Focused on the future
No Mayo, no Walker, no problem for Huntington
It is hard to believe
Lloyd McGuffin when he says he doesn't think about it. The boys basketball coach at Huntington (W. Va.) High sees
O.J. Mayo regularly, including at a recent scrimmage. He knows several of his players remain close with Mayo. And, he sees television and newspaper reports declare Mayo and another Huntington native,
Bill Walker, the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked juniors in the country, respectively.
Yet McGuffin says he doesn't think about what his team would be like had O.J. and Bill gone to Huntington High rather than move to North College Hill, Ohio, two years ago to attend the high school in the town just outside Cincinnati.
"It doesn't do any good to think about what you don't have," says McGuffin, who taught at the middle school Mayo attended in Huntington. "Plus, I can't be mad at O.J. about it because, well, I really like him. He is just such a good kid."
How Mayo ended up in North College Hill and the impact he and Walker have had on that school and town is the subject of a story I wrote in this week's issue of
Sports Illustrated. But it is also worth mentioning that another public school just missed out on all the benefits. It was as if McGuffin and others at Huntington High were holding not one, but two, winning lottery tickets, only to have the wind blow them away 160 miles northwest to North College Hill. The one conciliation is that Huntington High's basketball program, despite losing out on two transcendent, one-in-a-lifetime players, won the AAA state title last season and is among the favorites this year.
"We have been fortunate in that we have a lot of good players," McGuffin says. "I don't know if I would go so far as to call this area a hotbed, but there is talent."
The most talented player now residing in Huntington is 6-foot-8 forward
Patrick Patterson, a junior at Huntington High. Were it not for O.J. and Bill, he would likely be considered the best player to come out of the area in a decade. He is being courted by some of the same schools, including Kentucky, and is ranked among the top 75 players in his class.
"When he came in, he was tall and slender but he started lifting weights right away because he knew that one way for him to get better was to get stronger," McGuffin says. "He's the hardest working kid we have and the kind of kid you want to coach because he makes everyone else better."
McGuffin's team last season was so good that guard
Tanner Wild -- who walked on at Tennessee this fall -- didn't start. This year's bunch is still a work in progress, but with Patterson and all-state tourney guard
Michael Taylor and
Jamaal Williams, another guard who played AAU basketball with Mayo, a repeat is possible. Still, had O.J. and Bill stayed, and been joined by 6-11 junior
Keenen Ellis of Indianapolis, an AAU teammate who followed them to North College Hill, this could have been McGuffin's starting five:
PG 6-5 O.J. Mayo
SG 5-10 Michael Taylor
SF 6-6 Bill Walker
PF 6-8 Patrick Patterson
C 6-11 Keenen Ellis
That surely would have been the best starting five in the country and would have included four players (Mayo, Walker, Patterson and Ellis) ranked among the top 75 juniors in the nation. McGuffin's second five would have included at least three players 6-4 or taller. Yet McGuffin, who would have had those starters together for two more seasons, says he isn't thinking about it. "Talk to me four games into the season, when I get a better idea of the kind of team we have," he says.
One of the best storylines of the high school season would have been Mayo's and Walker's return to Huntington to play against their hometown school. A game was discussed, but a deal couldn't be reached. Mayo and Walker will play two games in Huntington this season, but none against Huntington High.
"It would have been fun and I know that they wanted to play us," McGuffin says. "We talked to (North College Hill's) athletic director, but there were a lot of other people -- businessmen, promoters -- involved and we couldn't get a deal done. I got the feeling that it wasn't entirely the athletic director's decision to make and so it gets tough when you get outside people involved."
But McGuffin won't be complaining when Mayo comes to town. In fact, he might go to the game and cheer him on. "Everyone around here is really rooting for O.J.," he says. "He's too nice a kid not to root for."
Teacher Knows Best
Belinda Perna is a science teacher at North College Hill and one of three faculty members I met with while trying to understand O.J. and Bill's place at the school. Perna was the boys' biology teacher their freshman year and had them for human anatomy and physiology this year. Walker is one of Perna's favorites. He goes with her to a local store to buy fish for her aquarium. "His favorite are the Oscars," Perna says, pointing out the pouty-looking fish in an aquarium on one wall of her class. Having taught at a large public school near Washington, D.C., before coming to North College Hill five years ago, she sees how attending a small school has benefited O.J. and Bill. "This is a nurturing school," she says. "It is small enough that faculty gets to know the students. They can look out for them and communicate quickly when something is going on."
When the boys talk to teachers such as Perna, they exchange ideas or thoughts in a way reminiscent of classes at a small liberal arts college or a prep school. While North College Hill is still a public school with crowded classes and serious budget concerns, the intimacy of the school (500 students) and the small town (10,000 residents) leads to more discourse between teachers and students, who see each other regularly away from class.
"People say 'Why would they want to go to North College Hill' but why not North College Hill?" says
Gayle Clyburn, who graduated from the school in 1973 and has taught there since 1978. "We are a good school with a lot to offer. It gets tiresome when people question why they would want to be here."
The less obvious benefits, such as teacher attention, aren't lost on the boys. Walker and I were walking toward the bleachers at a Friday night football game when two white teenagers headed in the same direction hollered at Bill and then caught up with us to greet him. It was a short chat, but afterward Walker said: "That's one of the good things about going here, I am friends with people that I would never have thought I could be friends with. I am friends with guys like that, friends with some of my teachers. Coming here has forced me to think about people in a different way."
Invaluable Sources
Pro scouts are excellent interviews. One of my colleagues refers to them as the last honest men in sports, and I couldn't agree more. NBA scouts are particularly good because most are willing to give you the skinny on a player as long as they remain anonymous. I particularly like the scouts who indulge me when I ask about my favorite players. (I once cornered a scout for 20 minutes at a high school gym in Las Vegas and peppered him with questions about Warriors forward
Troy Murphy.) Here are the raw comments from the scout on O.J. and Bill:
MAYO: "He has the big reputation right now. He has a real feel for the game. He wants to be a point guard but he's a combo guard. He reminds me of
Penny Hardaway when he was younger. He likes to have the ball in his hands. He's a willing passer, a good shooter and rebounder. He's mature beyond his years. He's a terrific athlete, though when you put him next to Walker, who is crazy athletic, he doesn't seem as athletic as he is. His ball handling skills really make him attractive. I see him as a guy who will spend one year in college and then go."
WALKER: "He is an insane athlete. He is a highlight reel, but for different reasons than Mayo. He takes your breath away with the tip dunks and the explosive moves to the basket. His skills are not as polished as Mayo. He's more of a finisher than a creator. I saw him two years ago and he had no outside shot. Then I saw him again this year and he clearly had worked on it. He's never going to be
Kyle Korver, but his shot has gotten better. He reminds me of
Desmond Mason, just that type of ridiculous athlete. He should be a guy who goes three years to college and then declares, but I doubt that's what he will do."
The scout I spoke with also compared Walker to Golden State shooting guard
Jason Richardson. Coming out of Michigan State in 2001, Richardson was pure athlete and there were personnel people who questioned whether he would work hard enough on his game for that athleticism to translate into a long NBA career. The scout I talked to said Richardson could barely dribble in college and his jump shot was, at best, suspect. "(But) he has worked hard on those parts of the game and now is a more than adequate ball-handler and he knocks down shots," the scout said. "People should give him more credit than they do for how he developed his game."
It will be interesting to see if scouts can say the same thing about Walker in a few years.
