Basketball is Back in Southeast Michigan

Rise fall and Resurrection of the I-75 Pipeline

For years you could look on major college rosters and NBA teams and find the best of the I-75 players (Detroit, Flint and Saginaw) Some of its alumni include Jalen Rose, Howard Eisley, Anderson Hunt, Chris Webber, Shane Battier, Mateen Cleaves, Charlie Bell, and Jason Richardson; but as of the last few years the area hasn’t produced much partly due to the fact that AAU or travel basketball didn’t catch on quite as fast there. The area had some of the best high school coaches in the country so there was no need.  But times have changed. Ben Kelso, Perry Watson and Lou Dawkins are no longer the staples of the basketball scene up and down I-75. Travel basketball can be a wonderful supplement but in no way can it ever replace high school basketball. Well it seems that finally the two powers are getting on the same page instead of fighting against one another. Programs like University of Michigan, Michigan State and other colleges in Michigan lived off of home grown talent. There was basically a closed community when it came to recruiting talent from the area. So then you started to see the I-75 players all over the college landscape.  Michigan State has been able to get top talent from the area as of late. Then all of a sudden players began to choose out of state programs over the in state powers. In its “hay day” the only question was if you were going to be a Spartan, Wolverine and occasionally but rare a Titan.  The Michigan basketball community was shocked a few years back when Joe Crawford and Malik Hairston chose Kentucky and Oregon. The last time the area had top level recruits their name were Rose and Webber or Cleaves and Richardson and we all know how their college careers went. So it seems that the area has finally caught up to what the rest of the country is doing:  a complete farm system merging travel, high school and college all in one. The past few years Central Michigan has hired a coach with local ties to the area and within the past week Eastern Michigan has done the same, not to mention the aforementioned Lou Dawkins is now an assistant at Northern Illinois. So I feel safe is saying in the next few years the I-75 area will reclaim its throne atop the basketball world.  So look for Brandon Kearney, Zedric Sadler, Carlton Brundridge,  Percy Gibson, and Tommie Mccune to make major contributions to big time programs over the next four years The talent level has been resurrected so make sure you stay tuned and watch all of these future players ( not in any order)

1.       Damon Bozeman Madison High

2.       Jordan Hare Saginaw Arthur Hill

3.       Lloyd Neely Detroit Crocket

4.       Monte Morris Flint Beecher

5.       Taron Ramsey Melvindale ABT

6.       Denzel Watts Flint Carman-ainsworth

7.       Cameron Fowler University of Detroit Jesuit

8.       James Young Troy Athens

9.       Derrick Walton Chandler Park

10.   Johnathan Campbell Livonia Stevenson

11.   Kaion Seals Detroit Westside Chrisitan

12.   Matt Costello Bay City Western