hoopsfan
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04-24-09 05:10 PM - Post#62844
In response to internetter
April 16, 2009
Kevin McCarthy
NorCalPreps.com
Talk about it in Basketball Recruiting Board
With recruiting, the general maxim is that a player is pegged by how he performs during his junior season and then summer club team ball. But as always, there are the rulebreakers to any axiom and Monte Vista/Lakeshow backcourter Brian Barbour is such a prime example.
Barbour has always been well thought of -- nice player and great young man -- but he vaulted past admirable with his senior season performance and led Monte Vista to a 28-4 overall record. It was the best in school history which is quite the accomplishment considering the success Coach Bill Powers has enjoyed in his decade and a half or so there. At the end of the year, Powers' Mustangs powered through Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, Newark Memorial, Lowell and Folsom until coming up three points short in a loss to state championship game participant McClymonds. This after another successful spring and summer for Barbour with Joe Fuca's perennial strong Lakeshow club team.
Now Barbour is a hot commodity. "He is the top point guard prospect still available in the state of California," according to Bay Area basketball maven Carl Foster, who is assisting with Barbour's recruiting. Foster added, "I've always admired [Barbour} from afar because he gets his teammates involved. He was enemy number one to our Oakland Soldiers team and we always had trouble with Lakeshow."
The evidence of Barbour's recruiting temperature? Barbour just returned from an official visit to Columbia in New York City. "It was a really good experience. We walked the campus, I met the players and played a little with them. There was a visit to Madison Square Garden and I stayed overnight in a dorm with one of the players."
A Barbour sojourn to St. Mary's in Moraga is upcoming on Friday and Saturday followed by a Sunday-Monday trip down to UC Riverside (the first school that has offered). Fresno State has interest in Barbour as a scholarshipped point guard and San Diego is also doing some checking.
The foremost factor for Barbour's eventual decision will be the quality of the education offered. But he added, "I will also be considering what kind of a relationship I have with the coaches and the players too."
One of the traits always forthcoming from Barhour is humility. To any observer, he was THE catalyst for Monte Vista yet Barbour makes sure his teammates are recognized. "Our big guy Zach Ertz was a monster in the paint all year, Tyrelle Phillips was our x-factor guy doing everything. Taylor Brewster, Mark Appel, all the guys helped."
In an earlier interview, Powers said of his team leader: "...the beauty for our coaching staff is that he is twice the person than he is the player." So you can understand why college head coaches are pursuing this two-fer.
Preps: Top boys teams, a look at Monte Vista and Barbour's lead
2. Monte Vista-Danville (12-0) -- Let's just get this out of the way. Monte Vista guard Brian Barbour is creating more buzz in Bay Area basketball circles than Rex Walters, Mike Montgomery and Patty Mills combined.
I write this one night after former Palo Alto guard Jeremy Lin torched BC for 28 points in an upset win for Harvard. Barbour reminds me of Lin in many ways, especially in the way he was underrecruited. That's beginning to change. WCC schools are starting to take harder looks at Barbour, a 6-foot-1 guard, who doesn't necessarily pass the eyeball test. But the key statistic here is that Barbour wins. He's doing it against great competition at the high school level and he did it this past summer with his AAU squad, the Lakeshow.
I saw the Mustangs beat St. Mary's in last week's Don Bambauer Classic semifinal at Marin Catholic. Barbour played his typical game, never forcing anything. He hit the open three-pointer, got his team into its offense and surprisingly elevated over and around some of St. Mary's exceptionally long and athletic defenders. He missed a three-pointer with three seconds left in the first half, but knew it was off, got his rebound and made the layup to give his team a 42-25 lead at the break. As Monte Vista coach Bill Powers said, "he has the ability to change speeds. The good ones can do that."
I'd be really surprised if Barbour, a guy with a 3.7 GPA supposedly, doesn't end up at Brown, Yale or another Eastern school with ivy growing on its gym. The only question mark he might have is his ball-handling against elite defenders. Chris Brew stripped him once, but Brew probably could get CJ Watson a few times if he practiced with the Warriors.
Monte Vista plays St. Mary's again on MLK Day at Cal and then has its showdown with De La Salle on Jan. 21 in Concord. This is a pretty balanced team, too. Stanford football recruit Zach Ertz is a beast inside. Guard Taylor Brewster can beat you with the jumper, 6-3 forward Tyrelle Phillips has tremendous versatility and JD Nosal, a 6-2 junior, is that role player who can hit the open three, set picks and play tough defense.
Against St. Mary's, the Mustangs employed a 1-2-2 zone defense that didn't allow much penetration. it will be interesting to see what they do against De La Salle, a team that relies heavily on the perimeter game.
With 12 straight victories, including wins over Bellarmine, Moeller-Ohio, Oakland Tech and a good Folsom team, the Mustangs appear to be a favorite to challenge De La Salle and McClymonds in Division I, but it will depend on how they execute and get added production from Barbour's supporting cast.
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