurt either, he added.

“I think it was a match made in heaven,” Blunt surmised. “He wants to be the best player to ever play basketball. That is his goal. I think you can accomplish that here.”

NCAA scouts interested in more than just Thon

The Maker brothers are big additions to the already stacked Orangeville Prep roster, which also includes top prospects Jamal Murray, Alexander and Jalen Poyser.

Many of Thon’s teammates are also drawing considerable interest from NCAA scouts. Tipping said more and more recruiters are planning trips north with each passing day.

“We have a lot of talent on our team, not just Thon,” he said. “Canada has been rising, you could say for 10 years, but really been on the map for the last five. It has just scratched the surface. There is a lot of talent to come.”

Countering the strength of schedule argument

Some chatter on social media following Thon’s decision has suggested that it may not be in his best interest to train in Canada.

To counter criticism, Tipping noted the team’s schedule would be just as competitive as its counterparts south of the border.

There has been no shortage of calls from U.S. schools interested in playing “literally one of the best teams in the world,” Tipping added. “We have been approached by every top school in the U.S.”

Although the team’s schedule hasn’t been released yet, Blunt expects it to include many of the premier prep schools in the states.

“We can play any and everyone,” he said. “We are just excited, not only for our program, but for basketball as a whole, the country.”