High Level HS Basketball

[BEARZ77]

Springfield sports fans are used to being able to watch high level HS basketball this time of year, especially with the annual Tournament of Champions event held at JQH which is always one of the top attended and best HS events of the year. Usually it hosts 2 area HS's and 6 of the top teams from across the country. Teams like Monteverde and Christ the King are a couple examples of teams that consistently have played here. Unfortunately this year ,covid has resulted in the tourney being cancelled, but last nite , area fans were treated to a similar level game as locals Kickapoo HS and Greenwood Laboratory School[ the 2 locals who would have been in the TOC] squared off in neighboring Willard.

Kickapoo is the traditional powerhouse large school from Springfield that has sent a slew of players to D-1 basketball and the Valley over the years including current Bear Jared Ridder, and players like Anthony Tolliver, Devon Mitchell, the Laurie brothers , among many others. Currently they have 4 legit D-1 players including 6'1 Anton Brookshire and 6'9 Trevian Brazille[ both committed to MU] 6'2 Isaac Haney [ MSU] and uncommitted 6'3 Cammeron Liggins [ Dana Ford's step son] . Greenwood on the other hand is a small school atttached to the Missouri State Campus , having a K-12 enrollment of 350 students. It is a high level academic setting that attracts students from prominent local families, and recently more foreign students. Their roster recently looks more like a prep school and currently has one of the top 20 players in the nation in 6'5 Aminu Mohammed, 6'9 Victor Naboya, 6'2 freshman Tanner Jones [ son of former Duke and NBA player Dahntay Jones and step son of Bear's assistant coach, Corey Gibson] and local kids 6'2 Tommy Pinnegar[ son of a major MSU booster] and 6'7 sophomore Kaden Stuckey [son of MSU great Kelby Stuckey].

Anyway the game was played before a covid limited crowd of 1200 and streamed locally . Greenwood upset Kickapoo 74-72 coming from 10 down late in the 4th qtr as Mohammed went for 43. Missouri State commit Haney had 31, Brookshire 20. A rematch could happen as there is a small 4 team event planned in January at JQH featuring both teams, Hartville , a local small school power house and defending 2A state champ. and traditional jesuit power Desmet HS from St louis which features twin towers from Africa 6'9 Ya Ya Keita [ MU signee] and unsigned 6'10 Sekou Gassama , and is coached by former SIU star and MSU assistant coach on Counzo Martin's staff , Kent Williams.

Not MVC basketball, but a lot of connections.

[DUBulldog]

There is one team here in the Des Moines area with 4 high level D1 players. Waukee high school, in the western suburbs.

In the senior class, they have Tucker DeVries, a Drake commit, who is a top-100 player in the country and Payton Sandfort, an Iowa commit who is a top-150 player.

In the sophomore class, they have Sandfort's younger brother, Bryce, who is considered a top-50 player in the class and Omaha Bilyew (sp?), a top-5 sophomore in the country.

They also added Malik Allen, a point guard from Des Moines North who averaged 26 ppg last season.

Waukee has averaged probably a little over 1 D-1 player per season for the last 10 years or so, but they've never had a collection of players like this.

There's definitely a Drake connection, besides DeVries. The Waukee coach is Justin Ohl, a former Drake player and former Drake assistant coach. One of the assistants, Kevin Kanaskie, is the son of former Drake head coach, Kurt Kanaskie.