Coach Rick’s Two Biggest Misses
It was a great weekend of hoops at the Phenom Queen City Showcase. Over 120 teams participated and the amount of talent was simply off the charts. As an NCAA compliant scouting service, we get a chance to watch players multiple times in multiple settings. There are times players have a bad game and it can greatly affect your overall evaluations. Over time, it does have a tendency to level out. With the parity of so many players in the talent rich state of North Carolina, it often goes beyond a player’s personal stat line. That being said, we as an industry try to “gloat” and take credit for when we are right, but rarely do we can’t blame when we are wrong. Today, there are two players that made a huge impression over the weekend and those two players are 6’9 Will Felton and 6’7 Red Dunton of Garner Road 3SSB 17U team.
Coming into Sunday’s action, Garner Road posted a 1-2 record winning against Team Eat while losing to Team Charlotte and Tea Marie in our loaded Super Pool. When teams are winning, things always seem to go better, but it’s time when you face adversity by losing that helps define you as a player and a person and that was exactly the case in point with Will Felton and Red Dunton. In the three games at the Phenom Queen City Showcase, we learned more about these two from the losses than when they won.
6’9 ’21 Will Felton
We currently have Felton ranked no. 14 in our North Carolina 2021 ranking and that is way too low after his performance at the Queen City. While Felton scored 20 plus points in the three games, and dozens of rebounds he collected in each game. Felton is just a “double double” machine. While he may not be an “above the rim” type player, but what you get every game is consistent effort and production. Felton sports a strong frame with extremely long arms. He battles, competes, and does everything that a coach could ask. In addition, he’s a strong rebounder that does an excellent job of boxing out defensively and even gets rebounds out of his area. Felton is an old fashion “blue collar” type player and one that is worthy of a higher ranking.
6’7 ’21 Red Dunton
We currently have Dunton ranked no. 35 in our North Carolina 2021 ranking. For me personally, it was a hangup on a somewhat unorthodox shooting mechanics. The ball didn’t have the normal backspin and rotation. That being said, the name of the game is for the ball to go through the basket and Dunton just has a knack of scoring, whether it is 3-pointers, mid-range pull up of making nice drives to the rim using his excellent body control. More importantly, we were impressed with his overall work ethic, and never quit attitude especially when his team was down by 20 to Team Marie. They made a gallant comeback, but did fall short. In addition, we were even more impressed with Dunton’s desire to sit low and play pressure man to man defense. The effort was there and as the old saying goes, “Sometimes you learn more from losing than from winning,” and we did just that. One more thing, Dunton collected a “Triple Double” of 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists in the win against Team Eat.