Recruiting Report: Nigel Haughton (2019)
As the high school season has officially come to a close, AAU teams around the area have started preparing their teams during training camps to prepare for the first live period. One of these teams include Team Thrill of the UAA Circuit. John Carroll senior point guard Nigel Haughton will play for the 17U team this spring/summer and do a post-grad year at a prep school next season.
“Right now I’m looking at South Kent, Lommis Chafeee and Promfret School,” Haughton told Prep Hoops. “Those are the three main ones that have kept in contact with me, but I’m still open to anyone who wants to get involved.”
The six-foot guard was an essential piece to the Patriots’ success this season, which included winning the MIAA A Conference championship.
“We definitely had a successful season,” Haughton claimed, “but I think we came up a little bit short and won the BCL too, we just struggled to play as a team in the end. My role changed over the season with Immanuel [Quickley] missing the first 10 games. My role during that time was to be a traditional point guard, to facilitate, and lead my team to wins. We actually finished 9-1 during that stretch and then once he came back I moved off the ball and was expected to be more of a scorer and shooter while also continuing to be a lockdown defender.”
Haughton is one of the best on ball defenders you’ll find. First and foremost, he picks up the ball for the full 94 feet and stays solid when doing so. You won’t catch Haughton gambling much, he slides his feet, makes the ball handler turn multiple times when dribbling down the floor and overwhelms them over a 32-minute game.
He didn’t only show his defensive prowess this season. Once Quickley returned, Haughton had to become more aggressive as a scorer.
“I got much better attacking with my right hand,” Haughton said. “With me being a lefty, I wanted to improve on my pull up and floater going to my right hand.”
I caught Haughton almost a dozen times this season and you can tell he is much more confident going right and still being a viable scoring threat.
In terms of what he plans to improve on for this spring/summer, it has to deal with putting the finishing touches on becoming a true point guard.
“I need to work on my leadership,” Haughton said. “As a point guard, I have to constantly be talking and be that presence on the floor that helps lead my team to wins.”
What can a program expect with Haughton?
“A fast point guard that loves to shoot it from three, loves to work in pick-and-rolls, loves to get up and down and at the end of the day, will lock down my match up.”
Nigel Haughton is ranked by Prep Hoops as the No. 55 prospect in his class. To see the full ranking of Maryland and DC’s 2019 class, click here.