SUWANEE, GA – Teams that decide to play up against the competition do so by only one year. Rarely are there travel programs that make a jump against opponents two years older than them.

Well, this is what the Karolina Diamonds have done this season. The 15U North Carolina-based organization has locked horns against teams with a number of 17U teams in the spring. And they have held their own.

The Diamonds went undefeated in their pool at Nike Memorial Day Classic before falling short to Fleur de Lis, 68-64. Karolina showed is was not about to backup against teams two years their senior.

“The reason we are able to play up in 17U with 15U kids, we try to stop people,” Diamonds coach Kevin Graves said. “If we couldn’t get the defensive stops we wouldn’t be able to play (up).”

Karolina showed exactly why it can play up. Trailing by more than 20 points to Kentucky’s Team Hoops Mixtape, the young Diamonds had to grow up, man up and d-up.

They clamped down and made a conscious effort to get the basketball back. The relentless effort worked as Karolina pulled out the victory.

“We are like the San Antonio Spurs, they don’t value scoring the ball more than they value stopping people.”

This selfless approach to playing team basketball is not something that just happened for the Diamonds. They have been together as an organization for two years but as a core group for three years. While they have lost some key players to other organizations, a core of players remain together with Dennis Smith Jr., Kew’Shaun Parker (pictured), Ty Graves and Kylia Sykes. Seven-foot-one Raekwon Long joined the team this season but has been around many of the players.

“A lot of our kids really like each other off the court,” Graves said.

He has always told them, “If you have six or seven that will develop into special players but as long as you never think that you are better than your teammate, you can appreciate your teams accomplishments.”

Some of those accomplishments include Parker, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, is ranked among the Top-25 players in the country. Smith, a 6-foot-2 point guard, knows how to handle the ball and is constantly connecting on highlight-reel passes to Parker, also his teammate at Trinity Christian in North Carolina. Graves, is a 5-foot-11 point guard, who controls the teams tempo and is the coach on the floor. Sykes, a 6-foot-3 forward, knows how to break his defender down and puts on the clamps on the defensive end of the floor. Long is emerging as a post player many college programs are keeping an eye on because of his improvement. He recorded four triple-double’s as a freshman this season.

Not to be unrecognized are Dionte Overton and Jalen Seegars. All are contributors to the teams success.

Graves knows his players are young bug understands that these poodles (by age) have a pitbull mentality when it comes to playing the game. They will not back down from any competition having played all comers.

This is a summer of growth and a team to keep an eye on for sure regardless of what age division they play on.