Latest news with #PeachJam
Dominion Post
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
WVU men's hoops adds incoming freshman Jayden Forsythe
MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball program has added another commitment from West Chester (Pa.) Westtown School 2025 guard Jayden Forsythe. Forsythe, 6-foot-5, 190-pounds, picked the Mountaineers over a long list of scholarship offers including Xavier, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Penn State, Northwestern, Wake Forest and a number of others. The three-star prospect was initially committed to Xavier from September until late March when he requested his release from the Musketeers. A smart, skilled guard Forsythe is one of the better three-point shooters in the 2025 class. Forsythe was the only player on the EYBL circuit to shoot over 40% from 3-point range on 75-plus 3-point attempts. He averaged 9.5 points per game for Team Final at the Peach Jam this past summer, while shooting 39% from three-point range. Forsythe took an official visit to Morgantown May 3-4 after previously visiting Tulane April 29-30. That was enough to close the door on his recruitment by committing to the Mountaineers. 'I have everything I need to be successful at the next level,' he said. 'It's also in one of the best conferences in America in the Big 12.I'm excited to get to work.' Forsythe has his complete complement of eligibility remaining in his career. The 2025 guard is the latest addition to the roster joining fellow 2025 forward prospect DJ Thomas as well as eight other transfer additions since Ross Hodge took over the program. West Virginia is now up to 10 players in total on the 2025-26 roster with the coaching staff still looking to address other needs in the coming weeks. — Story by Keenan Cummings
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Bryce James, LeBron's youngest son, officially signs with Arizona
After committing to Arizona in January, Bryce James, the youngest son of LeBron James and younger brother of Bronny James, officially signed with the Wildcats on Thursday. 'What's going on Wildcat nation, can't wait to get there and start working. Bear down,' Bryce said in a post on X. Bryce has officially signed 🐻⬇️ — Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) April 17, 2025 James, who will turn 18 in June, is a three-star recruit and the No. 257 player in the Class of 2025, per the 247Sports Composite. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard played for Sierra Canyon in California and chose Arizona over Ohio State and Duquesne. James was part of the state-title winning Sierra Canyon team, scoring three points on nine shots with five rebounds and two assists in the championship game. He averaged 6.9 points and 2.2 rebounds in 14 games last summer playing for his dad's AAU program, Strive for Greatness, on the Nike EYBL circuit. He then averaged 5.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in five games at the Peach Jam in July. Advertisement The Wildcats' 2025 recruiting class ranks seventh nationally, per 247Sports, behind Houston, UConn, Kentucky, Arkansas, North Carolina and BYU. Bryce was the second commitment in Arizona's 2025 class after four-star wing Dwayne Aristode. Five-star recruits Koa Peat and Brayden Burries — the Nos. 8 and 11 overall players in the class, respectively — round out the class. Bryce' older brother, Bronny, played one season of college basketball at USC before the Los Angeles Lakers selected him with the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. In October, LeBron and Bronny became the first father-son duo to play in an NBA game together. As a prospect, Bryce is less developed than his older brother was at this point in their respective careers — which is notable, since Bronny was still relatively ineffective as a high-major freshman. Both are about the same size, but Bronny has always been more physically developed than Bryce, both from a strength and athleticism perspective. Given what Bryce has shown thus far in terms of productivity, it would be shocking if he played a major role as a freshman next season. Before committing to Arizona, the only two major players in Bryce's recruitment were Duquesne — where LeBron's close friend and former high school teammate, Dru Joyce III, coaches — and Ohio State, which is less than two hours away from LeBron's hometown of Akron, Ohio. This is not to say that Bryce will never be an impactful college player, but even compared to Bronny — who would have benefitted developmentally from at least one, if not more, additional years in college — this will be a long-term process for the Wildcats. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd has proven to be an apt talent evaluator and developer, but this commitment feels much more like a multi-season developmental play than one geared toward meaningful contributions next season. Advertisement In the EYBL this summer, Bryce had multiple contests where he hardly registered on a box score. That just isn't going to cut it at the high-major level, and especially not at Arizona, which won at least 27 games in each of Lloyd's first three seasons as coach. In terms of play style, Bryce is even more of a strict off-ball player than Bronny. Bryce is marginally taller than Bronny, and given his age, there's absolutely the potential he keeps growing (although it seems unlikely he'll be 6-foot-9 like LeBron). That frame, combined with the shooting touch Bryce has showcased at various lower levels, suggests he could eventually become a perimeter floor-spacer, although he'll need to become much more coordinated defensively to guard opposing high-major wings. But even that projection is more predicated on Bryce's tools than his actual on-court production to date. There's no understating how far Bryce is from being a productive high-major freshman, not to mention a potential NBA player one day. — Brendan Marks, college basketball writer
New York Times
03-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Tales of The Wanderer: J'Wan Roberts, Kelvin Sampson and the heart of Houston's Final Four run
Kelvin Sampson always starts the first day of his basketball camp teaching the fundamentals of shooting, with 120 young campers looking on from the 3-point line, eyes locked on Houston's venerable basketball coach. But on Day 1 of camp in June 2019, Sampson saw a few sets of eyes looking behind him past the basket at the Fertitta Center, and he could feel someone approaching. Advertisement Sampson turned to find 17-year-old J'Wan Roberts, a newly arrived, 194-pound freshman, staring at a schedule he'd been handed the night before. 'Coach,' Roberts said, holding out the piece of paper. 'Do you know where this building is?' 'Just oblivious to what's going on,' Sampson said recently, retelling the story. 'I'm looking around going, 'This dude for real?' 'So from that day on, he had his nickname: The Wanderer.' Last month Roberts, six years older and 25 pounds heavier, walked onto the Fertitta Center floor from out of the same tunnel during Houston's Senior Day festivities and toward his coach. The years zoomed by in Sampson's head as Roberts approached: the Peach Jam game where Houston's staff discovered a skinny kid from the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2018, the many film sessions the Wanderer spent in the coach's crosshairs, the Final Four in 2021, summer trips abroad in 2019 and 2023, heartbreaking NCAA Tournament and personal losses, and a hard-earned ascent to becoming one of the best forwards in college basketball. Sampson's eyes got heavier with every step. Look at him now. The Wanderer. 'You think about why we coach, you know?' said Sampson, who put his arms around his sixth-year senior, held on for 12 seconds and wept as the fans' ovation continued. 'Right there at that basket where he's walking toward me, right to my right is where he started. And now, this is where he ends up.' Kelvin Sampson nearly made it through the ceremony, but J'Wan Roberts got him. — (@gocoogs1) March 4, 2025 Houston will arrive at the Final Four this week as a team built around a family. Sampson's son, Kellen, is an assistant on staff and the program's head coach-in-waiting. His daughter, Lauren, is the director for basketball operations. Assistants Quannas White and Hollis Price were the starting backcourt on Sampson's 2002 Final Four team at Oklahoma. And then there's Roberts, who has been around for more than half of Sampson's 11-year tenure at Houston and is so ingrained in the place that all of his teammates look to him for guidance. Advertisement 'Not many kids you have for six years, and not many of them that you'd want for another six,' Sampson said. 'Some of these seniors, I'm glad they're seniors. Wan? I could coach him for another six years. He's almost like one of my children.' Sampson is most comfortable working with those he's molded. These days the Cougars are landing big-time prospects — the next recruiting class has three top-25 recruits — but before Houston was a program those players would consider, Sampson and his staff had to identify players with upside others couldn't see. Kellen had one of those for his dad to check out at the 2018 Peach Jam, the final tournament of Nike's EYBL circuit attended by almost every high-major coach in the country. On Court 2, they were all there to see future Illinois 7-footer Kofi Cockburn. Sampson remembers Roberts attempted one shot in the game — a dunk — but he ended with double-digit rebounds, four or five blocks and a win. 'There was never a kid that was put on this earth to play for us more than that undersized post guy that was left-handed,' Sampson said. 'I said, 'That kid is us.' And all these years later, he's still the undersized four man. Can't shoot. He just wins. And we've always been pretty good at evaluating winners.' Roberts admits he was naive when he arrived. He grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was always the tallest and strongest on St. Thomas — the next closest was Aliyah Boston, the 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year. The ease with which he dominated then made it easy to hit cruise control. Roberts moved to Killeen, Texas, in the summer of 2015 to live with his aunt so he could face stiffer competition. Still, when he arrived at Houston that summer of 2019, it was clear he wasn't ready, mostly because of his body but also because of his temperament. Advertisement 'I didn't understand the reason behind why they played so hard and never took plays off,' Roberts said. 'Coach has a standard, which you have to play to. My definition of playing hard was not his definition of playing hard.' Even though Roberts redshirted his first year, Sampson was all over him when his effort dipped. He felt targeted, but eventually he came to the realization that Sampson saw something in him that he didn't see in himself. Roberts 'surrendered to the program,' he said. But every now and then, the Wanderer returned. Jan. 17, 2023, at Tulane. Houston is ahead by 13. Tramon Mark misses a layup. Roberts goes for the rebound, doesn't get it, then casually jogs back down the court. Tulane's Kevin Cross, his defensive assignment, lopes behind him and then turns on the burners. When Cross catches the ball for an uncontested dunk, Roberts is still at the 3-point line. Then he motions like someone else needed to get back. 'I was so tired,' Roberts said. 'Didn't run full-speed. It was real bad.' The play is familiar to everyone in the program, because the next day Sampson must have played it 20 times, never saying a word — play, stop, rewind, head shake, play. Sampson slowed the final replay down. Then he threw the remote at the monitor. For two straight weeks, Sampson started every film session with that clip. 'I was looking to get a reaction from it,' Sampson said. 'The right reaction from him.' He got the right reaction, but Roberts still did things on the court that infuriated him: getting beat on an out-of-bounds play against Alabama, a bad close-out against Baylor, another out-of-bounds play against Texas Tech, and those are just this year. 'While other people are doing simple math — 2 plus 2 is 4 — sometimes J'Wan is over there trying to figure out how to get that Rubik's Cube set,' Sampson said. 'You can look in J'Wan's eyes, and I can always tell. I can look into his eyes and you can see all the way to Beirut. Because he's not here with you tonight. And the reason I (replay the film) every day is sometimes it takes more than one viewing to get him to realize that Coach is probably right. I shouldn't have done that. I've got to do better.' Advertisement But here's what Sampson loves: Every time, Roberts takes the coaching without complaint. 'The best,' Sampson said. 'When you're around a coach that's been doing this for 40 years, he's won at every level, you tend to realize that everything he says is right,' Roberts said. 'Whatever he's telling you, he sees something that he's been seeing 40 years ago to now. He knows everything. If he gets on, let it happen.' Roberts is the model example of the year-to-year improvement players make in the Houston program, becoming exactly what Sampson wanted him to be. Early on he was just an energy guy who would defend and rebound, but he had a strong lefty hook and he's a gifted passer. Once those other skills were ready for use, Sampson started to make Roberts a big part of the offense from the mid-post in 2022-23, and he has upped his usage every year since. This year, Roberts has been able to put the Cougars on his back for stretches. He led the comeback overtime win at Kansas, scoring a career-high 24 points, with the Cougars continuously feeding him at the left elbow. Sometimes it still takes some prodding. In the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Gonzaga, Roberts struggled the first half when the Zags took away his left hand. At halftime, Sampson reminded him he's left-handed. 'J'Wan played hard the first half, but that was it,' Sampson said. 'Now second half, he competed. He was the best player on the floor. Went to him four straight times and he scored eight points. They had nobody who could guard him.' Foul trouble limited Roberts in the Elite Eight, but Houston had a similar game plan when he was on the floor. He scored nine points on 4-of-6 shooting in a 79-60 rout of Tennessee. As the seconds ticked away in the final minute, Roberts danced on the sideline, celebrating his second Final Four. A few feet away stood Sampson, arms folded, stoic and almost trying not to smile. Advertisement Sampson had a reason — he said later he was thinking about his friend down the sideline, Volunteers coach Rick Barnes — and when he's in that mode, most of the Houston players are scared of trying to snap him out of it. But not the Wanderer. 'I think Wan is the one player to get Coach out of his shell, laughing,' junior wing Terrance Arceneaux said. 'He's the only person I know, if Coach (is) heated, he will grab him by his shoulders and start massaging. I mean, him and Wan's relationship is different.' Roberts used to be quiet. Once he became a leader, he was the lead-by-example type. But a few weeks ago when he was sidelined at the Big 12 tournament with an ankle injury, he turned into a mini Sampson, delivering messages similar to his coach and talking so much that in one huddle Sampson had to tell him to let him coach. And along this run to the Final Four, Roberts has been dropping nuggets of wisdom — like 'Never rush to be somewhere, just stay the course, believe in yourself' — that make it clear all of those film sessions, all of those years of listening to his coach have turned him into the exact player Sampson knew he could be. 'It doesn't say Roberts on my jersey, you know, it says Houston,' Roberts said. 'So I'm playing for those guys. I'm playing for the coaching staff. I'm playing for the fans. It ain't about me. So I can't afford to be in the game and take plays off. 'Cause you know that one play might be the turning point of the whole game.' Roberts says he wants to wear that jersey as long as he can, and it's hard for Sampson to imagine coaching his team next year without him. Which is why Sampson let his guard down on Senior Day and let the tears flow. 'That one hit me different,' he said. 'Wan will have left an indelible mark on this program that will last forever.'
