KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting. A lot of these programs pop up and then disappear after a few years. Another shady aspect of basketball. If I was one of these kids and wanted to go in this direction I would head to a more traditional prep school like a Brewster Academy or a St. Andrews.

Anyone remember MCI? Maine Central institute.
They were a big time player in feeding college basketball
players to schools.
ESPN did an Outside the Lines, and all the talk about players being
sponsored by handlers and the AAU coaches, was damaging.
Gary Charles was one of the focal points of the story.
Sneeker companies, sponsoring some of these schools, gives
them a serious advantage over their competition.
This stuff that happened at Montrose isn't unique by any means.
Oak Hill Academy, in the middle of nowhere, is today''s prime example.
They recruit from everywhere, including foreign players.
That a guy like Bob Hurley has competed against some of these
shady type schools year after year, and won, is a testament to his ability.

Didn't Skinner recruit from MCI? Or was it CFL?

I think they both did. Cutino Mobley was from MCI, as was Dawan Robinson and Levan Shengalia.

Carlos Easterling also from MCI

I saw them play in 1999.
They had DeMarr Johnson, Caron Butler,and a great team, under
Max Good.
I thought they were so loaded, that they could have been a good D-1
team, if they were a college team.

How about Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia? It was a school without a building where all the students were high school basketball players. Long time St. Joe's Coach Phil Martelli was once asked by another coach for directions to it. Martelli, a life long resident of the Philly area, could not help him.

Sean Colson came to URI from MCI

A bunch of former prep powers deemmphazied basketball, with The Winchendon School in Mass coming to mind as a recent one, along with MCI.

Long time Winchendon School head coach Michael Byrnes is now the head coach at RIC