KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Billyboy78 wrote:

ace wrote:EC scored a game-high 26 pts

http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/ ... ith-video/

I wonder if Preston is on Josh Jackson (frosh who scored 23 in that game), top 10 in the class of '16?

Never too early, right?

More encouraging is, he had FIVE 3's!

I feel like I'm reading Fab Five again with some of those schools listed in that article. Must be good games.

It looks like the Romulus game against Saginaw Arthur Hill (Jordan Hare's high school) will be shown here, starting at 5.

http://www.statechampsnetwork.com/live-events/

sweet find ace. def will check it out.

It seems their live coverage has turned into a tape delay

Hoops Recruits‏@HOOPSrecruits

RT @scoopIPS Romulus' EC Mathews 20 & 8 rebs, Wes Clark 9 & 5 assists; Art Hill's Jalen Adams 30 & 6 boards, Eric Davis 28 points & 11 rebs

The game is still available at the above link. EC is #25 in the white t-shirt.

I watched some of it earlier. EC had at least 2 3's and also 2 blocks that I saw.


Game article
http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/ ... ill-82-71/

I really enjoyed watching E C's game in person as I have done several times. It appears as if nobody can stop him and he scores without much effort.

I believe that someone asked before if Clark was better than E C.. Well I will give my opinion...My opinion is unbiased because my opinion has not changed since the first time that I saw them; this was before E C was being recruited by Rhody. Both players are really good guards but I give the edge to E C because of his height. Also, E C has great body control and can avoid defenders when he drives to the basket.

That's something we can sure use! We haven't had any PG's that can do that, for a long time.

Video from the 2/5 game against Consortium (again, EC is #25). Nice to see those outside shots.

Looks like a Clark highlight film. He looks like a worldbeater PG.
That big kid 33 is someone we could really use.
EC looks like he goes with the flow of the game, not forcing things.
His shot is really coming along.

I was thinking the same thing about #33 Rod. Some real nice back to the basket moves. Hard to tell from the video how much size he actually has. May be undersized in terms of making those kind of moves against A10 teams.

Leo Edwards (#33) is a Louisiana Tech commit.

6'8" 220lbs. Looks like he signed early with Louisiana Tech.
Too bad, Kid's a 3.2 GPA student, too.

I wonder if they will try and change EC's mechanics on his jump shot. He doesn't seem to go straight up and down and sometimes seems out of balance a little, which is strange because he has such great body control when he goes to the hoop. I'm curious to see what his percentages are from outside. If his percentage is good, I guess you don't mess with it. I've loved everything else about his game that I've seen on tape, just that one thing about his jump shot he might be able to improve.

I think driving is more instinctive, whereas shooting in something where
the mind comes into play. He seems to have improved his shot, good form
not withstanding.

ace wrote:

I thought his name was Wes?

Billyboy78 wrote:

ace wrote:

I thought his name was Wes?

There's a Juwan ('14) and a Wes ('13) Clark on Romulus.

When do they announce the McDonald's All American team? I think EC has a chance.

They already did, not on it.

As an aside, neither is Tyler Ennis, which is a shame.

33 and 15 are pretty dialed in on that team.... Bringing both in would have been a great get. That is a solid h s team in those videos.

hrstrat57 wrote:33 and 15 are pretty dialed in on that team.... Bringing both in would have been a great get. That is a solid h s team in those videos.

#33 Leo Edwards is going to LA Tech, #15 Wes Clark signed with Missouri. I think Romulus just moved to being #1 in the state.

I think I read somewhere that Wes Clark is EC Matthews' uncle. That would explain his middle name, which would be his mother's maiden name....for those who don't know, his name is Elbert Clark Matthews.

Billyboy78 wrote:I think I read somewhere that Wes Clark is EC Matthews' uncle. That would explain his middle name, which would be his mother's maiden name....for those who don't know, his name is Elbert Clark Matthews.

Clark and EC Matthews are not related

Miramfan wrote:

Billyboy78 wrote:I think I read somewhere that Wes Clark is EC Matthews' uncle. That would explain his middle name, which would be his mother's maiden name....for those who don't know, his name is Elbert Clark Matthews.

Clark and EC Matthews are not related

Thanks. I'm not sure where I heard that. I guess they/I was wrong.

Romulus has made the MaxPreps Top 25:
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/article.as ... a77&page=5

ESPN Insider updated his scouting report:

ESPN Analyst
Updated 02/13/2013

Strengths:
Intriguing player who grew three inches from his freshman to sophomore seasons. Many see him as a point guard and if that's the case, he's got exceptional size. Could be a multi-positional player. Love the fact that he's coachable, plays with great length and has an attacking style.

Weaknesses:
As a shooter, his deep game needs work. Could stand to improve upon his percentages and make sure that his handle is extra tight. Sometimes as a bigger guard you can be easy pickings for smaller college guards. Needs to be exceptionally strong with his handle. Tends to float passes.

Bottom Line:
He'll be a guy we debate in terms of what position to list him as. Presently classified as a point, Matthews does his best work with the ball in his hands pointed at the rim. He's at the very least a non-traditional point guard and likely a player you run with in a two-guard set and let him go get buckets. Matthews is a mix of strength and finishing ability that once he hits the lane he in straight scorer mode and it's working.

Not sure if this has been directly discussed, but how hard will the transition be for EC moving from 2 to 1? Could we see him make an impact right away or will it take some time?

rhodyfan3 wrote:Not sure if this has been directly discussed, but how hard will the transition be for EC moving from 2 to 1? Could we see him make an impact right away or will it take some time?

He has the skills of a 1, from what I've seen on film, anyway. And, obviously, he has great teachers on the coaching staff for a PG. But, I still don't expect him to come in and be a star right off the bat. Look at Dunn at PC. Last night, in 30 minutes of action, he had 2 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. I think the bigger transition for EC, as it has been for Dunn, will be the transition from high school to college, moreso than the transition from the 2 to the 1....just my opinion.

Billyboy78 wrote:

rhodyfan3 wrote:Not sure if this has been directly discussed, but how hard will the transition be for EC moving from 2 to 1? Could we see him make an impact right away or will it take some time?

He has the skills of a 1, from what I've seen on film, anyway. And, obviously, he has great teachers on the coaching staff for a PG. But, I still don't expect him to come in and be a star right off the bat. Look at Dunn at PC. Last night, in 30 minutes of action, he had 2 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. I think the bigger transition for EC, as it has been for Dunn, will be the transition from high school to college, moreso than the transition from the 2 to the 1....just my opinion.

I think sometimes too much is made of the sorts of questions "is this guy a 1 or 2? A 3 or 4? A 4 or 5?" The arbitrary position assignments that we can sometimes make don't really have a solid definition, it's much more dependent on the particular system that the coach chooses to employ.

Having not watched any of EC's games (only highlights, which can be misleading), I can't be sure if the ball-handling role is split between him and Wes Clark in a 55%/45% ratio or a 90%/10% ratio. The reason that Mike Powell dominates the ball so much for URI this year is that there are extremely limited options on the team as far as ball-handling goes. I think it is feasible that next year there could be a less-defined PG/SG lineup where we see 2 of Powell/Matthews/Minnis on the court at the same time (all 3 of whom have been billed as potential PGs) and they divide ball-handling responsibilities interchangeably.

All that is to say that I agree with BillyBoy, I think the highschool-college transition will be more difficult than a non-specific "2guard-1guard" transition.

I think the nice part about next year and Matthews is that we won't be dependent on him making an immediate impact. Hopefully he is able to and the transition is a seamless one, but at least next year we will have Powell and Biggie as well so there is finally some depth and we aren't in a situation like this year with Hare where he is essentially our only option at a given position.

Not only should that help the team as a whole, but it should hopefully help Matthews in his development as well. However quick or slow it may end up being.

Matthews is having a great senior year, too.
Hurley said he's a real gym rat, who goes there before school,
and always is working on his game.
We're lucky to have three impact freshmen like Matthews, Martin and
Onyekaba, to look forward to.

sf2010 wrote:Having not watched any of EC's games (only highlights, which can be misleading), I can't be sure if the ball-handling role is split between him and Wes Clark in a 55%/45% ratio or a 90%/10% ratio.

In the game I saw, it looked like Christian Pino ran the point quite a bit. That Romulus team is stacked.

adam914 wrote:I think the nice part about next year and Matthews is that we won't be dependent on him making an immediate impact. Hopefully he is able to and the transition is a seamless one, but at least next year we will have Powell and Biggie as well so there is finally some depth and we aren't in a situation like this year with Hare where he is essentially our only option at a given position.

Not only should that help the team as a whole, but it should hopefully help Matthews in his development as well. However quick or slow it may end up being.

Totally agree. This roster is going to go from really poorly put together to pretty well put together almost overnight. Given what Dan inherited, its the most impressive thing he's done here so far, as much as I appreciate how he has squeezed some competitive play out of this collection of misfit toys and how he has gone about overhauling a miserable basketball culture. The next step - taking a pretty well put together roster and making it a championship caliber roster - is the real test, but based on the way he has made the first jump he seems equipped to get that done.

Beat Saginaw Arthur Hill again

ace wrote:Beat Saginaw Arthur Hill again

No, tonights win was against 17-3 Saginaw, not Saginaw Arthur Hill.
and this was expected to be a very tight game but Rumulus blew out Saginaw by 30 points.

Gotcha, thanks. Read it wrong.

That second quarter was impressive, to say the least!


Here's the game preview article.

http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/ ... t-saginaw/

In their first playoff game, Romulus JUST edges out Truman, 90-48.

EC's last game, shows 7 or so of his baskets. Besides his drives to the basket, he seems to love the 3 pt. shot from the right corner.

Nate Schmidt‏@NSchmidtA2

Got the win tonight. 80-54. District Champs!. EC Matthews with 20 pts and 11 boards. Wes Clark with 12 pts. Leo Edwards with 13 pts.

In his post-game today, Hurley said EC practices at 6 am every morning with his coach, goes to class and then practices with his team afterwards. No wonder Hurley likes this kid He's got the work ethic already. One of the things he looks for are kids who are well-coached in high school.

And he's not an academic liability, either.

Romulus wins its first round playoff game, 72-43.

They were only up 5 at the half.

Coaches were there last night. Matthews was again the leading scorer on a very good team, next game is Wednesday.

http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/ ... al-finals/

Romulus beats Milan to set up a great match-up with Pershing on Tuesday. Matthews led Romulus with 17.

ace wrote:Romulus beats Milan to set up a great match-up with Pershing on Tuesday. Matthews led Romulus with 17.

Absolutely amazing game upcoming against Pershing - now ranked 16th Nationally in USA Today.

Romulus is 24-1 with their only loss being back on December 8th to Pershing. Pershing is undefeated.

My guess is that both Hurley's and Preston are out there for this one.

http://www.usatodayhss.com/rankings/sup ... tball-2013

ramster wrote:

ace wrote:Romulus beats Milan to set up a great match-up with Pershing on Tuesday. Matthews led Romulus with 17.

Absolutely amazing game upcoming against Pershing - now ranked 16th Nationally in USA Today.

Romulus is 24-1 with their only loss being back on December 8th to Pershing. Pershing is undefeated.

My guess is that both Hurley's and Preston are out there for this one.

http://www.usatodayhss.com/rankings/sup ... tball-2013

Hell, I'd want to see that game even if we didnt have a recruit playing. Sounds like our old St. Philips/St Pius battles!