MitchMash: Diener saw Brandon Jennings show coming
by Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
(excerpt)
“I’m OK, it’s just that. … You can’t believe. … He made another! … It’s this kid I covered in high school. … He just. … Wow! … He did it again!. … They can’t stop him. … Oh no he didn’t!”
I was hyperventilating over Brandon Jennings, of course, and his third-quarter cremation of an entire NBA franchise.
Brandon Jennings averaged more than 38 ppg at Oak Hill Academy.
He made 12 consecutive shots and scored 29 points from every spot on the court — driving right-hand spin shots (he’s left-handed), pull-up jumpers from the foul-line, an assortment of 3-point bombs — fadeaways, catch-and-shoots and pull-ups.
The 6-foot-1 rookie point guard for the Bucks did much of the same in the fourth quarter and, despite going scoreless in the first, finished with 55 points, three off the rookie record held by the most dominant player in league history, Wilt Chamberlain. Yes, that Wilt who once averaged 50.4 points per game.
Anyway, while my girls rolled their eyes and went to catch an episode of “iCarly,” I just kept gushing and spitting superlatives to no one in particular.
While doing so, I retraced my life back to Milwaukee — not where the Bucks play — but where the 2008 McDonald’s All-American contest was held. I was fortunate enough to cover the game and three practices preceding.
Jennings, the MaxPreps Player of the Year that season, was one of five native Golden State guards in the game whom I featured, and West co-coach Tom Diener gushed over his heart, handles and hoop sense.
Diener didn’t need to know that Jennings shattered the single-season scoring mark by averaging 38.7 points per game his senior year at Oak Hill Academy, a place that helped produce NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Stephen Jackson, Jerry Stackhouse and Rod Strickland, to name a few. He didn’t need to see the Oak Hill alumni list, either, to make a comparison to a future NBA Hall of Famer.
“He’s Allen Iverson with a great attitude,” he said that week.
I remember thinking at the time that Diener, who led Vincent High School to five Wisconsin state titles, was full of cheese. But watching Jennings slice through the Warriors like a slab of Swiss, I realized I didn’t know jack. Jennings showed the confidence, poise and savvy of an NBA veteran — just like Diener projected.
“No, really,” he told me 18 months ago. “He’s probably the best guard I’ve seen at this level.”
