Arizona now experiencing changing high school basketball landscape

Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson and Sean Elliott worked on their game out of the same gymnasium during their four-year high school basketball careers.

They all went on to star in college and in the NBA.

None of them launched from a prep academy to get there.

They are among the best basketball players Arizona produced. Bibby (Phoenix Shadow Mountain), Jefferson (Phoenix Moon Valley) and Elliott (Tucson Cholla) can thank their high school coaches for getting them there.

But the scenery in Arizona is changing.

Just in the past six months, three elite players have left their high schools for prep academies, where they receive intense basketball training and face top-notch competition from all over the country.

Phoenix St. Mary’s 2017 point guard Marcus Shaver left after the basketball season ended to join Prime Prep in Dallas.

Gilbert Perry 2017 point guard Markus Howard, a two-time All-Arizona selection whose recruiting took off during tryout in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the USA U16 team that he helped lead to a gold medal in the Americas championships, committed to Las Vegas Findlay Prep, where he will begin his junior season this school year.

And Monday, 6-foot-11 point forward Marvin Bagley III, the No.1-rated 2018 player in the country by ESPN, announced he is leaving four-time defending state champion Tempe Corona del for Phoenix Hillcrest Hoops, which is starting its first national high school team this school year.

Before Bagley followed his father to Hillcrest, where Marvin Jr., over the weekend accepted a job as associate head coach, at least five players, three from Division II champion Gilbert Christian, left their high schools to join the new prep academy in the heart of Phoenix.

Corona del Sol won’t fall off the map. It still has 2017 point guard Alex Barcello, 2017 guard Saben Lee and 2016 guard Tyrell Henderson, who all have multiple Division I college basketball scholarship offers. Henderson has committed to Portland State.

Neil MacDonald, taking over for Sam Duane Jr., at Corona, was supportive and understanding of Bagley’s move. But he also feels positive that the team will be able to transition from the latest setback and stay on top.

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“I feel strongly that we’re going to be just fine,” MacDonald said. “We will move forward. This is the landscape of high school basketball. We understand how it works. We’re not the first school to deal with an elite player transferring, and we won’t be the last. We wish Marvin and his family nothing but the best.”

Perry coach Joe Babinski, who supported Howard’s move to Findlay, saw the landscape change for a while in the country, particularly on the East Coast. It is just now catching  up to Arizona with top players emerging.

“A lot of our young athletes try to follow the footsteps of today’s NBA players," Babinski said. "Some of these NBA players have gone the prep school route and has been successful, so others will follow.  It is not the best way to become a big-time college player or pro.

“I can speak about Oklahoma, because I coached there for 30 years. Sam Bradford played four years of high school football and was the 2010 NFL No.1 pick. Blake Griffin played four years of high school basketball and was the 2009 NBA’s No.1 pick. Both grew up in the Oklahoma City area and worked out at the same gym. They did not need any special interest group promoting them.”

Will the jump to prep academies hurt Arizona high school basketball, especially the public-schools system in the Arizona Interscholastic Association?

“No,” Babinski said. “Arizona basketball is about the schools, not the individual. As far as we can separate high school basketball away from the pro game, the better off we will be. High school should always be school vs. school and team vs. team.

“I believe the only way the Findlay and Hillcrest schools can help the high school basketball game is to find high school players that are in a bad environment and remove them from situations, so they can prosper.”

Glendale Deer Valley coach Jed Dunn, who became friends with LeBron James while coaching against him in Ohio in the early 2000s when James was at St. Vincent-St. Mary High in Akron, says he doesn’t get caught up with it.

“I coach my kids and I enjoy coaching my kids,” Dunn said. “I am sure there might be resentment from the programs that have lost high level kids like Corona, Perry and St. Mary’s, etc. Play with what you have. To me, it’s more than a game. I am not concerned with winning and losing at this point in my career.”

Hillcrest approached Marc Beasley of Monarch Sports this summer to see if it could get into the VisitMesa.com Challenge. Beasely had to say no, because Hillcrest, which also features three players who came over from Gilbert Christian, is not part of the AIA.

Steve Hogen, Mesa Public Schools Athletic Director, who helps Beasley runs the VisitMesa showcase at Mountain View high, said he doesn’t believe the movement of elite players into prep academies will hurt AIA basketball.

“There are still a number of great players and teams in Arizona,” Hogen said. “We have had some very good players leave in the past – Nick Johnson and Matt Carlino come to mind – but it has not impacted the state as a whole, in my opinion.”

Hogen said that while it is good to see top talent develop, it is still about the school, team, community, rivalries, the intensity filled in jam-packed gyms.

“While I understand individuals leaving for prep teams, I really think they are missing out on some of the best times of participating in athletics in their life,” Hogen said. “The college life will still be there. I think kids should still be kids and not try to grow up or showcase too soon. Don’t forget to have fun.”

Bagley said loves Corona del Sol, the teaches, coaches, classmates. But he wanted even better competition and feels Hillcrest, with a schedule that includes games against Findlay, Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, Balboa City in San Diego and junior colleges will provide that.

"I understand this," MacDonald said. "Parents of elite athletes are faced with tougher decisions now than 20 years ago. Those are family decisions. It's not my place to get involved with that. I have to respect that they have hard decisions to make. It has changed.  The landscape has changed. From our standing here, our landscape hasn't changed. We're comprehensive public high schools and players will come and go. We know that coming in. No one is caught off guard by it. We'll keep doing what we do. We have to live in this world."

Alex Barcello, a highly coveted junior point guard who has 16 offers, including Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon and Virginia, said the goal at Corona del Sol is the same as it has been every year.

"We have a great organization, a phenomenal coach, and the best student section -- The Tribe," he said. "All of our guys work hard every day. We take pride in being an Aztec."

Reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-460-1710. Follow him at twitter.com/azc_obert, Listen to the Which Wich High School Football Preview Show every Friday from 6-7 p.m., on NBC Sports Radio AM 1060 with Dan Manucci and Richard Obert.

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