UGA coach Tom Crean Watches as Top Recruits Battle in Georgia
CARTERSVILLE - UGA coach Tom Crean spent much of his weekend sitting in the front row on the baseline.
Crean, who is entering his second year as coach in Athens, made his presence known hear at Nike’s EBYL stop in Atlanta. He is coming into the fall as the only coach in recent memory to sign a top-ten recruiting class in men’s basketball at Georgia.
A slew of the top national players in 2020 and 2021 played in front of the top coaches in college basketball at this first stop in the summer-long tour.
On Friday, Crean started his weekend by watching the Georgia Stars, which has be come a major force in the AAU world in the state. Terrell Burden, who plays at Campbell, continued to show how good of a scorer he is. He lead the way for the Stars in the opening game of the weekend with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Mountain View G Nahiem Alleyne added another 19 points for the Stars. Brentwood Academy (TN), Marcus Fitzgerald and Mt. Bethel Christian F Jordan Meka all had solid nights for the program.
Bretner Mutombo, a 4-star prospect in 2021, didn't play Friday night for the Stars. He goes to Lincoln Academy in Suwanee.
Later that night, Crean watched 5-star Terrence Clarke, who is arguably the top overall prospect in either of the upcoming classes. A 6-6, 180-pound guard from Boston, Clarke tore it up Friday night with 24 points in 24 minutes of play.
Clarke is a 2021 prospect. He continued his strong play on Saturday by scoring 26 points in 28 minutes. Through the first two games of the weekend Clarke was 5 of 7 behind the arc. Not only is he a scorer - he’s a shooter as well.
Still, Clarke’s three dunks in a row in the first half of the game Crean was watching were only surpassed by his windmill dunk in the 2nd half. He’s explosive. Needless to say he’s a finisher around the basket.
Later Friday night Crean watched 5-star Los Angeles-product Joshua Christopher. A 6-4, 200-pound shooting guard, Christopher is thicker than many of his peers. Christopher showed his well-rounded game. In 26 minutes, he scored 20, had eight assists and two boards.
Saturday, Christopher had 15 points, ten assists and seven rebounds in 30 minutes of play. He was one of the better all-court players of the weekend.
Saturday morning Crean watched 4-star Johnathan Lawson from Memphis. Lawson is a Top 50 prospect in the class of 2021. Lawson had 18 points, five assists and six boards while Crean was watching. He was 7 of 10 from the field - including a perfect two of two form behind the arc. At 6-6, 165-pounds, Lawson has a frame that could add good weight. He’s one to watch for sure here over the next two years.
Crean also watched Jalen Johnson, Jaemyn Brakefield and Patrick Baldwin on Saturday morning. That trio, which all play on the same team, are probably the most talented group on the floor at one time.
Johnson (6-8, 215) is a 5-star forward from Milwaukee who is arguably the No. 1 prospect in the country. He showed his all-around game with 15 points, ten boards and four assists. He was, in my view, the second-best player at the event over the weekend.
Brakefield, who is a 6-8, 210-pound forward, had 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting. He added four rebounds. He’s a four-star prospect from West Virginia.
Meanwhile, 2021 prospect Patrick Baldwin Jr. had a tough shooting day going 3 of 11. But he managed a double-double (11 points with 11 boards). Baldwin is from the suburbs of Milwaukee and foes to Hamilton. 247 considers him the top overall prospect in the 2021 class.
The top player of the weekend in my view was Jonathan Kuminga from Long Island. Kuminga was dominant. He scored 23 and had ten boards when Crean watch him take down Jamal Mashburn, Jr. on Friday night. He slashed; dunked; and did what he wanted to all night.
He followed that up on Saturday morning with another 19 points. He knows how to get to the basketball and make free throws. He was the best players of the weekend.
Meanwhile, Crean and much of the rest of the basketball world took in AOT’s game midday Saturday. Crean, Bruce Peal, Mike Krzyzewski, Mike Brey and others watched the talented locals compete.
AOT has quite a trio in Brandon Boston, Sharife Cooper and Eugene Brown. Boston is considered a 5-star prospect in the 2020 class. He plays for Norcross and is extremely long and slippery. He’s 6-6, 175, but his arms might be longer than most. He’s able to snake around to the rim and do what he wants. He scored 27 and secured eight rebounds.
Southwest DeKalb’s Eugene Brown, a four-star prospect, is another player to monitor. More of a wing, Brown is considered a Top 100 player in the 2020 class.
5-star McEachern point guard Sharife Cooper is an interesting prospect. He’s listed at 6-0, 160, but he sure seems shorter than that out there. Size not withstanding, his most noticeable attribute is the ability to score. He poured in 35 points in 36 minutes Saturday morning. He’s a volume shooter - he took 25 attempts from the floor and had another 12 shots from the free throw line.
He’s a playmaker for sure. You do have to worry about durability in the future because of his style and size. He got hit early and often on Saturday. It felt like the officials didn’t seem to notice him getting fouled at times - or they were uninterested in calling it. It felt like Cooper hit the ground a lot in the first half, and those falls weren’t always considered fouls.
Dean’s Top Four were (and this is in order):
1. Jonathan Kuminga - 2021 SF from Long Island
2. Terrence Clarke - 2021 SG from Boston
3. Jalen Johnson - 2020 SF from Milwaukee suburbs
4. Scottie Barnes - 2020 SF from South Florida
5. Sharife Cooper - 2020 PG from McEachern
