[OSUBasketballJunkie]

DDN

3/26/06

COMMENTARY
State tourney offers glimpse of basketball's future stars

By Kyle Nagel
Dayton Daily News

COLUMBUS | Before they went on to root for their own team, a few Dunbar High School cheerleaders took turns in a hallway of the Schottenstein Center giggling and getting their pictures taken with O.J. Mayo.

Mayo, a sensational North College Hill junior, had just finished scoring 34 points in his team's Division III state final victory. Up next was the D-II final, featuring Dunbar.

But, before the cheerleaders concerned themselves with the Wolverines' fate, they wanted to make sure they got this meeting with Mayo on film.

After all, he could be a superstar some day, if he isn't already.

Such was the case with several players this weekend at the boys state basketball tournament. On 16 teams, we saw several players who shocked us and entertained us, sometimes both at the same time. Here's a glimpse at a few of the best:

O.J. Mayo, North College Hill: The 6-foot-6 guard was absent from Thursday's semifinal (because he missed class, he said), but he made up for it in the final, with 34 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. He's well built and can shoot, pass, dribble, everything.

Raymar Morgan, Canton McKinley: A Michigan State-bound senior, the tall, athletic Morgan is a force inside at 6-8. But he also likes to run with his braided hair flapping behind him.

Daequan Cook, Dunbar: We had seen plenty of him already, but not on the biggest stage. He finished the weekend with 49 points in two games in leading Dunbar to its first state title since 1987.

Brigham Waginger, South Webster: As confident as he is talented, Waginger is a cool, collected point guard. He scored 20 points, plus had five steals, in South Webster's D-IV title game win.

Ricky Jackson, Canton McKinley: The first thing you notice about the 6-6 Jackson is that he is a man. He's strong inside with long arms to divert passes and has a nearly unmatched intensity.

Bill Walker, North College Hill: The ultra-power forward, Walker is the spice to Mayo's sugar. On any other team in any other state, he would be Mr. Basketball.

State sights and sounds

• I've rarely seen the kind of start to a basketball game that happened in the Division IV final.

South Webster turned the ball over on its first possession, missed two shots on the next and then made 11 of its next 12 shots in building a 27-10 lead in the first six minutes of the game. It went on to top Columbus Grove 83-65 for the school's first title, becoming the first team from the Southeast District to win a championship since 1988.

However, after the first six minutes, the game was effectively over.
"We were definitely digging ourselves out of a hole the whole game," said Columbus Grove coach Troy Schwemley.

• When South Webster's Nick Aldridge scored on a pull-up jump shot with 4:32 left in the third quarter, he became the 37th player in Ohio high school history to score 2,000 career points.

Later, Mayo matched the feat.

Curious as to who some of the others were, I dug into the state tournament program. Jay Burson of New Concord John Glenn leads the all-time list at 2,958 points from 1981-85. LeBron James, you ask? He's third with 2,646.

Other notables include: No. 8 Jerry Lucas (2,460 points for Middletown from 1955-58), No. 9 Bob Huggins (2,438 points for Conotton Valley-IVS from 1967-71) and No. 12 Matt Witt (2,366 points for Bethel from 1998-02).

• Talk about treasured memories. After each state final, as the losing team accepted its runner-up medals, a photographer waited. The players stopped and faced the camera, presumably to get a photo to remember this wonderful moment.

Only problem is most of them looked like they had just been kicked in the stomach by a mule.

Quite the keepsake.