His name is Bob Gibbons. He goes wherever the nation's top high school basketball players are playing. Last weekend he was in Utah, hanging out at the McKay Events Center at UVSC and the E Center watching the Smith's Ragu Classic.
For 30 years Gibbons has been running All-Star Scouting Service. His company rates the nation's best high school basketball players and provides colleges with scouting reports on every possible top recruit. Every major college and junior college coach knows who he is. His company portfolio shows him posing with LeBron James and sitting next to legendary coach John Wooden. He's the one who first discovered a kid named Kevin Garnett playing high school basketball. He shocked other scouts in 1981 when he ranked Michael Jordan above Patrick Ewing as the nation's top high school player.
He said there were at least seven Division I players competing in the Ragu Classic. The highest rated is J.R. Smith of St. Benedict's, N.J. The 6-foot-5 leaper ranked as the fourth best prep player in the nation and headed for North Carolina. He is also has ranked as top prospects Timpview's Chris Miles and Matt Pinegar, Provo's Tai Wesley and Wasatch's Josh Cottle. He was hoping to leave Utah with a few more names on his list.
"You never know, there might be some hidden gems playing here in Utah," Gibbons said.
After watching more than a dozen Utah teams play and after visiting with local coaches, I think he added at least two more local prepsters to his top prospects list — Olympus' Shaun Green and Payson's Tyler Newbold. Others whom he might check out more are Lehi's Ben Walker, Wasatch's Logan Magnusson and Mountain View's Danny Johnson and Nate Allman.
So who was Gibbons' highest rated prepster among Utah's basketball high school seniors last year? Stefan Zimmerman at No. 73. All I can say is, hmmm.
Coaching style: Charlotte Christian assistant coach Bobby Jones, the former Philadelphia 76ers star, was not the only well-known high school coach in town for the Ragu Classic. St. Benedict's, the nationally ranked team that Timpview had on the ropes for 3 1/2 quarters, is coached by Danny Hurley, a former college star and brother of former Sacramento Kings player Bobby Hurley. I prefer Jones' low-key instructional style to Hurley's halftime individual beratement techniques.
Good hosts? The visiting players at the Ragu Classic displayed great sportsmanship and class, but I can't say the same for many of the local high school students who attended. St. Benedict's star J.R. Smith was hit with a barrage of personal and offensive comments from a handful of students on the front row for basically just being good and outplaying his Utah opponents. Personal verbal attacks from students is a trend at high school athletic events that is bothersome. I hope Utah's schools don't receive the same treatment when they travel out of state to compete in similar tournaments.
E-MAIL: jimr@desnews.com