There’s no better time than the month of July to make an impression.
That’s the mind-set rising seniors Kiandria Patterson (Columbus High School), Maggie Proffitt (Starkville Academy), and countless other high school basketball players across the nation will have this month as they hope to realize their dreams to earn a college scholarship.
Patterson and Proffitt already have been recognized as two of the top players in the state of Mississippi. They were selected to participate in the Mississippi Association of Coaches Junior All-Star game Tuesday at Mississippi College. But both players won’t play in that game because they will be with their Amateur Athletic Union basketball teams for most of this month. Patterson, a 5-foot-9 guard, will play with Team Memphis Elite, while Proffitt, a 5-11 guard/forward, who transferred from Columbus High, will play with the Angels, an organization out of Kenner, La.
Team Memphis Elite, which is coached by Eric Daniels, and the Angels, who are coached by Denis Aidoo and Alton Clivens, have busy schedules this month. The Angels left Saturday for the AAU Silver Showcase, an event that precedes the AAU Nationals at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, Fla. Team Memphis Elite kicked off its stretch Saturday at the Fila Nationals in Suwanee, Ga. The team also will play in the AAU Nationals and then travel to North Augusta, S.C. for the Elite 32 event July 27-29.
Other marquee national showcase events/tournaments this month will be in Suwanee, Ga., Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Charlotte, N.C.
Daniels, who is in his third year coaching Patterson, and Aidoo, who has been coaching the Angels for nine years, said this month is as much as time for the college coaches to make impressions on players they have been recruiting, or players they have just “discovered.” They said the showcase events, sponsored in large parts by sneaker companies like Nike, adidas, and Fila, are scheduled to coincide with NCAA “evaluation periods,” which allow college coaches to watch prospective student-athletes. The month of July features two “evaluation periods” July 6-15 and July 22-31. There is a “dead period” July 16-21 when coaches aren’t permitted to have contact with players. The next period for coaches to contact players is Sept. 16-30.
“This is a very crucial time because the summer of your junior year is the most important year in terms of getting offers,” Clivens said. “The April early evaluation period is a time to put your name out there so coaches know who you are, if they don’t know who you are the previous year. There are a lot of major events in the month of July when coaches come out to see you, and you want to be able to put your best foot forward and garner offers before your senior year starts.”
Coaches often have established relationships with players much earlier than this month. They typically take this month to narrow their recruiting wish lists and make the final push to get players to sign National Letters of Intent. Student-athletes can make a non-binding verbal commitment to a school at any time. Rising senior girls basketball players can sign NLIs in the early signing period in November.
Not only is the month of July a chance for players to attract attention, Daniels said it also is an opportunity to change perceptions, especially if a player has worked on their game. He said the same goes for schools.
“It is a chance for schools to re-affirm their commitment to her,” Daniels said. “Now it becomes a recruiting game because all of the schools are re-affirming their commitment to her by showing up at her tournaments.”
Patterson is rated the No. 266 prospect (No. 56 point guard) in the nation by Dan Olson’s Collegiate Girls Report, a national recruiting service, and the No. 3 player in the state of Mississippi in Fila’s Class of 2013. She and Proffitt helped lead Columbus High to the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A North State semifinals last season.
Daniels said Patterson had earned 20-30 scholarship offers through the first part of 2012. The schools include nearly all of Southeastern Conference schools. He believes the number could double based on the events she attends.
“She has added to her game each time out,” Patterson said “Physically, she is still growing into her body and maturing, and that has helped her game because of the caliber of games she is playing and the physicality of the games. She also has added to her quickness and her athleticism.”
Daniels said this month will give Patterson chance to improve her stock because she likely will face plenty of players who national recruiting services “rate” above her in their lists of the nation’s top players.
Proffitt, who Fila ranked 30th in its list of the state’s top players in the Class of 2013, transferred to Starkville Academy earlier this year. She will play on a Lady Volunteers team that won the triple crown of titles, including the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools overall state title. She joined the Angels organization in March, and started to practice with the team late in the month. Aidoo and Clivens praised her family and Proffitt for their dedication in making the five-hour trips to practice with the squad.
“She has been great and has been a huge addition for our team,” said Aidoo, who is an assistant women’s basketball coach at Loyola University, which is in New Orleans. “She has a great personality, is very humble, and is willing to work hard. She has been very, very committed.”
Aidoo called Proffitt “one of the best shooters I have ever coached.” Clivens, who has been coaching with the organization since 2005, said Proffitt has attracted interest from Austin Peay University, the University of Southern Mississippi, Tulane University, and the University of Mississippi. He said she has worked on improving the speed of her shooting release coming off screens. Both coaches agree that this month will be a key time for Proffitt to solidify interest schools have in her, or to attract the attention of other college coaches.
Aidoo said the work Proffitt has done this summer has helped her chances of catching the eye of a coach who needs a versatile player.
“I know from the beginning of the AAU season (in April) she has definitely improved defensively,” Aidoo said. “She has really bought into that. She rebounds, and she is capable of doing other things, like handling the ball and being more of a scorer and a playmaker, but where she has made her biggest improvement is defensively.”
The Angels also will participate in Basketball on the Bayou on July 23-26 in New Orleans. Aidoo and Clivens said the team could play in other events in the late evaluation period depending on how it does in its other tournaments. Clivens believes all 10 of the players (nine active) on the team, which features players from the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, could earn college scholarship.
The month of July will offer plenty of chances for Patterson, Proffitt, and others to determine their next step. For colleges, the next three-plus weeks are a last chance to wrap up months — if not years — of hard work. All of that time will impact the decision players and coaches will make and will determine the future of programs across the country.
“I think some schools are waiting to see (if they are going to offer scholarships), but, for the most part, everything is solidified and it is just a waiting game,” Daniels said. “They’re waiting on Kiki to decide where she may go.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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