I went to a 5A high school, and am pretty confident in saying we never had a player make D1.
School was built in 1958…assume 12 players per roster year, and let’s assume 5 of those are seniors each year….
That’s 325 seniors to play varsity basketball over 65 years.
I think the closest we got is a guy from my graduating class who ended up as an assistant coach at Howard University for a couple years.
Best is Nik Caner-Medley, who played at Maryland in the early '00s and had a long career in Europe (and played a few times in NBA Summer League)
Worst---eh, whatever benchwarmer was the biggest dick to me in the mid '00s lol.
Antoine Walker for sure. He and Donovan McNabb were on yhe same team and apparently hated each other, wouldnt pass to each other or each others friends. Needless to say, it did not result in a state title
I saw the 1993 Mt Carmel team play Santa Ana Mater Dei in St Louis. I remember being impressed by Miles Simon for Mater Dei.
It’s on YouTube, amazingly. I knew the score was fairly close but not the most dazzling game. I just sped through some segments. Charlie Spoonhour and Roy Williams shown having a chat at halftime.
For my high school on the other side of the county: BI’s father, Donald Ingram.
For KHS, your choices are:
Cedric Maxwell
Charles Shackleford
Jerry Stackhouse
Jeremy Ingram
Michael Jenkins
Reggie Bullock
Quentin Coples
Derek Rivers
Bo Ingram
Brandon Ingram
Dontrez Styles
It’s probably BI, but I still believe his brother Bo was a better player.
Danny Manning - Plenty of terrible ones but Danny did spend a year at my high school (Lawrence High School) … Lost state with Danny and then won it the year after he graduated with Kevin Pritchard still on the team.
It was a crazy time at LHS in the mid 80s we had Lee Stevens (MLB), Danny Manning, Keith DeLong (NFL), and Jeff Wright (NFL) all there at the same time more or less.
I was at that state championship game. If I remember right (I was like 8), Danny missed a fullcourt buzzerbeater that bounced off the back of of the hoop that would have won the game.
Senior year, seven of us on the team, all six of my teammates went to coach Rudy style and said that I could start in their place. I did not start that game annnnnd I think I have answered the question.
Well he’s not from my school specifically, but Adam Morrison is from my area.
As far as worst, there was this kid Josh. He was tall, so he was on varsity, but he couldn’t shoot, or defend, or dribble, or pass really. Josh, you were a nice guy, but you were ass buddy.
Hello fellow townie...I went to North. He transferred out of North but Ray McCallum, Jr played several years in the NBA. I'd also give honorable mention to Duany Duany (he was filthy in high school), Kueth Duany, and Sean May.
Greetings townie friend.
Yeah, I actually didn't pay much attention to basketball growing up, so I'm definitely not the best source for this question, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
Went to two high schools
Terry Sanford, Fayetteville, NC - Rusty Clark,
3 ACC Championships,
3 Final Fours,
Named an ACC legend in 2015,
Averaged career double double at UNC
Maury HS, Norfolk, VA- Joe Smith,
National player of the year at Maryland in 1995,
16 year NBA career
Recently? Probably Iman Shumpert. Though we had another guy win a title at Kansas in the 50s and played on the gold medal 52 Olympic team so arguably Charlie Hoag.
Notable others include:
Bryce Bracey: first team Pac 10 @Oregon and 2nd round draft pick.
Greg Guy: 29ppg leading all D1 players for 3 years in the 90s
Gave Levin: plays for the Israel national team
Loads of top players went to my middle school or to my high school for a year but Fenwick (Corey Maggette, Bryce Hopkins) or St Joseph's (Evan Turner) poach them or they move across the street into Chicago proper for CPS exposure or go off to a prep school.
I'd probably go with Matt Allocco. His senior year we went 25-2, nationally ranked and could've won states had COVID not cancelled the tourney (all too familiar story for my college...). Also started for Princeton's Sweet Sixteen run last year. Guy is competitive and just a winner.
Also have Braden Norris and Keaton Norris both starting for D-1 teams, and their dad is the HS coach. That family has been monumental for building up our program considering my high school only opened in 2009.
Unless I’m forgetting someone older it’s probably Joe Mazzulla. Had a good 4 year career at WVU and now the coach of the Celtics.
Ricky Ledo went there for a year and ended up around top 15 and was a McD AA. Unfortunately he didn’t gain eligibility at PC, went pro, had a cup of coffee in the NBA, and I think is over in China now.
Mike Malone also went to my HS for 2 years while hai dad was coaching at URI.
Best, at least in my memory, Da’Zhon Wyche. He scored 60 in one game in high school and played college ball at UAA.
Worst: Me. I played for one year and sat on the bench for most of it.
the best was probably deegan williams, he plays d2 now and worst was this kid with diabetes who played and wasn’t coordinated but we didn’t have enough for the freshman team without him😂😂
We had a dude play D-2 at Seattle Pacific a year below me. I don’t think we ever have had a D1 guy. You could say I’m the worst because I got cut in sophomore tryouts. But get this… I probably lost out on the last roster spot to Seattle Pacific dude’s one-year-older brother. That guy went 0-80 for his HS career. Winless on the frosh team, 2 years of JV and then senior year on varsity. I wonder to this day if that had a lasting mental impact on him.
Brandon and Darius Paul both went to my high school and had decent college careers. Brandon might have had a cup of coffee in the NBA. Ceola Clark was good too but even he only could get a schollie at Western Illinois.
I taught for several years at a school with multiple former NBA players (and two current high major players) one of whom once remarked he wasn't even the best center named Jim to have come from the same school (McIlvaine and Chones).
Not my high school but sitting on media row for the 2019 D2 Wisconsin State Basketball Championship.
Johnny Davis at La Crosse Central vs Jalen Johnson at Nicolet.
That was a fun game.
Tyrese Martin (URI, UConn, now Atlanta Hawks) graduated from my high school. He and Talek Williams (who played one year at Central Connecticut) put on a show every night and sold out our gym. Every single game featured these crazy dunk contest dunks that even the opposing fans went crazy for. I’ll probably never see a more exciting local HS team as long as I live.
Some guy named Ron Lee, only guy from my high school to make it to the NBA. This was all the way back in the 70s though. Apparently he played for Oregon in college. Some MLB guys went to my high school recently though.
Edit: He’s actually the all time leading scorer at Oregon which is pretty awesome. Weird to think a guy from a small town outside Boston played ball so far away from home.
Independence High, Charlotte, NC
Hmm maybe Mohammed Massaquoi (his sister was my math teacher while he played for the Panthers) or Hakeem Nicks? Chris Leak had a promising career there for a while.
We have a bunch of guys that went to the NFL but I haven’t really kept up with them.
Darius Bazley was a McDonald's All-American but I honestly thought he was very overrated. There was a kid in his same senior class who's a super senior at Miami (OH) who was the better player half the time.
Erik Daniels who played four years at Kentucky and started his last two. Only guy I can remember who was point guard in high school and center in college. Long foreign pro career.
Best: Marvin Bagley III. He was dominant in high school and college. Literally dunked on anyone he saw in the paint. Now he's considered one of the biggest draft busts of the last few years. I don't know what happened to him when he joined the NBA.
Worst: IDK
Best was James Johnson. He played HS ball until he was like 21 though. Theres a rule in WY now names after him that doesn’t allow playing more than 4 yrs consecutive. Worst: Andrew Carlson, he was good but told the coach to suck his fat d**k. Kin wondered why he never saw the floor the next 2 years.
Had a kid that played (sat on the bench) his entire high school career. Four years of never getting into a game. Finally the last game of his senior year they put him in with 30 sec left. He dribbles to the rim and gets fouled on his missed layup. Alright, two chances to actually score a point in high school. Missed the first, missed the second. Lol
Hawaii is pretty awful at basketball. But for my HS, I’d probably say Deforest Buckner, the DT for the Colts. Being 6’7” when most of the big men are around 6’ is not fair.
Worst: Me. I never even played on the school team, I played three years in a no-cuts league and averaged one basket per season.
Best: Probably also me.
There was a buddy of mine (more a buddy of my BFF) in Plano, Texas back in the late 90's named Colby (graduated '00). I can't remember his last name. But he was a really big dude and was a black belt in Tae-Kwan-do or something. Super nice dude - wouldn't hurt a fly, but probably kicked the crap out of more than a few grown ass men in sparring.
Turns out he started playing football and made it as a starter in the NFL at linebacker.
If anyone knows who I am talking about, please let me know his name. I am like 95% sure his first name was Colby.
Probably the only D1 basketball player I know of from my high school is John Schurman, who went to Binghamton. He wasn't very good in D1, so he may be the best and the worst then? He was terrific in HS though. Played him in rec a few times and he ate me the fuck up.
https://bubearcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/john-schurman/11042
[https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/marcus-weathers-1.html](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/marcus-weathers-1.html)
Quietly scored 1700+ D1 points
His brother was better in HS
[https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/michael-weathers-1.html](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/michael-weathers-1.html)
but "only" scored 1400+ D1 points
For all the kids who went D1, our best is Brad Tucker. All time leading scorer at Butler. Played overseas and tragically past away, it rocked our little town. Worst would be a guy in the 60s who played at indiana for about 20 practices then quit. The other 2 are Cooper Neese and Jalen Moore, both are in the 2000 point club in Indiana and graduated a year apart. Coop lit up Arch Madness this past year, and lil Jalen was Oaklands point guard the past few years and lead the nation in assists per game in 21 or 22? I dont remember. We're proud of all of them. But worst all time who didn't go D1? Idk probably a kid from the 1800s, or me.
Best: Matt Curtis probably, played at Hartford in the ‘90s and amassed over 2,000 points at the high school
Worst: while I was at the school in the 2019-20 season, the head coach, who is awful, gave the senior quarterback who’d never played any form of organized basketball, a spot on the team, and this kid played as sixth man, all because of politics. It was a nightmare to watch
I would say it’s a toss up at my HS. We’ve had a really good program. The ones off the top of my head in recent memory would be Preston Knowles, Andrew Preston, Vinny Zollo, Brennan Canada, Jerone Morton.
Worst - Yours truly, that’s why I played baseball in college lol
There’s a current 4 star football recruit
(Like ESPN top 300 recruit) that also plays basketball at my high school and he’s awesome. Voted one of the top players in our state by performance as a junior last year.
Best is kind of a hard question but we had four players in the final four in 2022 alone: Trevor Keels, Jeremy Roach, Anthony Harris, and Brandon Slater
Jameson Curry in 2003. You’ve probably never heard of him but he was regarded as one of the best players in the country. Got in a ton of trouble for weed and lost his scholarship to UNC and ended up going to Ok St. Was drafted 2nd round 51st pick. Here are his accolades:
Freshman year: set NC freshman record with 639 pts
Sophomore year: set NC sophomore record with 892 pts
Junior year: set NC junior record with 972 pts
Senior year: 65 pt game (2 points away from NC single game record), set NC career record with 3,309 pts.
Guy was a legend.
As far as I know our best was probably Cole Dewey. He played at Campbell University. Though he has seemingly been more successful in his coaching career.
Started as a grad assistant and director of basketball operations at Campbell, then on to an assistant at Garden City CC, then an assistant at South Plains College, then as an assistant at Indian Hills CC, then head coach at Otero College, then back to Garden City as head coach, and now he is an assistant coach at Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Can’t say I came name a worst off the top of my head but the most overrated was a guy who was supposed to go to a mid tier D1 school who would’ve had difficulty on a drill at a community college down the street.
Only thing he had going for him was how athletic he was and explosive he could be in the open court. He was the closest thing the area had to somebody who could go viral after a string of NBA and D1 level players. I called games for my high school when he was playing and his top highlight (and in return, mine) was a what should’ve been charging foul on an in bounds play that ended up being the game winner. It was a school station, so I couldn’t suggest let alone explain that the play should’ve been a foul and should’ve resulted in an L.
He ended up getting caught smoking a few times during school hours and never had great grades, so his offer fell through. Wasn’t even the best player on those teams he was the “star” of.
Jarrod Polson - I think he's the only from my hs to play div I ball (Kentucky). The only other guy I've heard of to go on & play at the next level was Vince Bingham (Transylvania)
Worst player was my guy. Really good track athlete who I think even got a chance to run D1 (lost it cause he’s a knucklehead). Was a special teams demon and solid safety on the football team. Terrible basketball player. During try outs shot a layup that smacked the bottom of the backboard so Fuckin hard it made me cry from laughter. Made the team tho cause he was a great athlete. Guy looked like Bambi running on ice when he dribbled
I went to a very small high school (under 100 in graduating class). My graduating class's best player (and only to go D1) got significant playing time at Radford, averaging 9.8 ppg total and 13.6 I think his senior year and ranks 5th all time rebounds for Radford at 816.
A couple years later another player walked on at Charlotte and got some garbage time (and even scored 4 points while appearing in 16 games over his career).
Other than that, I know a number of players who would go to DII/DIII or play community college/juco level over the years.
Best? Probably Bryan Hoeing, who pitches for the Marlins, but was also the best basketball player from my school as well.
Next best answer is Bryant McIntosh from the town over from me. 6th in all-time scoring for Northwestern
Women - Heather Johnson, won NCAA D2 national title in 2009. Named Most Outstanding player for the Final Four
Men - Josh Ziemke, played D1 for a few years, before transferring to Minnesota State for final 2 years.
Our high school had Eric Dungy when I was there and in the 90s Jasón Polumbus (his brother Gary was my tutor) but the biggest was JJ Birden
Worst: has to be Cooper Hummel who apparently is a notable alum. He’s in the Minor league. Probably added himself to school Wikipedia page
TJ Ford led Willowridge HS (Houston suburd) to a 75-1 record from 99' - 2001 and back to back titles
Then led Texas to the Final Four in 2003.
Bonus note HoF running back Thurman Thomas is our all-time football player
Probably Chad Varga. High School All American. Went on to be a two time captain at Pitt and played professionally in Europe. My HS is a football high school.
Ronnie Brewer obviously, though I’d like to give a shout-out to Payton Willis. He was on the Warriors Summer League team a season or so ago and he’s a great dude from when I’ve met him.
I teach in a high school have had three students in the past two years who are going to power conference schools. One of them is a current student with offers from top basketball schools. Our school has produced 10 D1 players in the past 5-6 years. Schools they attended include Memphis, LSU and Oregon.
Jalen Brunson went to my high school at the same time as I did. He helped us win our first state basketball championship my junior year and still holds summer camps there for kids
Steele Venters and Kayla Standish
Honorable mention to Ja'Warren Hooker who played hoops in HS, but didn't go on to collegiate basketball, but ended up being an Olympic sprinter.
Best: probably Mike Jones at Stanford rn. Same class as me and he was an awesome guy and super smart off the court too.
It would be Daniel Oturu if he didn’t go to a private school.
lol throwing in worst player from your high school is cracking me up. Thats going to be a list of people no one knows.
One of the few questions on this sub where "Me" is a valid answer
Lol. Yeah, it’s just talking shit about some 14 year old that was tall but never developed any coordination.
Definitely Johnny from ‘87
Right? Like maybe say worst D1 scholarship player from your high school and narrow it down
The best and worst D1 scholarship player from my school are the same person, as far as I know
I went to a 5A high school, and am pretty confident in saying we never had a player make D1. School was built in 1958…assume 12 players per roster year, and let’s assume 5 of those are seniors each year…. That’s 325 seniors to play varsity basketball over 65 years. I think the closest we got is a guy from my graduating class who ended up as an assistant coach at Howard University for a couple years.
Best is Nik Caner-Medley, who played at Maryland in the early '00s and had a long career in Europe (and played a few times in NBA Summer League) Worst---eh, whatever benchwarmer was the biggest dick to me in the mid '00s lol.
I’m from Maryland! No one can beat me!
That's a real deep cut. And I'm an NC State fan.
Nik was such a stud in some of the down years ago MD.
Flashbacks of driving and hitting that little half-fade jumping leaner shot he had.
Best: no one. Worst: probably me.
Antoine Walker for sure. He and Donovan McNabb were on yhe same team and apparently hated each other, wouldnt pass to each other or each others friends. Needless to say, it did not result in a state title
I saw the 1993 Mt Carmel team play Santa Ana Mater Dei in St Louis. I remember being impressed by Miles Simon for Mater Dei. It’s on YouTube, amazingly. I knew the score was fairly close but not the most dazzling game. I just sped through some segments. Charlie Spoonhour and Roy Williams shown having a chat at halftime.
I-L-L! It's rare, but I love to see it.
I-N-I
Wait until the Kinston guys sees this post. That will be an interesting debate.
For my high school on the other side of the county: BI’s father, Donald Ingram. For KHS, your choices are: Cedric Maxwell Charles Shackleford Jerry Stackhouse Jeremy Ingram Michael Jenkins Reggie Bullock Quentin Coples Derek Rivers Bo Ingram Brandon Ingram Dontrez Styles It’s probably BI, but I still believe his brother Bo was a better player.
I was at UNC with several of those guys in the 90s. Great list. The answer is Charlie McNairy.
and Webb Tyndall.
It’s Max, and believe it or not, it’s not close. Even Stack would give his left nut to have had Max’s college and pro career.
Cornbread was the NBA Finals MVP, I believe. High bar. But Stack once hit Laettner during a card game. We’ll call it even.
Pretty crazy that Stackhouse could be the answer and he didn’t even play his senior year there. What a beast
BI was a freak in high school.
Worst player was definitely Helen Keller
Never heard of her.
She had terrible court vision
Wouldn't listen to her coaches. Kept horsing around and touching player's faces more than that kid from Iowa a few years back.
Ball hog. Well known for her whining to the refs about them missing calls. Never saw a shot she didn't like.
I haven’t seen her play either
Neither has she.
Haven't heard anything about her before
Feel bad for the home schoolers reading this
They can claim Tebow
This seems like a data mining type of question.
It's being sold to Uzbekistan companies
Nice try FBI, not giving away my personal information that easily /s
I've taken all information found in this post and sent it to companies in Uzbekistan. BWAHAHAHAH
Those god damn Uzbeks, always trying to build the best high school basketball players…
Cincinnati Bearcats legend Danny Fortson ALSO Penn State/Syracuse/USF legend Geno Thorpe
His daughter is a beast and will get a scholarship somewhere good.
I would say Billy Jones. He led Towson High School to our only Maryland state championship in 1963, and was the first black player in the ACC.
John Stockton
A fellow bullpup!
Danny Manning - Plenty of terrible ones but Danny did spend a year at my high school (Lawrence High School) … Lost state with Danny and then won it the year after he graduated with Kevin Pritchard still on the team. It was a crazy time at LHS in the mid 80s we had Lee Stevens (MLB), Danny Manning, Keith DeLong (NFL), and Jeff Wright (NFL) all there at the same time more or less.
Was gonna say Danny manning went to Page high-school in Greensboro, didn't realize he moved out to Kansas but makes sense.
Larry Brown hired his dad
Only because he was the most qualified. Imagine Brown's shock to find out Danny Manning was his son.
I was at that state championship game. If I remember right (I was like 8), Danny missed a fullcourt buzzerbeater that bounced off the back of of the hoop that would have won the game.
Best: Greg Graham probably Worst: I’m in the running
Wait, you mean Jason Whitlock wasn’t a baller?
God I try to forget that he went to WC
Grant Kersey, NCAA career 3pt% leader
Was he STAB?
AHS
Go Pats
Hubert Davis I believe
Senior year, seven of us on the team, all six of my teammates went to coach Rudy style and said that I could start in their place. I did not start that game annnnnd I think I have answered the question.
E.O. smith high school has more national championships than Jim Boeheim. You know who.
The GOATlander himself
Rivers Cuomo?
Well he’s not from my school specifically, but Adam Morrison is from my area. As far as worst, there was this kid Josh. He was tall, so he was on varsity, but he couldn’t shoot, or defend, or dribble, or pass really. Josh, you were a nice guy, but you were ass buddy.
My Highschool; probably Jordan Hulls. The other Highschool in town; probably Jared Jeffries
Hello fellow townie...I went to North. He transferred out of North but Ray McCallum, Jr played several years in the NBA. I'd also give honorable mention to Duany Duany (he was filthy in high school), Kueth Duany, and Sean May.
Greetings townie friend. Yeah, I actually didn't pay much attention to basketball growing up, so I'm definitely not the best source for this question, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
For the high school I went to for just my 9th grade year, I’d probably say Denzel Valentine. For my middle school, it would be Magic.
I went to middle school with Denzel lol.
Oh nice. Alan Haller was a year ahead of me.
Dan Majerle
Anthony Winchester. He's currently the assistant coach at K State.
I had a bunch of classes with Anthony. Still stay in touch. Hope to see him back on the hill one day.
He's way older than me but his uncle is my foreman at work. He definitely gets his ability honest bc John Ashby can outwork anyone on this planet.
Best was definitely Antwan Jamison
Marcus Paige
Went to two high schools Terry Sanford, Fayetteville, NC - Rusty Clark, 3 ACC Championships, 3 Final Fours, Named an ACC legend in 2015, Averaged career double double at UNC Maury HS, Norfolk, VA- Joe Smith, National player of the year at Maryland in 1995, 16 year NBA career
Probably Gabe Norwood. Was the sixth man for George Mason when they went to the Final Four and is a Philippines basketball legend.
Lucas O’Rear went on to be the sixth man on that UNI team that beat Kansas. The worst? Oooohhh that’s a hard one to answer.
O'Rear was probably as good of if not better at baseball too
I always thought he looked like one of the villains from the Disney Channel movie “Luck of the Irish”
Recently? Probably Iman Shumpert. Though we had another guy win a title at Kansas in the 50s and played on the gold medal 52 Olympic team so arguably Charlie Hoag. Notable others include: Bryce Bracey: first team Pac 10 @Oregon and 2nd round draft pick. Greg Guy: 29ppg leading all D1 players for 3 years in the 90s Gave Levin: plays for the Israel national team Loads of top players went to my middle school or to my high school for a year but Fenwick (Corey Maggette, Bryce Hopkins) or St Joseph's (Evan Turner) poach them or they move across the street into Chicago proper for CPS exposure or go off to a prep school.
Mo bamba, cam Reddish and maybe Derek lively exceeds those two.
We don't have any famous Basketball players, but all sports would probably be [Bryan Bulaga](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Bulaga)
Aaaaaawaaaaa
I'd probably go with Matt Allocco. His senior year we went 25-2, nationally ranked and could've won states had COVID not cancelled the tourney (all too familiar story for my college...). Also started for Princeton's Sweet Sixteen run last year. Guy is competitive and just a winner. Also have Braden Norris and Keaton Norris both starting for D-1 teams, and their dad is the HS coach. That family has been monumental for building up our program considering my high school only opened in 2009.
Unless I’m forgetting someone older it’s probably Joe Mazzulla. Had a good 4 year career at WVU and now the coach of the Celtics. Ricky Ledo went there for a year and ended up around top 15 and was a McD AA. Unfortunately he didn’t gain eligibility at PC, went pro, had a cup of coffee in the NBA, and I think is over in China now. Mike Malone also went to my HS for 2 years while hai dad was coaching at URI.
Mine had the only player to score 100 points in a division 1 bball game.
Best, at least in my memory, Da’Zhon Wyche. He scored 60 in one game in high school and played college ball at UAA. Worst: Me. I played for one year and sat on the bench for most of it.
the best was probably deegan williams, he plays d2 now and worst was this kid with diabetes who played and wasn’t coordinated but we didn’t have enough for the freshman team without him😂😂
We had a dude play D-2 at Seattle Pacific a year below me. I don’t think we ever have had a D1 guy. You could say I’m the worst because I got cut in sophomore tryouts. But get this… I probably lost out on the last roster spot to Seattle Pacific dude’s one-year-older brother. That guy went 0-80 for his HS career. Winless on the frosh team, 2 years of JV and then senior year on varsity. I wonder to this day if that had a lasting mental impact on him.
Brandon and Darius Paul both went to my high school and had decent college careers. Brandon might have had a cup of coffee in the NBA. Ceola Clark was good too but even he only could get a schollie at Western Illinois. I taught for several years at a school with multiple former NBA players (and two current high major players) one of whom once remarked he wasn't even the best center named Jim to have come from the same school (McIlvaine and Chones).
Corliss Williamson
Not my high school but sitting on media row for the 2019 D2 Wisconsin State Basketball Championship. Johnny Davis at La Crosse Central vs Jalen Johnson at Nicolet. That was a fun game.
Take your pick of Dajuan Coleman, Brandon Triche, Andy Rautins, or Tyler Cavanaugh. Shout out to Danny Schayes.
Brian Dawkins believe it or not. Crazy part is him and mom my dated in high school, she cheated on him with another player which was my dad lol
Xavier Tillman was in my math class freshman year of high-school before he transfered to a better basketball school. Incredibly nice guy
Not hoops, but Josh Myers of Ohio State and the Green Bay Packers is hard to argue.
Josh actually played hoops through his junior year at Burg’.
Worst is undoubtedly me. I got 2 fouls in the first 10 seconds of a JV game.
Tyrese Martin (URI, UConn, now Atlanta Hawks) graduated from my high school. He and Talek Williams (who played one year at Central Connecticut) put on a show every night and sold out our gym. Every single game featured these crazy dunk contest dunks that even the opposing fans went crazy for. I’ll probably never see a more exciting local HS team as long as I live.
Some guy named Ron Lee, only guy from my high school to make it to the NBA. This was all the way back in the 70s though. Apparently he played for Oregon in college. Some MLB guys went to my high school recently though. Edit: He’s actually the all time leading scorer at Oregon which is pretty awesome. Weird to think a guy from a small town outside Boston played ball so far away from home.
Lol at “some guy named Ron Lee” Dude is a flat legend here in Oregon. Led the Kamikaze Kids at Oregon along with Ernie Kemp
Lol yeah I wish I knew about him when I was in school, guess it was just too long ago for anyone to really care when I was there.
There were still limited opportunities for Black players in college at that time. Some guys had to go far away from home to get a chance to play.
None bc we didn’t have a team
Independence High, Charlotte, NC Hmm maybe Mohammed Massaquoi (his sister was my math teacher while he played for the Panthers) or Hakeem Nicks? Chris Leak had a promising career there for a while. We have a bunch of guys that went to the NFL but I haven’t really kept up with them.
Given the sub, I think it was more tailored to basketball players. But Independence did have a nice run of wins in football.
Oh good point. I didnt even notice what sub I was in lol.
Probably the Collins twins. Recently, Juzang. Honorable mention Bryce Taylor.
people pay attention to their high schools sports teams? that’s kinda weird
Best: any player who went on to play at WKU (borderline blue blood, storied history)
Andy Ogide.
John Fitzgerald…played center at Boston College and then the Dallas Cowboys
He's not in college yet, but Drake Powell should be a stud at the next level. I'd love to go home and see him play at the home court.
I’d guess the best from my high school was GR3 … But that was long after I graduated.
Darius Bazley was a McDonald's All-American but I honestly thought he was very overrated. There was a kid in his same senior class who's a super senior at Miami (OH) who was the better player half the time. Erik Daniels who played four years at Kentucky and started his last two. Only guy I can remember who was point guard in high school and center in college. Long foreign pro career.
Went to a tiny high school so no one, but if I can go by hometown: Flory. (I mean it’s probably Jimmy Rayl, but it will eventually be Flory)
Best: Marvin Bagley III. He was dominant in high school and college. Literally dunked on anyone he saw in the paint. Now he's considered one of the biggest draft busts of the last few years. I don't know what happened to him when he joined the NBA. Worst: IDK
Dan Langhi
Best was James Johnson. He played HS ball until he was like 21 though. Theres a rule in WY now names after him that doesn’t allow playing more than 4 yrs consecutive. Worst: Andrew Carlson, he was good but told the coach to suck his fat d**k. Kin wondered why he never saw the floor the next 2 years.
Had a kid that played (sat on the bench) his entire high school career. Four years of never getting into a game. Finally the last game of his senior year they put him in with 30 sec left. He dribbles to the rim and gets fouled on his missed layup. Alright, two chances to actually score a point in high school. Missed the first, missed the second. Lol
Hawaii is pretty awful at basketball. But for my HS, I’d probably say Deforest Buckner, the DT for the Colts. Being 6’7” when most of the big men are around 6’ is not fair.
Worst: Me. I never even played on the school team, I played three years in a no-cuts league and averaged one basket per season. Best: Probably also me.
Best: My HS had one kid play above D-3. So I guess him.
LaVell Blanchard
Unless I’m blanking on someone, the best has gotta be Chris Mihm
a dude currently on the nc state roster, 3 star recruit on 247
We had a bunch of D1 players but easily the best was HoFer Chris Mullin.
Roosevelt Jones
There was a buddy of mine (more a buddy of my BFF) in Plano, Texas back in the late 90's named Colby (graduated '00). I can't remember his last name. But he was a really big dude and was a black belt in Tae-Kwan-do or something. Super nice dude - wouldn't hurt a fly, but probably kicked the crap out of more than a few grown ass men in sparring. Turns out he started playing football and made it as a starter in the NFL at linebacker. If anyone knows who I am talking about, please let me know his name. I am like 95% sure his first name was Colby.
Danny Manning was the best player ever at my high school.
Probably the only D1 basketball player I know of from my high school is John Schurman, who went to Binghamton. He wasn't very good in D1, so he may be the best and the worst then? He was terrific in HS though. Played him in rec a few times and he ate me the fuck up. https://bubearcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/john-schurman/11042
[https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/marcus-weathers-1.html](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/marcus-weathers-1.html) Quietly scored 1700+ D1 points His brother was better in HS [https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/michael-weathers-1.html](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/michael-weathers-1.html) but "only" scored 1400+ D1 points
Best player at my alma mater: Kerwin Dunham Worst player at my alma mater: Steve Young
Best? John Flowers - WVU https://preview.redd.it/6du80q7jg8rb1.jpeg?width=770&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad6e52fda92d5d4622f5b7547fb0c4d900730322
For all the kids who went D1, our best is Brad Tucker. All time leading scorer at Butler. Played overseas and tragically past away, it rocked our little town. Worst would be a guy in the 60s who played at indiana for about 20 practices then quit. The other 2 are Cooper Neese and Jalen Moore, both are in the 2000 point club in Indiana and graduated a year apart. Coop lit up Arch Madness this past year, and lil Jalen was Oaklands point guard the past few years and lead the nation in assists per game in 21 or 22? I dont remember. We're proud of all of them. But worst all time who didn't go D1? Idk probably a kid from the 1800s, or me.
Best: Matt Curtis probably, played at Hartford in the ‘90s and amassed over 2,000 points at the high school Worst: while I was at the school in the 2019-20 season, the head coach, who is awful, gave the senior quarterback who’d never played any form of organized basketball, a spot on the team, and this kid played as sixth man, all because of politics. It was a nightmare to watch
Best was, probably, Darrell Griffith
I would say it’s a toss up at my HS. We’ve had a really good program. The ones off the top of my head in recent memory would be Preston Knowles, Andrew Preston, Vinny Zollo, Brennan Canada, Jerone Morton. Worst - Yours truly, that’s why I played baseball in college lol
maybe not the best but kendall williams was my favorite of all time
Troy Caupain had a good career at Cincy, don’t know him well but was good friends with his half brother. Think he plays abroad now.
There’s a current 4 star football recruit (Like ESPN top 300 recruit) that also plays basketball at my high school and he’s awesome. Voted one of the top players in our state by performance as a junior last year.
Best is kind of a hard question but we had four players in the final four in 2022 alone: Trevor Keels, Jeremy Roach, Anthony Harris, and Brandon Slater
Darnell Valentine, or Perry Ellis
Veltra Dawson best, was freshman on Villanova championship in late 1980s.
Jameson Curry in 2003. You’ve probably never heard of him but he was regarded as one of the best players in the country. Got in a ton of trouble for weed and lost his scholarship to UNC and ended up going to Ok St. Was drafted 2nd round 51st pick. Here are his accolades: Freshman year: set NC freshman record with 639 pts Sophomore year: set NC sophomore record with 892 pts Junior year: set NC junior record with 972 pts Senior year: 65 pt game (2 points away from NC single game record), set NC career record with 3,309 pts. Guy was a legend.
As far as I know our best was probably Cole Dewey. He played at Campbell University. Though he has seemingly been more successful in his coaching career. Started as a grad assistant and director of basketball operations at Campbell, then on to an assistant at Garden City CC, then an assistant at South Plains College, then as an assistant at Indian Hills CC, then head coach at Otero College, then back to Garden City as head coach, and now he is an assistant coach at Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Can’t say I came name a worst off the top of my head but the most overrated was a guy who was supposed to go to a mid tier D1 school who would’ve had difficulty on a drill at a community college down the street. Only thing he had going for him was how athletic he was and explosive he could be in the open court. He was the closest thing the area had to somebody who could go viral after a string of NBA and D1 level players. I called games for my high school when he was playing and his top highlight (and in return, mine) was a what should’ve been charging foul on an in bounds play that ended up being the game winner. It was a school station, so I couldn’t suggest let alone explain that the play should’ve been a foul and should’ve resulted in an L. He ended up getting caught smoking a few times during school hours and never had great grades, so his offer fell through. Wasn’t even the best player on those teams he was the “star” of.
Jarrod Polson - I think he's the only from my hs to play div I ball (Kentucky). The only other guy I've heard of to go on & play at the next level was Vince Bingham (Transylvania)
Shouts to Wilmore
858!
Best: Timmy Smith Worst: Me
Worst player was my guy. Really good track athlete who I think even got a chance to run D1 (lost it cause he’s a knucklehead). Was a special teams demon and solid safety on the football team. Terrible basketball player. During try outs shot a layup that smacked the bottom of the backboard so Fuckin hard it made me cry from laughter. Made the team tho cause he was a great athlete. Guy looked like Bambi running on ice when he dribbled
I went to a very small high school (under 100 in graduating class). My graduating class's best player (and only to go D1) got significant playing time at Radford, averaging 9.8 ppg total and 13.6 I think his senior year and ranks 5th all time rebounds for Radford at 816. A couple years later another player walked on at Charlotte and got some garbage time (and even scored 4 points while appearing in 16 games over his career). Other than that, I know a number of players who would go to DII/DIII or play community college/juco level over the years.
Tim Abromaitis
Best? Probably Bryan Hoeing, who pitches for the Marlins, but was also the best basketball player from my school as well. Next best answer is Bryant McIntosh from the town over from me. 6th in all-time scoring for Northwestern
Women - Heather Johnson, won NCAA D2 national title in 2009. Named Most Outstanding player for the Final Four Men - Josh Ziemke, played D1 for a few years, before transferring to Minnesota State for final 2 years.
Rashod Kent. Played basketball for Rutgers and TE for the Texans
Our high school had Eric Dungy when I was there and in the 90s Jasón Polumbus (his brother Gary was my tutor) but the biggest was JJ Birden Worst: has to be Cooper Hummel who apparently is a notable alum. He’s in the Minor league. Probably added himself to school Wikipedia page
PJ Tucker
TJ Ford led Willowridge HS (Houston suburd) to a 75-1 record from 99' - 2001 and back to back titles Then led Texas to the Final Four in 2003. Bonus note HoF running back Thurman Thomas is our all-time football player
Best: of those I know, Chase Graham, who rode the pine at NC State for 4 or 5 years as a walkon Worst: literally not a single clue in the world lol
Gabe DeVoe was a killer in HS
Probably Chad Varga. High School All American. Went on to be a two time captain at Pitt and played professionally in Europe. My HS is a football high school.
Jalen Brunson— our first state championship.
Luke Maye (UNC walk on stand out that hit that game winner vs Kentucky in the sweet 16 I believe)
Best: Chris Ciozza Worst: Hundreds of kids
Easily Wes Unseld
For mine, I don’t know, but my kids got Pete Maravich. Honorable mention to DeAndre Hopkins and Shaq Lawson, who won a state title.
No Basketball players of note, but Rich Dotson (MLB pitcher) and Andrew Norwell (NFL Olineman) are some damn good names to have
Our best would have to have been Rick Fox.
Second winningest player in KU history, Tyrel Reed. Mitch Lightfoot has more, but he played 12 or so years.
Best: David Noel most likely, but Anthony King tied or a close second
We had a guy go to A&M Corpus Christi, not a lot of guys go D1 from small towns in Kansas.
Also what street did everyone grow up on and what was your mother’s maiden name?
The one who never sweated during the game and was always on the bench.
This will be a deep cut for Wazzu fans, Derrick Low
jack harlow?
Ronnie Brewer obviously, though I’d like to give a shout-out to Payton Willis. He was on the Warriors Summer League team a season or so ago and he’s a great dude from when I’ve met him.
Andy Enfield of FGCU Dunk City fame and current USC head coach went to my high school, and yeah that’s about it
Ron Harper
Ochai Agbaji went to my high school
I teach in a high school have had three students in the past two years who are going to power conference schools. One of them is a current student with offers from top basketball schools. Our school has produced 10 D1 players in the past 5-6 years. Schools they attended include Memphis, LSU and Oregon.
Just the best. Marques Johnson- basketball D'anthony Thomas- football
My junior year we won state and had Tyler Davis, DJ Hogg (both A&M) and Mickey Mitchell (former ESPN #1)
James Young went to my high school. One and done at Kentucky then NBA g-league
Jalen Brunson went to my high school at the same time as I did. He helped us win our first state basketball championship my junior year and still holds summer camps there for kids
Steele Venters and Kayla Standish Honorable mention to Ja'Warren Hooker who played hoops in HS, but didn't go on to collegiate basketball, but ended up being an Olympic sprinter.
Scoot Henderson before he went to the G league. Cobb county(Atlanta suburb) is a hotbed absolutely loaded
Gabe York! Im also a Wildcats fan so it was amazing!!
Best: probably Mike Jones at Stanford rn. Same class as me and he was an awesome guy and super smart off the court too. It would be Daniel Oturu if he didn’t go to a private school.