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Camp shows Payne not finished product yet
Adreian Payne has scholarship offers from virtually every premier program in the nation, and Jefferson High School coach Art Winston believes his star center will choose a college sometime before the beginning of basketball season.
The 6-foot-10 senior-to-be visited Xavier last week — and you can almost hear a collective “ugh!” among Dayton fans over that news — and still apparently has a strong interest in the hometown Flyers.
“I know Dayton has a good shot at him because I don’t necessarily think he’s looking to go to the biggest school or the highest-ranked school,” said Jerry Meyer, a recruiting analyst for Rivals.com.
Payne just returned from the NBA Players Association Top 100 camp in Charlottesville, Va. After a week at home, he’ll go to the Amare Stoudemire camp for post players in Phoenix and then the LeBron James skills camp.
He’s ranked as the eighth-best prospect nationally by Rivals.com and the 13th-best by Scout.com. And while Winston said he heard good reports about Payne from the NBA camp, Meyer, who attended the event, thought the player didn’t help himself with his showing.
“He’s a good defensive player, but there were times at the camp he just wasn’t strong enough,” Meyer said. “He didn’t have a physical enough presence, and his length (size and wingspan) could only take him so far. … He got pushed around too much and wasn’t able to fight for position. It doesn’t matter how long you are, you have to control space. That’s something he has to work on. He’s got to build his body up.
“Offensively, he’s got to figure out a way to score. He will show you a few things in flashes. … You’ll get glimpses of ‘Wow, he just hit a 3,’ or ‘Wow, that was a nice post move.’ But as far as consistently putting it together, to be a guy counted on to score, that hasn’t happened yet. That’s the next step he has to make. You can’t live off potential forever.”
Another Dayton product, Juwan Staten, had a solid week at the NBA camp. Meyer said the UD recruit is making a push to be ranked among the top-10 point guards in the nation in the 2010 class because of his headiness and quick step.
“He avoids the negative plays,” Meyer said. “Any coach appreciates that. You’ve got to make plays, there’s no doubt about that. But any guy who can make plays, but also limit his negative plays, you’re always looking at that ratio. That’s your assist-turnover ratio, and he always does a good job with that.”
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Comments
By Earl Gray
June 24, 2009 10:12 AM | Link to this
I can see it now…..Goodbye Flyers hello Xavier. This guy isn’t going to UD and this article virtually pushed him out of Dayton will all the negativity. Payne will be wearing an X on his jersey just like Derrick Brown did. UD is screwed.By Bob
June 24, 2009 11:13 AM | Link to this
I don’t see any negativity in Doug’s article that relates to UD. We all knew AP would visit X. We also know he has been at the Arena loads of times as well as associating with the current bunch of Flyers. We have as good a shot at him as anyone. I think it just comes down to whether the kid wants to attend school away from home.By Gaddis Bomb
June 24, 2009 11:55 AM | Link to this
A big time talent like this will end up at neither UD or X.By joshua
June 24, 2009 1:34 PM | Link to this
He will be UK bound, you guys are shooting way to low if you think UD or X gets him.By sean
June 26, 2009 6:16 PM | Link to this
He will be WVU bound!!!!By Herm
June 27, 2009 5:57 PM | Link to this
If Payne is smart, he will get the hell out of Dayton just like NCR left Dayton. Dayton and UD are dying.