NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — There was perhaps no bigger winner at the Peach Jam than the city of Memphis.
The YOMCA Memphis 17U team reached the finals before losing to BABC, while the 16U team won the championship, 74-73, over the CP3 All-Stars on a last-second alley-oop layup by Nick King.
“The prep basketball in the city of Memphis is as good as any prep basketball in the country,” Memphis head coach Josh Pastner told SNY.tv.
“There’s so many good high school coaches, so many good summer league coaches that the players from Memphis get really good skill instruction before they ever reach college. One thing about the kids from Memphis, they all play hard.”
Pastner was a busy man at the Peach Jam, following both Memphis teams as well as players from other programs he is recruiting.
The Tigers have officially offered 2012 big men Jarnell Stokes and Shaq Goodwin from the 17s team, and the 6-7 King and the 6-9 Johnathan Williams III from the 16s. They are still evaluating Martavious Newby, a 6-3 athletic wing from the 17s team.
The 6-8 Stokes, who had 14 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in the final against BABC, is considering Memphis, Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee and UConn. (See a video interview and story on Stokes here.)
The 6-8 Goodwin, who is originally from Atlanta, put up 10 points and 2 rebounds in the final. He wants to play both football and basketball in college and lists Memphis, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and UCLA.
Newby tallied 14 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in the final and also helped contain both Rodney Purvis and Ricky Ledo in pool play.
In the 16U final, King finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds. After the YOMCA called a timeout with .5 seconds left, King caught a lob pass from out of bounds from Southwind junior Jajuan Johnson and converted in traffic for the game-winning bucket.
Meantime, Williams III put up 21 points, 7 blocks and 6 rebounds.
No wonder Pastner has a smile on his face most of the time.
