Thon Maker makes his case for #1 in 2016 against Holy Cross

The trek to the Carlisle School wasn’t the easiest. 60 miles of driving down two lane roads, getting pulled over, and a few streets that were missing signs later and we were in the general vacinity. Upon asking a student on campus where the gym was, we were finally put in the right direction so that I could take my first glimpse at 7’0 freshman Thon Maker.

Once the action was live, the first thing that I was immediately taken back by was how much Thon was playing on the perimeter. He had shown flashes of a face-up game at both John Lucas Camp and Adidas Nations, but it now seemed apparent that this was his bread and butter. He had no problem bringing the ball up the floor against the less than suitable competition, knocked down multiple three pointers, and played the game with a fluidity unlike most 7-footers of any age at the high school level. Maker’s play was inspired based on the effort the he gave running the floor on both ends and the dominant performance that he gave the fans defensively with 7 emphatic blocked shots. I hit the road with Carlisle up 90-21 and around 4 minutes left on the clock. Thon was done for the evening, finishing with a stat line of 24 points, 12 rebounds, 7 blocks, and 5 assists.

Now it should be noted that the team Maker was matched up against didn’t have a player standing taller than 6’3, nor did they have a player I could comfortably say was a sure fire D-3 college prospect. I would have liked to see him do more work with his back to the basket, but beggars can’t be choosers. I guess this just means that I’ll be making another journey to see Thon continue to state his claim for top player in the freshman class.