The Carolina Corner with @JustinByerly
This week we look at The Recruiting Trail, NCISAA All-State Teams from HoopSeenNC, Greensboro Day's Johnson wins award, and more.
The Recruiting Trail
Jaquantae Harris helped bring a state 1-A NCISAA title to Northwood Temple over this past weekend and his play has helped him earn his first offer. SEC-school LSU has offered the 2022 point guard.
“I mean man it’s unbelievable. Everyone always told me to stay calm and stay patient and keep putting in work and I did all that and got these results . It’s just a blessing. I don’t really know to much about them , but far as I know it’s a good school and program, “ he said.
Assistant Coach Bill Armstrong made the offer for LSU and I can see Harris being an SEC-level point guard in two years. He has the game, the athleticism and the scoring ability to translate his game to this level.
The Westover High School standout landed another offer this week. North Carolina A&T offered the 6-foot-4 guard who has his Westover squad into the second round of the playoffs as a #1 seed in the 3-A division of the NCHSAA playoffs.
Westover will take on Western Alamance HS on Thursday night in the second round. Dunn now has offers from Vanderbilt, East Carolina, VCU, UC-Riverside and UT-El Paso.
Coming off of a strong game on Friday night in the NCISAA 4-A semi-finals, 2021 shooting guard/wing Bryce Harris has received an offer from Siena. The 6-foo-6 Harris scored 16 points for Greensboro Day in the loss to Cannon School in Charlotte. His play caught our eye and we named him a top-overall performer from the NCISAA Championships. The New York native has had a strong season and I see his recruitment still trending upwards going into the travel basketball season. His biggest attribute is his motor and that fact that he doesn’t take any plays off.
Briggs was a standout at our HoopSeenNC Preview Camp back in September and has no picked up an offer from Old Dominion this week. The 6-foot-3 guard has a great basketball frame and can score from all spots on the floor. The Old Dominion offer is his latest and joins Elon as his two offers at this point. I wrote about Briggs after our Preview Camp,
“Briggs has the look of a quality tight end on the basketball court. He is powerful and explosive. He had a good number of finishes at the rim with contact that most players wouldn’t have been able to succeed at. His body control was impressive along with his thick frame that allows him to withstand the contact. His shot-making was impressive on the day, knocking down shots from beyond the three-point line and the mid-range jump shot. Briggs is hard to stay in front of and his passing ability is very underrated.” - Justin Byerly
Greensboro Day's Johnson Earns Award
The 2020 winner of the Morgan Wootten Award for boys’ basketball is Freddy Johnson from Greensboro Day School (Greensboro, North Carolina). Freddy Johnson became the head boys’ basketball coach at Greensboro Day School in 1977. At GDS, he has compiled an overall record of 1080-300, a winning percentage of 78.2%. He is the winningest coach in North Carolina high school basketball history, reaching the 1,000-win milestone in November 2017. His teams have appeared in 19 North Carolina Independent School Athletic Association State Championship games, winning a record 11 state championships. His teams have also won 27 conference championships, and he has been the Conference Coach of the Year 23 times. He was the USA Today North Carolina Coach of the Year in 2015 and the BallisLife.com National Coach of the Year in 2017. Johnson has coached in seven all-star games, including the 1997 Capital Classic All-Star Game, the 2013 McDonald’s All-American Game, and the 2017 Jordan Brand Classic. He is an inductee in four Hall of Fames, including the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
- From Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Press Release
Ellis Named Panhandle Conference Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year
Former Quality Education (Winston-Salem) standout El Ellis, a freshman at Tallahassee CC in Florida has been named the Panhandle Conference's Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year as well as earning First Team All-Conference. I caught up with El this afternoon and here is what he had to say about the honor, "First I want to give thanks to my lord and savior Jesus Christ but being Panhandle Player of the Year just shows me that working hard and trusting the process can take you a long way."
His recruitment has exploded since taking the floor for Head Coach Zach Setembre at Tallahassee and has now been offered by Nebraska, Texas A&M, DePaul, Ole Miss, South Alabama, North Carolina Central and East Carolina. "It means so much to me that my recruitment has finally taken off, I’ve prayed for these things and god answered my prayers. I just had to continue to work on my craft and just be patient. It’s crazy because I was nobody at this point in time last year, now I’m a priority for top programs." Louisville and Iowa State are the latest to express interest in the point guard from Durham, North Carolina.
NCISAA All-State Teams
The private school division of North Carolina basketball ended this past weekend and we have released our 1-A, 2-A and 3-A NCISAA All-State selections. The 4-A team will be released tomorrow.
Miss any coverage from the weekend at the NCISAA Championships? We have you covered.
Top Performers from the Semi-Finals
Championship Saturday from the NCISAA Championships
Top Overall Performers Part II
We really talking 'bout stats?
