AAU Preview: Mid South Kings
Head Coach Casey Basinger coaches the team Mid South King Director Kody Howard helped cobble together.
This year the Mid South Kings run out 17u and 14u teams. The 17u Mid South Kings team earned #10 in the first PrepHoopsTN AAU rankings.
Who do they have suiting up?
It starts with Dontae Williamson (home schooled). The athletic 6-foot-6 player teeters between wing and face-up four in high school.
When colleges evaluated him in April and do evaluate him in May-July the will see another side of Williamson.
“Furman has already contacted me about Dontae from when they saw him last year,” said Director Howard. “He’s a true 6-foot-6 point guard for us. Sees the floor so well and shoots it from anywhere past half court.”
In high school games, Williamson’s rebounding gives opponents fits. Speaking of rebounding, there are few more aggravating, borderline impossible blockouts than Ripley’s Jamari Bostic.
“Yessir, Jamari is an animal.” said Program Director Kody Howard. “In the Adidas tournament last year he went for 38 with 4 threes, 22 boards, and seven blocks in our one-point quarter final win and picked up a lot of interest.”
Troy sent a coach to evaluate the Mid South Kings in April. Bostic played fantastic, averaging 16 ppg, 13 rpg.
“The sleeper is Jadarius Harris. 6’2 combo guard that shoots it well and can rise and throw one down on you if you let him,” said Director Howard.
Earlier in 2017-2018, two Ohio Valley Conference schools hosted Jadarius on their campuses. Broadly speaking OVC programs are an ideal starting point for eventual DI players. Many southeastern DI coaches spy the OVC offers to identify players they could be missing. OVC coaches tend to pluck diamonds in the rough out of Memphis, Atlanta, and Murray State loves Alabama too.
“UTM and Murray State already had Jadarius on campus for an unofficial this year,” said Director Howard.
In his fifth year running the Mid South Kings program he created, Director and 14u Head Coach Kody Howard understands how to congeal talent. The trick is finding events and courts that college coaches are sitting next to. It can be extremely difficult to attract the time-strained recruiters. Just having talent is not enough. There has to be a buzz, a scouting service murmur, a coach call, something that brings the evaluators to the games.
That Troy, Murray State, UT Martin, and Furman are all spending time and resources recruiting Howard’s team reveals plenty.
The Mid South Kings are destined to make noise this summer and net their top players actionable offers.