At Gonzaga, It's Welcome Back Rather Than Welcome Mat

Throughout the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, teams have brought in talented transfers. Carroll has added two 7-foot Nigerians and a skilled Canadian forward. DeMatha brought in two of Baltimore's best players. Gonzaga, however, has relied on the same team that won 20 games this past season -- and so far the Eagles are undefeated in summer league play.

Led by rising senior forwards Cameron Johnson and Max Kenyi, Gonzaga is 9-0 in The Rock Summer League at High Point and 7-0 in the Kenner League at Georgetown, and this week captured the tournament title at the Eastern Invitational team camp at The College of New Jersey.

The Eagles bring back three other players who started at times last season -- guards Tyler Thornton and Rodney Gould and forward Ian Hummer -- giving Coach Steve Turner a strong nucleus for this coming winter.

Kenyi, who is 6 feet 4, holds more than 20 scholarship offers, mostly mid-major programs, with Marquette a notable exception. Johnson, also 6-4, earlier this week committed to play football for Virginia.

"We've got a pretty solid core group back from last season and we were the only [WCAC] team to beat the champion DeMatha at all," Turner said. "The continuity we have will be big for us. It gives us a chance to be at the top of the league."

DeMatha Reloads

DeMatha needed to replace the bulk of the scoring -- as well as all of the star power -- from its third consecutive City Title-winning team. After adding junior forward Naji Hibbert and sophomore guard Josh Selby, Stags Coach Mike Jones thinks his team is prepared to maintain its high level of play.

Hibbert, a 6-5 wing player, played for St. Frances last season and holds offers from "half of the ACC. I know he likes Maryland," Jones said. Selby, who is 6-1 and plays both back-court positions, transferred from John Carroll.

"We're very pleased with [Selby] trying to come in, fit in and be a great teammate," Jones said. Hibbert "is another guy, who, with all the accolades, talent and scholarship offers, a lot of times guys will come in and try to assert that they're the best on the team and try to prove they're the next Austin Freeman. But just like Josh, he's just trying to fit in. That's what you want them to do."

Hibbert and Selby won't be the only new faces for the Stags, though. With All-Met football player Kenny Tate the team's lone returning starter, there is plenty of playing time up for grabs. Incoming freshman point guard Quinn Cook has shown a surprising amount of maturity for his age, Jones said. Sophomore Chris Frank, who is 6-8, grew up in Hyattsville but has spent the past few years overseas with his father, who was stationed abroad in the military.

With all of the newcomers, this season promises to be a bit more challenging for DeMatha, which went 28-6 last season, with its only local loss coming to Gonzaga.

"You know what? This is what a coach loves," Jones said. "You've got all these guys that are eager to learn and want to learn. These guys are going to grow. It's going to be fun. It reminds me of how we were in 2003-04 and 2004-05, where we had so much young talent. And those guys turned out pretty darn good."

Little Likes Creek

Richard Little is accustomed to being with elite players on the court. As a player at Oxon Hill, Little was the starting point guard on the Clippers' Maryland 4A championship team in 2000, regularly feeding All-Met Player of the Year Michael Sweetney for easy baskets. Then, at Virginia Military Institute, Little played alongside one-time Montrose Christian standout Jason Conley as Conley led the nation in scoring.

Now preparing for his first season as a head coach at Oxon Hill after being promoted to replace Billy Lanier, Little is ready to work with another potential standout, junior guard Maurice Creek, who averaged 22.6 points per game last season.

"Mo Creek has the potential to be one of the best guards to come out of Oxon Hill," said Little, who was one of Lanier's assistants for the past two seasons. "He's one of the best shooters and he's not one-dimensional. His size [6-4] is very good. Guards like that don't come along too often."