Best Players in District 6 this year?

[hoops]

I am a little closer to the JM debate that most of my fellow posters so of course my opinions will be viewed as biased. Hence I will stick with only facts. JM will be the unquestioned leader for CC this year. He will be the only player to have ever started a varsity game. In fact he will be the only player to have played a single meaningful varsity minute. (Meaningful= 2nd half close game) He is a 2 time Altoona Mirror first team selection. He was selected to the All State team last year. He is a member of a conference and District championship team. He is very happy to be receiving a full scholarship to his fathers alma matter to continue playing basketball. If he has a senior year any where close to his sophmore and junior years he will finish his career at CC as follows #1 Career Steal Leader #1 Career Assist Leader and #1 Career Scoring Leader. Those are the facts. I would now like to challenge my fellow posters to start a list of players from anywhere in the state, Salisbury to Shaler and all in between, of players that claim all 3 of their schools career records listed above. I anticipate a very short list. Again, best of luck to all our young athletes, stay healthy and enjoy making what will be some of your futures favorite memories.

[nash112358]

nice post

[pats39]

Keep in mind stats are relative. Sure he has great stats, but his supporting cast and his competition certainly helped that tremendously. With that said he still is a very good player, it will just be interesting to see him without the 6 5 twins, 6 4 gowen, and a above average shooter in Mcgregor. Will be a lot different when teams can go box and 1 etc

[pats39]

Keep in mind stats are relative. Sure he has great stats, but his supporting cast and his competition certainly helped that tremendously. With that said he still is a very good player, it will just be interesting to see him without the 6 5 twins, 6 4 gowen, and a above average shooter in Mcgregor. Will be a lot different when teams can go box and 1 etc

[nash112358]

Keep in mind stats are relative. Sure he has great stats, but his supporting cast and his competition certainly helped that tremendously. With that said he still is a very good player, it will just be interesting to see him without the 6 5 twins, 6 4 gowen, and a above average shooter in Mcgregor. Will be a lot different when teams can go box and 1 etc

Good point although I must point out that when you refer to the "twins" being in the supporting cast, Miller has probably played less than 15 varsity games with Brian Holsinger. If Holsinger doesn't get hurt, Miller's point probably go down somewhat, but assists would be up. Miller facing the Box and 1 will be the key to CC's success this year. If he can be patient and others can step up and make plays CC has a good chance of being in the LHAC championship yet again. But if he tries to be the man with teams defensively keying on him, it will be a disaster. Yet if B Holsinger plays this year its game over. That inside - outside tandem probably propels the Devils to another Section 1 title at least. I dont see BG having the inside presence to handle him.

[WPIAL~Titan]

Good post in JMiller. Quite impressive that he will be the career leader in points, assists, and steals at CC...Not many get there...I hope has has a fitting capstone to his career and takes CC on his back and leads them to success in the league, and in the playoffs.

I did some digging and I can think of two in western PA in recent memory who I know for a fact are their HS's career leader in points, assists, and steals...

Yuri Demetris, Shaler Area
Sean Miller, Blackhawk

Both were very dynamic players in HS, and I saw both play many times.

I watchd Yuri for 4 years. I saw him score 45 points in a game, and I saw him score 20 points and have 16 assists in another game. I saw him go 8-8 from 3 point range in a game. I saw him light up an all-BE player in Drew Schifino for 39 points. I saw him hit 6 three pointers in a quarter. I saw him score 10 points in :19 seconds one time. He was an amazing HS basketball player.

Yuri averaged 31ppg his senior season, which is the highest ppg ever for a WPIAL AAAA player since AAAA play began in 1984. The best part was, he shot an incredible %age (something like 55% from 3 point land) and only averaged 22 shots a game, so he could not be considered a "gunner." Yuri had a ton of assists, too, because he often played PG and fed the ball to two players in his career, who have him to thank for their 1,000+ point careers at Shaler Area HS. he was an amazing ball handler and perfected the jump stop and the no-look pass...He was sneaky quick on defense and picked the pocket of many a player because he had such quick hands, even though he wasn't so fast afoot...

Yuri could basically do whatever he wanted on the HS basketball floor here in the WPIAL. He was also 6'4" 200 pounds, which made him very physical and very difficult to defend as a PG/SG combo guard.

I suspect had Yuri played most places in PA, save for District 1 or the Philly Public League, his biggest dilemma each game would've been:

Should I score 50 points and dish out 5 assists, or should I score 25 and have 15 assists?

I watched Yuri exploit and destroy junk defenses, like triangle and 2, box and 1, and diamond and 1, and every zone you can think of time and time again. Junk defenses did no good. Actually, junk defenses usually made things worse for the other teams because Yuri almost always made the extra pass and found the open guy for an easy shot...Then when Shaler got ahead and forced the other team to play man-to-man, the game was over, because nobody could guard him inside or outside. He faced junk EVERY SINGLE GAME and still scored over 2,200 points, and 31ppg his senior season while playing AAAA competition and being the focal point of every opposing team's game plan every single night, which was often designed to harass, physically abuse, intimidate, and bait him...

Miller was great on the floor too, and had the better college career...I saw much less of him than Yuri, so that's why I comment more on him...Demetris was starting at 2 guard for a top 10 team in the country (Pitt) before he was dismissed from the team his senior season.

[pats39]

Wow, great post WT!

[thereplacement2]

All that out of Yuri and he sucked in college

[CoachEmUp]

Good post in JMiller. Quite impressive that he will be the career leader in points, assists, and steals at CC...Not many get there...I hope has has a fitting capstone to his career and takes CC on his back and leads them to success in the league, and in the playoffs.

I did some digging and I can think of two in western PA in recent memory who I know for a fact are their HS's career leader in points, assists, and steals...

Yuri Demetris, Shaler Area
Sean Miller, Blackhawk

Both were very dynamic players in HS, and I saw both play many times.

I watchd Yuri for 4 years. I saw him score 45 points in a game, and I saw him score 20 points and have 16 assists in another game. I saw him go 8-8 from 3 point range in a game. I saw him light up an all-BE player in Drew Schifino for 39 points. I saw him hit 6 three pointers in a quarter. I saw him score 10 points in :19 seconds one time. He was an amazing HS basketball player.

Yuri averaged 31ppg his senior season, which is the highest ppg ever for a WPIAL AAAA player since AAAA play began in 1984. The best part was, he shot an incredible %age (something like 55% from 3 point land) and only averaged 22 shots a game, so he could not be considered a "gunner." Yuri had a ton of assists, too, because he often played PG and fed the ball to two players in his career, who have him to thank for their 1,000+ point careers at Shaler Area HS. he was an amazing ball handler and perfected the jump stop and the no-look pass...He was sneaky quick on defense and picked the pocket of many a player because he had such quick hands, even though he wasn't so fast afoot...

Yuri could basically do whatever he wanted on the HS basketball floor here in the WPIAL. He was also 6'4" 200 pounds, which made him very physical and very difficult to defend as a PG/SG combo guard.

I suspect had Yuri played most places in PA, save for District 1 or the Philly Public League, his biggest dilemma each game would've been:

Should I score 50 points and dish out 5 assists, or should I score 25 and have 15 assists?

I watched Yuri exploit and destroy junk defenses, like triangle and 2, box and 1, and diamond and 1, and every zone you can think of time and time again. Junk defenses did no good. Actually, junk defenses usually made things worse for the other teams because Yuri almost always made the extra pass and found the open guy for an easy shot...Then when Shaler got ahead and forced the other team to play man-to-man, the game was over, because nobody could guard him inside or outside. He faced junk EVERY SINGLE GAME and still scored over 2,200 points, and 31ppg his senior season while playing AAAA competition and being the focal point of every opposing team's game plan every single night, which was often designed to harass, physically abuse, intimidate, and bait him...

Miller was great on the floor too, and had the better college career...I saw much less of him than Yuri, so that's why I comment more on him...Demetris was starting at 2 guard for a top 10 team in the country (Pitt) before he was dismissed from the team his senior season.

Wow, what a great post. Yuri was a great highschool player, who put up big numbers against outstanding competition. I dont think alot of people, who do not follow basketball will know who he is, but let me tell you anyone who can score 39 pts on Drew Schifino can really play the game. In my opinion I feel Schifino is top 5 best players every in the WPIAL. With that being said, and this is no disrespect to Jordan Miller but The 3 guys mentioned in your post Miller, Yuri, Schifino are on a whole other level then JM. Just wanted to say great post.

[CoachEmUp]

Follow Paul's attitude? Are you SERIOUS??

The kid has some problems. I don't know him personally but on the court, when they are down, there is no leadership effort from him. He tries to be the show. And it seems...that if he doesn't score, or misses a shot, he doesn't hustle back. he puts his head down for the rest of the game. He only picks it off of the floor if he makes a shot. His shot percentage must be atrocious. He shots a ton, makes a few, sometimes gets hot. H's a ball hog, and I don't think that Roman will change that. It's all mental with him. He has the capability of being one of the best in LHAC, but as for attitude and effort, there is no "Ball Hog" or "I" i team.

This is just not true. If you even remotely know anything about PW or basketball, then this is just a ridiculous post. Two major things wrong with your comments, 1. If Micheal Jordan takes 50% of his teams shots, it does not mean he is a ball hog, what it does mean that he is the best player on the team, and gives them the best chance to win. This same notion applies to PW, he is the best player on the team and gives his team the best chance to win. 2. I have never heard anyone question PW attitude or effort. I have personally never seen PW put his head down or tank it if things arent going his way. If you have seen this kids work ethic you couldnt possibly say anything of the sort. I guess there is a first time for everything, and your the 1st to question PW attitude and effort.