Where Are They Now: Sleeper Prep Products
The road to success is not always straight. Especially not in today’s landscape, with injuries and a spate of 11th hour transfers and NCAA clearinghouse’s often ill-timed rulings. Here’s a look at some prep products who have taken a well-traveled route, but surely haven’t been lost in the shuffle.
Mike Miklos, Jr., Harford CC
The 6-foot-7 guard/forward established his niche as a 3-point ace at now defunct Elev8 Prep in Delray Beach, Fla. during his junior and senior years. Stronger and now possessing more range, Miklos has developed a dependable post-up game. He frequently exposes smaller defenders.
Now done at Harford Community College, Miklos Jr. has three years of Division-I eligibility remaining and is waiting for a program to pull the trigger.
Colton Kolowski, Seminole State
The freakishly athletic 6-foot-5 guard mixes it up well with an inside/outside game. He’s got serious vertical leaping ability, a factor which helps him hit the boards exceptionally well for a guard.
Also an Elev8 Prep product, Kolowski has the type of build, quick catch-and-stick game, and workmanlike consistency that’s translatable to mid to high major Division-I basketball. Originally signed to play at Drake, Kolowski was never cleared to play by the NCAA. He will instead ply his trade at Seminole State CC in Oklahoma.
Aleksander Zecevic, San Jacinto
At 6-foot-10 and possessing the type of long range game that spreads out offenses and creates matchup migraines for defenses, the stretch four’s game aligns with today’s style. He’s got length and shot-blocking ability in the trenches, albeit he needs to be more consistently aggressive on the glass.
Zecevic showed promise with a 16-point performance (8-for-11 FG) against Victoria College and a 15-point performance (on 7-for-8 FG) against Coastal Bend College. If he can author efficiency like this next season, expect his stock to balloon moving forward.
Karon Green, Harford
The 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward has the versatility and ball handling ability that mirrors the multi-positional approach. He’s capable of guarding smaller players and clamping down on high-scoring guards. He’s equally adept at fronting the post and putting a body on bigger players.
This past season, Green averaged 11.7 points and 5.2 rebounds. If he can kick some of his feast or famine tendencies, he’s got the potential to be a very special player at the next level.
Tanner Eubank, Kalamazoo CC
In becoming a more well-rounded scorer and distributor, Eubank averaged 13.6 points, 6.1 boards, and 5.1 assists. With a reliable pull-up game and deft touch from downtown, the Elev8 Prep product hit countless big, momentum swinging shots throughout the course of the season.
Eubank’s numbers are embedded all across the program record books at Paw Paw (MI), where his scoring engine and gym rat mentality helped revitalize a once ailing program. As a four-year starter at Paw Paw, Eubank drained a school record 169 3-pointers.
An all-state selection, Eubank’s proclivity for scoring at the rim, from 15-18 feet, and beyond the arc helped Paw Paw earn relevance and reputability. He scored 1400+ points during his illustrious career there.
Tremaine Frazier, Westchester Community College
The talented 6-foot-3 guard averaged 19.3 points and shot the ball at a scalding 58 percent from the floor. A product of Port Chester, N.Y., Frazier authored arguably the best individual season at WCC since fellow Westchester County native Keith Thomas.
Thomas averaged 15.3 points and a NJCAA-leading 15.7 boards during the 2014 season while earnin NJCAA Region XV Player of the Year hours. His workload catapulted the 28-4 Vikes to their first JUCO national tournament berth since 1996. The one-time SJU commit, however, was mired in tumultuous controversy when he became a key figure in a messy fake transcript scandal which shut the program down for a while.
Frazier’s emergence helped restore credibility to the once prosperous program. He turned in an efficient account of himself with a 26-point (on 12-for-16 FG) showing against Rowan College of Gloucester. Similarly, he went off for 28 points (on 11-for-14 shooting) against Raritan Valley. The quality and the killer instinct are certainly there.