Garrett County Community College

[WPIAL~Titan]

I don't understand the juco route. His best bet would be to hit the weights, get up to 230 or so, and try to play a short-ish but physical 4 at the d3 level. He could be a very effective d3 player right now. D2 is a real stretch.

In terms of Martinazzi, I like him, plays hard and plays very smart. If he's a good student, a place like Juniata, Gettysburg, W&J, Allegheny, or Dickinson as a pg could be a nice fit. He really struggled against longer, more athletic players plus he about 5'6" at best and IMHO, can't play d2.

Martinazzi is very very poor man's Nate Snodgrass (starting pg at UPJ) same type of player but not nearly as skilled, talented, or athletic. Snodgrass committed to Navy, lasted about 2 weeks, transferred to fledgling Sun Belt Conference D1 Northern Kentucky University, played quite a bit and started a few games as a frosh, then transferred closer to home to play at UPJ.

I don't know why folks think it's such a bad thing to be a D3 player. There are some really really good fundamentally sound players at that level who can shoot the lights out, but lack the quickness, speed, strength, size and athleticism that D2 and obviously D1 players possess.

Nemo? The best player in D6 over the last decade???

Shhh...Don't tell the 5 kids from State College who have been D1 players over the past 10 years. Don't tell the 3 kids from Altoona who have earned D2 scholarships either....and while you're at it, don't tell Paul Weatherly.

[knowitall]

The pied piper promised so much more.

[Manfred]

You would think, after 4 years at a Parochial school, he'd at least have heard of the Great liar, or deceiver, a.k.a. Satan.

[Nets77]

The JUCO route could be beneficial if you go to the right one. Garrett has a decent program, but no near what they had at Allegany College of MD under Bob Kirk. He had several years where everyone on the roster eventually got D1 scholarships. I helped with practices for a few years for them in the late 90s-early 2000s. There were times at practice when they had 5-10 D1 coaches watching. I remember one time they had Gary Williams, Rick Barnes, Roy Williams, Mark Few, and Rick Pitino in the gym all at the same time. Point is, the JUCO route will work if that JUCO coach has connections and a good reputation with D1 coaches. Coach Kirk was getting D1 scholarships for kids who rarely played in games unless it was a blowout.

[sportsfanatic814]

To say he is the best player this decade is a strectch. His team lost to bald eagle and from my understanding it was because he was shooting threes? He played in a conference where no one was as athletic as him but when he was called upon to carry the weight of the team his senior year he failed. He is a good player, I'm not saying he isn't, but if he was this great player you all say he is then why didn't he take them farther or even make the state playoffs?

[Crimson's Ghost]

He scored 24 in that final game, and if anyone was there, they would have seen McCort lost because they struggled handling the ball and turned it over quite a bit.

For example's sake, LeBron James makes people better around him. Carmelo Anthony doesn't. Both are good players in their own right, it's kinda like that. I'd say the same thing applies to Trexler. He's a scorer, and a really good one at that.

The last time one single player did absolutely everything for his team to win a D6 championship was Jordan Miller. Jordan could shoot, had the green light when he crossed half court, but he was able to have the ball in his hands 95% of the time and not hurt his team, and that's because he was a point guard. Jordan was a gifted scorer, but was also very smooth with the ball. Nemo isn't a point guard, he needs someone to get him the ball. I don't think that takes away from his game, it's just two different styles.

I didn't go to the Bald Eagle game, but I was at the Bishop Carroll game. I saw how they handled the ball pressure, and it wasn't pretty. McCort was good enough to win D6 this year, as they did beat Richland in the regular season, but they were also good enough to lose to Bald Eagle.


For the record, I never said past ten years, I said past two years.

I don't follow AAAA since there is only like 4 teams, and half their games aren't even against D6 teams anyway.

But some really good players have played in D6 the past ten years, a few in the LHAC come to mind.....

-Johnstown alone with Hoffman and Weatherly. Hoffman's whole supporting cast was good with Jefferson and Rose. Plus the Jtown kids from a few years ago, Phil Madison and Q Brandon were the best of that bunch.
-Central Cambria with Jordan Miller and Mike Gowen. Both very good HS players.
-Heights with the Vescovi brothers, specifically Isaac.
-Leahey from Penn Cambria was very good.
-Luke Gallagher from Forest Hills was(is) a freak athlete and a heck of a basketball player.
-Trexler has some competition in his own school with Pete O'Connor. Mike Cruz had an injury plagued career, but was a beast as a senior.
-Balog from Westmont was also really good, star player on their 29-1 team.


So it's tough to call him the best player in his own league let alone district for the past 10 years.

[say_oww]

Weren't there off the court/field issues with this kid?

[deepcreek]

First off, lets hope the young person goes to GCC embraces academics and ends up with a degree he can use in the future. As far as athletics go, I've never really understood the hype surrounding this young person. I think McCort did him a disservice by perhaps not challenging him to get better. In all honesty, he would not have been a top 10 basketball player in the WPIAL this year, the football program blew itself up trying to make him the centerpiece of a failed zone read offense, and in baseball he is a slightly above average player.

Very gifted athletically, but has not progressed in skill level since grade 9. Add some questionable behavior and that is a why he is where he is. I hope for his own sake he takes academics seriously and then decides to work harder at his chosen sport and reduces the extracurricular activity. Good luck to him, there is always time for young people to wake up and adjust to life.

[knowitall]

He was the best player the greater Johnstown area produced in a long time and he is going to Garrett (County Community) College. He was too good for Public School Single A. I bet he played a lot of AAU. And he is going to Garrett (County Community) College. He broke the records of a kid who went to Wake Forest.

This should be a wake up call to the hundreds of parents out there who think their kid is getting a full ride to Duke or Michigan and going to the NBA or MLB some day. He's not!

[Crimson's Ghost]

I graduated High School with 2 highly successful Division One athletes, and 2 highly successful D2 athletes. Some people have it, and some don't, and that's generally what it comes down to. But them playing travel or AAU did NOT hurt them. It's a worthy endeavor in a lot of cases.


Everyone that plays AAU Basketball does not get a scholarship, but everyone that has a scholarship played AAU.