Prep schools - revisited...are there victims of these endeavors??

The whole prep school idea is kind of new to the midwest and over the past 5 years or so we've had the experience of seeing Boys to Men Prep Academy (in Chicago), Decatur (IL) Christian Academy, Brehm Prep (Carbondale, IL), Culver (IN) Academy, and now La Lumiere (LaPorte, IN) all crop up and pretty much do the exact same thing.
BTMA was totally new and sprung up just for basketball purposes, but the other four all existed before and were molded into a high level prep basketball programs by luring top prep prospects there and then hiring a big name coach (three of them had the same coach.)

So let's revisit this idea and then decide how many (if any) of the kids from these prep academies have gone on to great successes in their careers.......

If you want to start with the prep academies that sprouted up back in 2005 -- then check out the detailed listing of all the players who were at Boys to Men and Decatur Christian in the 1-2 years those schools existed...
http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=4410

We'll get back to them but....every single one of those players - even the ones who were rated 4-Star (Koshwal) and 5-STAR (Hamga) talent....all then subsequently struggled mightily to even get eligible, most going juco or being deemed ineligible -- and only a few ever made it to D-I -- almost all to the lower reaches of obscure D-I schools. Koshwal is a bit of an exception in that he had a good college career but modestly good only in individual stats and not good at all in helping any of his teams to even a 15th place finish in their conference.

Then Brehm Prep has been doing the same thing....and Culver...now La Lumiere...

We've had enough time to get a look now at what percentage of those HAND PICKED, tremendously talented, high-potential, older, more mature kids have done. Recall -- many were considerably older - some European, many held back or doing 5th and even 6th years of high school...and supposedly playing at the highest level so they'd hone their talents.

So ----
FWIW -- you can draw your own conclusions...

The current coach at La Lumiere is Alan Huss -- I am sure you know he is an ex-Creighton player who coached some AAU then was hired as head coach at Decatur Christian to try to build them into a powerhouse "prep-school-like" program in 2006-2007.

I will leave it for you to decide if, in the end, there was any substantial success to that endeavor or not...as compared to had all those players gone the usual route and gone to regular high schools or long established prep schools like Dodie Dunson did. Remember - unlike these prep schools we're talking about, most of the prep schools we hear of like Brewster (Dodie's school) put many players every single year into D-I - many at the top level and then they prove they can play!!

BUT -- here are some things I would consider pretty well proven facts...
Despite a lot of wins with players from all over the world whose ages, although hard to prove or disprove, were documented to be almost ALL well over 20 years old - some likely in the mid-20's who were, of course, playing in high school and prep school games and tourneys against 16, 17, and 18 year olds. It is almost a given those older kids should have dominated. Recall it was proven that Mac Koshwal had graduated from junior high school in Canada in 2000 (and was probably already 16 years old then) and yet four years later when he was in high school in Chicago -- they claimed he was just a freshman! It wasn't hard for the Chicago Public League to find the facts and rule properly on his eligibility - which is why the whole Boys to Men thing got started.

In the end not one single kid from Decatur Christian OR Boys to Men can be said to have had a tremendous path or career since.

Maybe the closest is Darington Hobson (DCS) who did make an NBA roster but never played a single minute of an NBA game then was released and has not been re-signed by anyone....
but Hobson struggled with academics, had to go juco, and despite supposed big time offers from Kentucky and other BCS schools - he chose New Mexico, played in relative obscurity, and still hasn't proven he's gonna be able to stay in the NBA - and like even the best of all the rest -- will likely end in Europe.

All the rest of the DCS kids like Lucca Staiger, Mario Stula, Beas Hamga, and the rest ended up showing they were horribly overrated, and had little or no D-I abilities and ONLY looked good because they were 22 year olds playing against 17 year olds.
Thus when they got to college they lost the only advantage they had and kinda flopped....some (like Hamga) flopped big time over and over.

BUT -- even worse -- the Decatur Christian coach Alan Huss used to come onto message boards and post (under different names) exaggerating the success of his team & players and defending them - and I even had the opportunity to corresponded by PM with him also --
he was nice and friendly and always took his players side and argued for them 100% but...I guess I would expect that.

But - Huss was completely and totally incorrect and misrepresented the facts... -- much of what he posted and what he told me privately about the players and their ages, their eligiblity, their professional play overseas which hurt them big time at the college level, and other things turned out to be clearly and provably false and he had to have known it -- so why was he not honest??

There's even one article that got published about the kids at Decatur Christian - in which he flatly states his kids are all proper age that they could play IHSA if they chose to...but that was clearly FALSE and he obviously knew it was as many of those European kids' ages were easily and publicly known as they (like John Wilkins did) had played club ball and even professional ball in Europe for several seasons.
This evidence was even posted on said message board and has never been refuted...
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=14795&postcount=17

There were also solid predictions - even guarantees made (and the coach at BTMA said similar things) saying every one of those prep school kids would flourish and be stars at the D-I level..
--- again - couldn't be more worng as many never made it and the few who didn't had to go to more years of prep school, junior college and then settle for a roster spot at a bottom dweller like Chicago State or Sacramento State.

In the end none of them did very well and most, despite all being
hand-picked, and very talented with lots of potential -- were at best good but not great players - so surely the system as it was must bear some responsibility in how hard some fell and failed...

As noted - most never qualified at all or had to go elsewhere to more prep school or juco -- many were pros and, like Stula and Staiger, had to burn a year or a year and a half of PENALTY due to the NCAA professionalism-penalty...many had their clocks run out before they could ever get eligible anywhere, and then none ever played well or were ever able to stay on at any level above maybe "New Hampshire" or "Sacramento State"...
In the end this simply didn't benefit many of those kids.

So --- then, after DCS, Alan Huss sits out a year and landed as head coach at Culver Academy for a couple years -- there he had several highly touted kids as well - that he "recruited" there and yet despite the hype and despite Culver playing at a very high level -- in NATIONAL prep tourneys...not one of his players there made it D-I either (although there's still time for some and at least one may succeed).

The best one is this kid who was a prolific scorer at Rantoul...
http://www.midstatehoops.com/players/profiles/2012/travis_britt.html
http://illinois.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=2&c=944900&ssf=1&RequestedURL=http%3a%2f%2fillinois.scout.com%2f2%2f944900.html

He was getting national press and BCS attention back then, so what has happened to Travis Britt since?? He hasn't fallen totally off the map -- but ....his recruiting stock went from being compared to Ryan Boatright to not getting hardly a single mention anywhere in the last year.
He subsequently left Culver -- and returned to Rantoul --
http://www.illinihq.com/blogs/recruiting_wrap/2010/09/02/rantoul_basketball_happy_to_have_britt

He did fairly well but playing at Rantoul he isn't getting much press....
(in the "Corn Belt Conference")...and he was alongside Josh Prosser in the post-season listings of All Conference -- and was NOT unanimous as were a couple other kids - Zach McClughen and Reid Farchmin - really big names...
Britt is a good kid and I hope he does really great and proves any doubters wrong -- and he probably will end up somewhere at a mid-major level --
BUT -- despite that we still don't know how he'll turn out - considering how he was hyped and compared to BCS recruits -- he along with all the other Culver kids sure didn't seem to benefit much from the prep-experiment there either ..

Now Mr. Huss is at La Lumiere -- you know the talent they have -- numerous D-I caliber kids -- Bobo Drummond, 5-Star Hanner Perea, 7-footer and BCS recruit Obi Aget, and others...and they're about to get a HUGE new influx of talent in the person of Jay Simpson (top level, 4-Star Purdue recruit and, soon, another guy you'll recognize) -- then I ask -- how come they really don't dominate other teams??

I just talked with someone who watched a summer shootout last the weekend where La Lumiere faced a regular high school from Gary, IN - Gary Bowman HS.

Bowman is a pretty average HS and only has one player who's getting recruited - compared to numerous that La Lumiere has ...but they easily handled La Lumiere...

I must admit -- I am stumped -- how can a team full of hand picked D-I prospects and 5-Star recruits possibly lose so often to relatively average teams...
Bobo Drummond is a very good PG so I am sure he is not their weak spot..

When they played here in the State Farm Tournament of Champions (2010-2011) at Washington HS last Thanksgiving - I know they played good competition - but they lost all three games...then went on to lose like 9 of their next 10.

Early on they played a fairly standard schedule of prep teams...then they hit a stretch where they played some pretty softie opponents -- mostly just regular high schools in and around Indianapolis, Bloomington, & Gary, IN (Indianapolis Howe, Bloomington South, and Gary Wallace) and won some back -- finishing up at around .500 -- with 4-Star and 5-Star players on their squad...

...I know it's pretty subjective - but here's a discussion of the La Lumiere -Bloomington South game and observers are amazed at how "pitiful" both teams played...and how bad the LLA is despite such superstars...
http://www.inhoopsreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2569&start=0
...so what gives -- how can a team of such hand picked stars struggle so much against lesser competition?

So -- I hate to be a Debbie Downer -- but now that this coach has been around and coaching hand picked, 4-Star and 5-Star caliber kids, BCS recruits, kids who are all years older - some in their 20's, and well-developed, mature 7-footers....
And he's been doing it for years at three different schools....(and I applaud his efforts and his dedication to the kids...but...)
I guess I have just two questions to ask...

-how come they can't beat anyone other than average, commonplace high schools?
(Indianapolis Howe is a high school with an enrollment of 500 - roughly equal to Eureka or U-High)

-how come of the 40-50 or more kids he has coached who came with tremendous hype, assurances they'd be guaranteed D-I stars, and 4-Star/5-Star kids (Beas Hamga was 5-Stars, top 4 rated center in the nation)
..how come not one yet has been a success at the college level?..not even at the junior college level -- almost all end up obscure...or flopped?
I know this sounds like a harsh question but when the results simply don't stack up to the hype and the promises - then someone has to ask...

PLUS -- Already serious issues have cropped up on one La Lumiere 5-Star player Hanner Perea and he may be deemed completely ineligible if the allegations are true..
In other words - his college eligibility is currently in question...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=6587669

I mentioned Brehm -- but again we're seeing the same phenomen there -- kids who were BCS recruits -- 4-Star kids coming from Brehm who dropped out of sight or had to redshirt when they got to college. One other went from getting BCS offers as a sophomore to landing at NIU with very few offers as a senior...."interest from Fairfield, Indiana State ..." - so how does this happen -- a kid dropping that far??
http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/17132
http://iowastate.scout.com/2/874351.html
http://iowastate.scout.com/a.z?s=171&p=8&c=1&nid=4472517

I don't wish ill on these kids and in fact hope they do well at the next level -- I especially like Bobo and would have loved to have seen him at Bradley (and given the hot seat at SIU -- maybe we still might??) -- but --
... someone has to ask what's up?? I remain unconvinced that these prep school attempts like Decatur Christian, Boys to Men, Culver, LLA -- are truly dedicated to the best intentions of the kids -- they seem more like someone's efforts to push a kid into the pros so someone can cash a paycheck...
We have more kids who have gone thru the Peoria schools and had fine NBA and college careers than these TOP caliber prep schools with huge arrays of hand picked top talent have done.
I am still waiting for someone to point to one of these kid having a great prep school then great college career -- I find and have cited so many who have NOT and yet cannot find many who have.