We got the chance to speak with several promising basketball players today at the 2012 Carolina Challenge, and we will be uploading them to the site over the next week along with a brief write-up of what we noticed.
Shelton Mitchell is a 2014 point guard who plays for Cuthbertson High School, where he led the team to a 2A state championship game appearance. He is well known for his work ethic and his composure on and off the court (which is evident in the interview as well). The Deacs have been recruiting this kid for a while, and he is developing quite the reputation among college coaches.
If there is any problem hearing this interview (or any of those that may follow), please let me know. There was a fair amount of background noise going on during a couple of them due to the sheer volume of people at Ravenscroft High School.
Click through for a brief recap and write-up of what we saw at the Challenge today from Mitchell.
Shelton showed a great court vision throughout the three games, and he was clearly the team leader on a very talented team that featured Isaiah Hicks ('13 UNC commit), 2015 phenom Brandon Ingram (who we also interviewed), Clay Byrd (three-point extraordinare from East Burke) and local product Tyquan Bitting (hailing from Mount Tabor).
The point guard orchestrated a fantastic team effort through his passing and scoring when necessary, and it is evident that he understands the ebbs and flows of basketball, consistently knowing when to push it and when to reign it in.
Although his scoring numbers were fairly modest and not overly impressive (25 points through the three games), Mitchell showed the ability to get to break his defender down and get to the rim. He was also able to hit a couple of hotly contested three-pointers. It was pretty clear that he was serving as the maestro of his team, content to get the ball to his extremely talented teammates in transition and for three point shots.
As always in events like this, it was difficult to tell how good his defense was, but he has pretty good lateral foot speed and did a pretty good job of staying in front of his man. He went up against 2014 classmate JaQuel Richmond, who many tout as the No. 1 PG in the state of NC and came out of that game impressing most people in attendance.
Many thought that Shelton may have been the best guard in attendance. He will no doubt be a high major player and Wake Forest could reap the benefits of being on him early and possibly land this guy.
He is a great kid and comes from parents who were very supportive of him throughout the day. Comments are very welcome, and if there are any questions about his play, don't hesitate to ask. There will be many more updates coming from us over the next couple of days, including an inclusive recap of the event overall and individual players.