From left to right: Chennault, McKie, Terrell, & Tabb on their official visits this fall
As the five newest members of the Wake Forest basketball family get further into the schedule of their respective high school seasons, we thought it was time for a BSD update on their progress so far. Click through for the scoop....
The NC guys
J.T. Terrell and Melvin Tabb have played a lot more games than the guys from the North since it seems that basketball season starts much earlier in North Carolina. Terrell is adjusting to 4A basketball rather nicely after moving from Burlington Cummings to West Charlotte this season. He is averaging over 30 points per game (as he has for the previous two seasons as well) and West Charlotte is one of the best teams in the state. They have two losses on the season, the first to #1 Hopewell, who frustrated JT and held him under twenty points. The other loss was to Bishop O'Connell (VA) and future UNC point guard Kendall Marshall. Terrell hit a three over Marshall to send the game into overtime, but the Lions did not prevail in the extra session. Marshall scored 2 points in the game while Terrell had 28 (8-23).
In case you haven't heard, the bad news is that Terrell was suspended for four games after elbowing a player from North Meck in the first half recently. If West Charlotte plays more than two games in the Glaxo tournament in Raleigh, he will be eligible starting with the third game. While we haven't heard much about the incident, we did find out that the rule for the conference is an automatic four game suspension for this type of action. Hopefully, it was not as bad as it sounds.
As we know by now, JTT is a high volume shot taker and lives by the old Charles Barkley adage, "it's not how many you make, it's how many you take." Coach Gaudio will have to work with him some on his shot selection and defense, but there's no mistaking that he is one of the best scorers and shooters in the nation. I plan on going to see JT play on January 8th against Lake Norman, so be sure to catch my observations soon after. Terrell is a very exciting player to watch, so I know I'll get my money's worth as long as he keeps his elbows to himself.
With Melvin Tabb, you pretty much know what you are going to get every night. His Enloe Eagles team is undefeated and Tabb is doing whatever it takes in the paint to get his team the victory. Tabb has been scoring between 14-25 about every night and cleaning up on the boards. While Tabb isn't discussed as much as some of the other recruits, I believe he will be a valuable contributor from day one. He is more skilled on offense than most of Wake's current bigs (just not as tall) and is not afraid to mix it up with anyone. By all accounts he has good hands and is certainly athletic, so Melvin and Wake should be a good match.
A later start
The other three guys are just getting their seasons underway. Travis McKie's John Marshall squad has not really had any challenges yet, as they are coasting through their schedule with ease. McKie netted 44 in one of his early season games and had 32 in another. As BSD's favorite tweeter, we know for a fact that he isn't quite satisfied with these results and is going to keep pushing until he earns his teammates some championship rings at season's end. Click here for highlight's from one of JM's recent games.
Tony Chennault of Neumann-Goretti is off to a great start as well. His team, from Philadelphia, finished a tournament last night in Hawaii which featured several of the top teams around the country. Chennault's team first beat Kinston, which features UNC recruit Reggie Bullock, and then upset the #5 team in the nation, Montrose Christian. Montrose boasts Duke recruit Josh Hairston and Maryland recruit Terrance Ross, but Chennault showed them the loser's bracket by scoring 29 in the seven point N-G victory. The championship results were not yet available for this story, so check back to see if TC brought home the team and individual awards from Hawaii. Neumann-Goretti is currently ranked 17th nationally, but that will likely change for the better after this tournament.
Last but not least, Carson Desrosiers of Central Catholic has only played a couple games so far and both have been easy wins. Boston.com ranks Central Catholic as the second best team in the Boston area and they are favorites to win the Greater Lawrence Christmas Tournament for the third time in a row (Desrosiers was the MVP last year). His numbers have been very balanced so far, as he filled up the stat sheet with 7 points, 7 assists, 8 blocks and 10 rebounds in his first game while not playing a whole lot in the second half. Expect many more blowouts from his team this season, as the competition in this area is not extremely difficult for his Raiders. According to the local newspaper, the championship game of the Christmas tournament against Andover might be a good one though.
And since Carson was not included in the lead photo (his official visit and commitment was later), we'll show him some love as well:
