C2CRecruiting

Something Special Is Happening In Southern California

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This weekend, I got to watch one of the most talented basketball teams in the country. The team is called the Magic 2015, made up of nine freshmen from Orange County all the way up the 5 freeway to San Luis Obispo.

 The trip from the gym in Corona where they practice to San Luis Obispo is roughly four hours, so you know for parents and players making that trip weekly and sometime daily, it has to be something they believe in and want to be with.

When I was told about this team, I shrugged it off like I usually do when I hear about a prospect or a team and waited until I actually see them play before I make a judgment. Some of the players I watched during the high school season and some even during AAU, but I had no idea exactly how good this team was or how special they can be until I got to watch them compete.

 I thought of SCA with Kevin Love and Brandon Jennings when I watched this team work and I sat down with head coach Johnny Hernandez to talk about how he and Etop Udo-Ema put this team together, what he thinks this team can be in 3 years and what it takes to let everybody shine.

 “In the fall of 2011 (?), we really started to get this thing going,” Hernandez said. “I had about 5 players that I thought would be a good team and then Etop came with his 4 players and we just combined all the pieces. It was like a puzzle and even though some of the pieces weren’t from the same box, they all fit well for this team and what we are trying to accomplish.”  

 Hernandez, who came into the AAU scene as a media member working for West Coast Hoops Reports then taking a position at Ball Is Life, told me this team is something that he’s dreamed about putting together for many years now.

 “I’m from Southern California so I want to make an impact on Southern California basketball and show the world what southern California basketball has. I think it was time for somebody to come and change the way things are ran around here.”

 “I’m not trying to change everybody but with the nine guys we have right now, we feel like we can make some type of change to this game and hopefully if we do this right we can change for the next year and so on. This game has been about individual play for recent years now. Only Pat Barrett and SCA were the ones to get a group like I have now and [have] all buy in and put the team first before the individual.” 

 Getting the players to buy in didn’t seem like a hard sell, especially when you watch this team off the court. When I talked to Etop Udo-Ema about it, he told me “They love each other and they just love being around each other so when they step on the court, they are all working for each other and nobody is an individual out there. It’s an actual team and you usually don’t see that in today’s AAU game.”

 Getting the players to buy into the concept didn’t seem like a problem so how did they go about getting the parents to buy in?

 “The sell was also simple to the parents also as a group we are all more powerful then the individual, and that’s one thing I preach to my players and parents,” Udo-Ema added. “We have players like that have started on varsity for their high school as freshman and the sell to them was that bringing this elite talent altogether as one will make them better as an individual.

 “At the same time, I told them they will have to sacrifice, just about any player on this team could go to any local AAU team an be the star, play 40 minutes a game a drop 30 points. With us, you don’t need to score 30 points every game for somebody to say you had a good game, if they contribute and all buy in at the end everybody will have a good game.”

 As far as the future for this team, Hernandez said there’s still a lot of work to do but they are ready for long road ahead.

 “We want to be the best team in the country at the end of the day, but we know we got to work hard in the gym and the great thing about everybody on this team is they all work hard. When we get in the gym, everybody is going 100% and they all are going hard. At the end of they day, we want to be number one and that’s why we play the game but we know we got work to do. All we are focused is on is the next practice. If we just focus on what is right in front of us, in the future everything will work out for everybody.”

 Going from the GM role and putting on the head coaching hat lets talks about how this team will do on the court.

 “The way we built this team was simple: No two players are alike. Each player brings something different to the court so that helps a lot. We are also long and athletic so we can either play one-on-one on defense or we can even go to a zone that will cause a lot of teams trouble.  It’s a good thing to have a lot of options and when we put this team together from a basketball view, that’s we wanted. So to answer your question, on the court we will be great defensively and hard to guard on the offensive side of the ball.”

 Here goes the roster for the Compton Magic 2015 team,

 Quinton Adlesh         5’11       2015      Mission Prep HS (San Luis Obispo, CA)

 Sedrick Barefield       6’1        2015       Centennial HS (Corona, CA)

 LaTrelle Franklin        5’8       2015       Great Oak HS (Temecula, CA)

 Kendall Lauderdale   6’7        2015        Lutheran HS (Orange, CA)

 Nick Pallas                  6’7       2015       Tesoro HS (Las Flores, CA)

 Nicholas Pete            6’7       2015        Tahquitz HS (Hemet, CA)

 Rex Pflueger              6’4        2015        J Serra (San Juan Capristrano, CA)

 Johnathan Ross         6’8       2015        Lutheran HS (Orange, CA)

 Cameron Walker      6’6        2015         Righetti HS (Santa Maria, CA)

 With all this talent on the team, C2CRecruiting.com along with most college coaches in the country will be following this team around for not only this spring and summer, but I’m sure for the next three years as well.

I just wanted to say thank you to Johnny Hernandez, Etop Udo-Ema and the Compton Magic family for allowing us this interview. Also thank you to Evan Burns for helping with this project.

Ian Baker To Providence

According to the Providence Journal former South Carolina commit 2012 6-foot-1  guard Ian Baker  has committed to Providence.

“Providence offered and Ian accepted,” said Arlington coach Rex Morgan. “He’s a strong guard and that’s what it takes in a league like the Big East.”

Baker is from Washington, D.C.,but has played at Arlington Country Day in Florida the last two years.

He joins a class of Kriss Dunn, Ricardo Ledo and Josh Fortune.

Video: McDonalds All American Post Game Interview

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 Check out the post game press conference with Shabazz Muhammad, Archie Goodwin and Alex Poythress.