Telep's take on Reebok

Young’s Chris Colvin tries to drive around St. Joe’s Diamond Taylor Saturday in the championship game of the University of Illinois Chicago Area Satellite Team Camp at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
(Scott Powers/For the Sun-Times News Group)

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

The unstructured setting of Reebok’s camp made it difficult to evaluate players thoroughly, but Scout.com’s Dave Telep did his best. Curie’s Wayne Blackshear and Robinson’s Myles Leonard stood out the most, but plenty of Illinois talent was noticed. Here is Telep's take:

Lenzelle Smith (Zion-Benton)

“He’s a good player. He’s that guy you have to get him on campus and let him play with your guys to figure out what you’re going to do with him. He’s such a unique guy. His greatest strength of his game is his ability to pass. I think his skill set as a passer is going to be really, really intriguing. I think he’s going to be a niche guy for a high-major school. The first thing people see is he’s going to have to get into better shape. I think guys will take him more seriously as a high-major prospect if he got his body into shape.”

Wayne Blackshear (Curie)

“Wayne Blackshear is one of 30 guys who played in the all-star game, he was the only guy who attempted to play defense while making shots on offense. I respect the fact he came out – trust me when I say no one else has this approach – he started playing defense and ended up having a good offensive night. He’s good. During the camp, I thought he stood out. What’s not to like about Wayne Blackshear? He’s a rising sophomore in a camp of rising seniors. He has a lot of confidence in his game. To me, I think he’s one of the best guys at his position. I thought his athleticism is a bonus. His floor game, he has a burst to the hoops. He has a lot to wok with. He’s a gifted, gifted basketball player. I think he handled the ball well, too.”

Chris Colvin (Young)

“I think Chris is in a situation where he’s being evaluated all month long. People like his athleticism. I don’t think Reebok was a good setting for him. He has to prove he can run a team. The setting was not set up for that. He’s on every college’s must-see list who is looking for a point guard. And he has a major advantage over his competition because he out-athletes them. I think athletically and off the dribble he’s fine at the high-major level.. The part I want to see if when you hand him the ball can he run the team at that level. I don’t know about that yet.”

Joseph Bertrand (Sterling)

“Probably made his biggest mark in showing he could get shots for some other guys. With Joe, it’s just physically grinding for him over a camp like that. He’s going to be one of those guys who’s going to break down. He’s in need of 20 pounds that will help him get through a week like that. He did some nice things to create for other guys that I didn’t see before. He was just OK; he wasn’t a standout at the camp.”

Diamond Taylor (Bolingbrook)

“He just kind of blended in. Another guy where physically …guys who have body styles like that have the most difficult times at national camp settings. You expand so much energy that you only have so much fat to burn. It’s a number games. They also come from a more structured setting than what was out there. You have to keep that in mind.”

Andre Henley (De La Salle)

“He’s not bad. He does some things. He’s a big body. What position is he? It’s too early to say.”

Meyers Leonard (Robinson)

“Love him. Love him. We stuck him in our top 50 after the Hoops Jamboree. No regrets. He had one of the best moves of the camp. He drove the baseline and dunked on his guy. It was an eye-opener for Meyers and the people recruiting him. He’s a lock high-major guy. I was jacked about him after the Hoops Jamboree. I thought he made another stride at Reebok camp. In a camp where there was no attention to passing the basketball, Meyers Leonard figured it out. He faced up to get it, he went in and got rebounds, he played together than he did at Nike. The fact he didn’t make the all-star game is ridiculous. There’s no way there were 10 better underclassmen than Meyers Leonard. He’ll be dangerous from a year from now. He had high-major after high-major following him. If the camp had gone another day, the list would have grown longer.”