Summer League Insight: Thursday Night
On Thursday night, summer league basketball went down in Tampa.
Three schools played three different one hour games at Jesuit. Hillsborough and Clearwater Central Catholic joined the host Tigers for some June basketball.
Here is what I took away from the night.
Jesuit standouts (Moliere, Radke, Weir)
A trio of 2018 players made plays consistently for Jesuit. Point guard Thierry Moliere has taken over the keys to the backcourt from now graduated Stevie Darst. Moliere is running the offense better than ever and he was attacking in rhythm.
Forward Nick Weir was lethal from outside before leaving with an ankle injury and guard Ryan Radke showed his range and ball handling ability all night. Other Tigers to monitor this season are 2019 forwards Jack Cooper and Andrew Dansoh. They both made gritty plays inside and truly give Jesuit more size than they’ve had these past few seasons.
Clearwater Central Catholic standouts (Newton, Amaro, Brown)
2019 guard Jerjuan Newton is an up and coming star on the gridiron, but with his pure athleticism that helps him with basketball. Newton scored time and time again inside and he took full advantage of forcing turnovers and putting them home in transition.
2018 guards Nick Amaro and Jeremiah Brown paced the offense. Amaro hit a number of 3’s with defenders in his face. Brown plays an aggressive style of ball, especially on the defensive end. 2018 guard Tripp Robinson is going to be another key element to this new look Marauders group.
Hillsborough standouts (Cowart, James)
2018 forward Myles Cowart was a big part of the Terriers success a season ago. It looks more apparent than ever that he’s going to be the centerpiece of this team. He set things up for his offense and went to the paint when he needed to. Cowart has a really solid floater.
2020 guard Tyriq James was given the green light in terms of attacking. The rising sophomore gave the Terriers an advantage inside more often than not. This is a young and lengthy Hillsborough group that is trying to come together quickly. They lost both games on the night and need to start working on team chemistry this summer.