By: Anthony Anderson
Elkart Truth

Prep: Boys Basketball -- Area freshmen arriving ahead of schedule

Time for Twine's annual roundup of how area boys high school basketball freshmen are faring.

OK, you caught me, there's never been such a roundup.

But, heck, in a lot of seasons, there aren't any freshmen of consequence to round up.

But that's not the case this season.

Collectively, this is the most prolific season I can recall in a quarter century for freshman presence.

Four area frosh -- Marian's Demetrius Jackson, Wawasee's Jake Thompson, Concord's Franko House and Memorial's Markese McGuire -- have each been starters all or nearly all winter.

Still four more freshmen -- Marian's Michael Whitfield, Concord's DuWhan Alford, Central's Terell Street and Penn's Leo Svete -- have been rotation regulars or semi-regulars.

And still at least four other freshmen have made varsity appearances.

That's a dozen freshmen, no egging you on, from our 14 IHSAA area teams.

What's been notable about Jackson, Thompson, House and McGuire -- with occasional and varying degrees of hiccups, sure -- is how calm and fluid each has been amid the varsity bumping. You wouldn't know they're freshmen from their demeanors.

Jackson and Thompson have been the true impact players. Each is on his way to one of the best scoring totals among freshmen in area history (see the accompanying chart).

The 5-foot-10, do-it-all Jackson, drawing major Division I feelers, is averaging team-leading figures of 13.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.2 steals for the Knights.

The 6-3 and unflinching Thompson is averaging 14.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists for the high-octane Warriors. He's shooting 36 percent on 3-pointers with 30 conversions and 81 percent at the line.

Of course, it's almost always with a little trepidation, especially among coaches, that freshmen feats get noted, but we're well into this season now.

Saluting any freshman shouldn't be construed as an automatic predictor of future success.

This area, like every area, is full of flame-outs and guys who later hit walls among productive freshmen.

Likewise, it should be noted that many of our area's all-time greats played sparingly or not at all as freshmen.

Sure, Shawn Kemp scored the most points ever among area frosh with 341 on his way to an area career record of 2,134, but all-time No. 2 scorer Dean Weirich had just 19 points as a freshman and all-time No. 3 Gary Yoder just two as a freshman.

Either way, looking at this season's crop of freshmen as a whole is simply cause for appreciation and anticipation.

BITS O' TWINE

* Speaking of McGuire, when he and Warsaw sophomore Lucas Grose took the court Friday at North Side Gym, it put the sons of both a Mr. Basketball and a Miss Basketball on the floor together. McGuire's mom is former Miss Basketball Kim Barrier from Jimtown, and Grose's dad is former Mr. Basketball Jeff Grose from Warsaw. Probably not a first, but certainly a rarity.

* As is typically the case each year in this week of deferring to girls sectional action, the boys schedule looks a little different than usual. The heavy night for boys will be Thursday rather than Friday. There are no IHSAA area boys games planned for tonight. And the few boys games that are slated for Saturday will feature 1 p.m. JV starts, with varsity action to follow.

* Triton, the last remaining unbeaten from an area conference, fell 59-55 to visiting, 5-9 LaVille over the weekend. The Trojans (16-1) were playing their straight game without top scorer Griffyn Carpenter (20.6), still recovering from a Jan. 27 concussion. The Lancers are in their second year under Michael Edison, who counts dad and longtime legendary Plymouth coach Jack Edison as one of his assistants. Statewide, there are now six remaining unbeatens.

TOP FROSH SCORERS

Most points produced by area boys basketball freshmen over the years:

341 -- Shawn Kemp, Concord, 1984-85

321 -- Brent Eaton, Northridge, 2004-05

299 -- Adam Christner, Westview, 2005-06

280 -- Todd Grove, NorthWood, 1976-77

272 -- Bunk Williams, Goshen, 1925-26

225 -- Demetrius Jackson, Marian, current

224 -- Randy Burkholder, Fairfield, 1973-74

221 -- Todd Janes, Northridge, 1993-94

220 -- Derek Drews, Central, 2001-02

205 -- Eliot Friesen, Bethany, 1993-94

199 -- Jake Thompson, Wawasee, current

199 -- Ross Hales, Memorial, 1985-86

Note: List compiled from all Elkhart County schools, past and present, and from current non-county area schools. Source: etpearl.com

ANTHONY'S TWINE 12

Team W-L

1. Warsaw (1) 13-2

2. Concord (3) 12-3

3. SB Riley (4) 12-3

4. Triton (2) 16-1

5. Plymouth (7) 11-5

6. Penn (5) 11-6

7. Wawasee (8) 8-6

8. Memorial (6) 10-7

9. Westview (9) 13-3

10. Glenn (11) 9-5

11. Mishawaka (12) 10-7

12. SB Washington (--) 10-8

Last week's ranking in parentheses. Teams chosen from among the 38 making up the Northern Lakes, Northern Indiana, Northern State and Northeast Corner conferences and independents Bethany and Elkhart Christian. Dropped out: SB St. Joseph's (10).