Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Player Diary: Stevie Taylor '11

Since my last entry I’ve been to a lot of camps and AAU tournaments. First I would like to talk about the Bob Gibbons TOC in North Carolina. My dad and I took a plane to North Carolina and as soon as we landed I told my dad that I was going to make the all- tournament team. I did! The first game I had 15 points and 5 assists, and when we went up by 20, they had to stop the game with 4 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. Throughout the whole tournament we were blowing teams out by 20 points.

In the championship game we played the M33M Memphis, which also was the team we played in the U-14 AAU Nationals last summer. I’m happy to report that we beat them by 15 points for the second time in a row. In that game I had 23 points and 6 assists. The experience was unbelievable, and all of the universities that we played at were top notch. We played at Duke, North Carolina, and NC State. Me personally, I liked North Carolina the best because it was so big and everything was painted baby blue. I have to say, the Gibbons was the best tournament I’ve been to ever.

A few weeks back I attended the Xavier Elite Camp in Cincinnati. At Xavier, I played really well. The first game I played on the main court against some top players. The coach at Xavier spoke to me at the camp and told me he liked my game and was going to start recruiting me really hard. I like Xavier a lot and I hope they keep watching me.

I had to leave early on Saturday morning because I had to go play with my high school team at Ohio State. The Ohio State Team Camp was another great experience for my team and I. We went 2-2 the first day and we got the 5th seed going into the playoffs. We won the first game on Sunday, but then we lost the next game.

This past weekend I played in the RBK Breakout Underclassmen Camp in Chicago, Illinois. The breakout camp was invitation only and everybody there could play. I played really well in every game. In the first two games I went for 20 points each game. There were a lot of individual match-ups that people wanted to see and most of them turned out really well and were fun to watch. I got hurt the last game on Saturday so that kept me from playing in any games on Sunday, including the all-star game. The Reebok Camp was great and I think I made a big impression.

During the last couple of weeks I have been playing in a summer league that features pro and college level athletes. Last week I led my team in scoring with 12 points, but we kind of got blown out. Next week is a big showdown between my squad and my brother’s team. I hope my thumb is better because I plan on going at my brother for real.

I was supposed to be attending the Cincinnati Elite Camp this week but I didn’t make it because of my thumb injury. However, I will be going down to the UC Team Camp on Friday with my high school team. I was hoping to get an offer from UC but that may be tough now that I missed the elite camp.

Well that’s all for now. Look for my next entry in the next couple of weeks. The next time we talk I will tell you what went down at the Adidas Take Five Classic in Cincinnati, the Adidas Super 64 in Vegas and of course the NCAA First Team Program in early August. See ya.

No comments: