High Five Friday: SC hoops storylines to watch (October 16)
Each week, Coach John Combs breaks down the five biggest storylines surrounding the Palmetto State basketball landscape.
In this edition, Coach updates readers on how COVID-19 has affected the game, upcoming camps and tournaments, and more on SC prep alumni on Division I rosters.
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COVID UPDATE
We are little more than two weeks away from the official start of South Carolina high school basketball practice on November 2. The good news is we are still expecting, with our fingers crossed, to be able to start on that day.
One negative trend we are seeing is there are some tournaments canceling their invitational tournaments in an abundance of caution because they are concerned about bringing together multiple communities in one gym. The Chick-fil-A Classic canceled their event back in August. Recently, events such as the Stars & Stripes Showcase, Modie Risher Classic, Superintendent’s Cup (Richland 1 vs. Richland 2), Queens of the Castle, and the Chesnee Roundball Classic are just some of the events that have announced cancellations.
BOYS AND GIRLS PALMETTO ELITE SPORTS GROUP FALL ELITE CAMPS
Since the NCAA placed a ban on Division 1 coaches being able to recruit in person, AAU tournaments and exposure camps have worked extremely hard to put on events that are live-streamed so those college coaches are able to least watch it online.
DeLeon Johnson with the Palmetto Elite Sports Group is putting on an exposure camp for the boys on Saturday and the girls on Sunday in Columbia that are going to be live-streamed. Due to COVID restrictions, spectators will not be allowed to watch the games in person, but they can be viewed online by going to https://www.thesuvtv.com/pesgfallelite.
There are some high prospects expected to participate in this event including Cameron Scott (Lexington), Chase McDuffie (Gray Collegiate), Robert McCray V (AC Flora), and Brandon Gardner (Gray Collegiate) on the boys’ side to just name a few.
On the girls’ side, prospects like Milaysia Fulwiley (Keenan), Jessica Woods (Westwood), and Nadia President (Cross) are just a few of the girls expected to be in attendance on Sunday.
Ole Miss, Virginia, SC State University, Claflin University, USC Upstate, Presbyterian College, Miles College, Lander, USC Salkahatchie, Mitchell College, South Florida, Penn State College-Greater Allegheny, Jamestown Community College, and Middle Georgia Prep are just some of the schools that said they will watch the camp online.
General information about the camp can be found by going to https://www.palmettoelitesports.com/e/fall-elite-camp.
FORMER PALMETTO PREP PLAYERS ON NCAA D1 ROSTERS
In South Carolina, there are 12 NCAA D1 men’s basketball teams and 11 for women (The Citadel does not have a women’s basketball team). For reference, the state of South Carolina ranks tied for 10th (with Louisiana and Tennessee) among the 50 states in the number of D1 basketball programs in the state.
This week we dug into the rosters of men and women NCAA D1 basketball programs in South Carolina. We found there are 21 former women’s SC high school basketball players playing for one of our state’s D1 NCAA schools (click here for women’s article). When we looked into SC’s NCAA D1 men’s basketball teams we found there are 50 players who played high school basketball in SC (click here for men’s article).
I wonder why there is such a large gap between the men and women, but I can not explain this difference between the Palmetto State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams having former SC prep basketball players. I do not have any historical data to tell us if this gap is typical or not.
It is interesting to note D1 NCAA women’s basketball teams are allowed to give 15 full scholarships while D1 NCAA men’s basketball teams are only allowed to give 13 full scholarships. In our research, we could not distinguish between which players were on scholarship and those who are walk-ons.
COMING SOON: CONTENT CREATOR SERIES
Next week we are going to debut our “Content Creator” series where we shine the light on those who shine the light on others in high school athletics. South Carolina is extremely fortunate to have some extremely talented young men and women who do amazing work you see often see on social media.
We will have a conversation with those who make incredible videos, professional-level graphics, and write interesting content that is been consumed all around the world. If you would like to nominate someone we should spotlight, please send me an email: (BallmettoState@gmail.com)
2020 CAYCE ROUNDBALL CLASSIC
On Thursday the 2nd annual Cayce Roundball Classic that will be December 28 to 30 at Brookland-Cayce High School announced the 16 teams participating in the event. 15 of the 16 teams are from the Palmetto State. Brookland-Cayce head coach, Robert Wells, and his tournament staff have done an excellent job putting together a high-quality field in only their second year of the event.
The National Bracket will feature AC Flora, Aiken, Dutch Fork, Lee Central, Marlboro County, Westside, Westwood, and Wilson.The American Bracket will showcase Brookland-Cayce, Dreher, Gray, Hammond, Hartsville, River Bluff, South Florence, and Sumter.
For updates on the Cayce Roundball Classic, be sure to follow them on Twitter (@CayceRoundball) and Instagram, (@CayceRoundball). Brackets are expected to be announced in early November.