Team Takeover Captures 2018 Peach Jam Crown

In quite possibly the final Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Peach Jam Championship held in front of college coaches, Washington, D.C. based travel squad Team Takeover under the direction of Keith Stevens continued its mastery of opponents as they put forth a dominating performance to defeat Team WhyNot (CA), 96-78 at the Riverview Park Activities Center in North Augusta, South Carolina.

It marks the second ever Peach Jam crown for Team Takeover, which concluded the EYBL regular season play with a perfect 16-0 record. They finished 23-1 overall, re-grouping from their lone loss at Peach Jam to beat Albany City Rocks (NY) 65-57 in the quarterfinals and Mokan Elite (KS) 61-54 in the semifinals. That included rallying from 10 down in the quarters against City Rocks.

One can easily argue that this was the most talent-rich squad that Stevens has fielded, which says something consider the powerhouse AAU team has produced numerous college prospects and even this year's NBA Most Improved Player recipient, Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers. Oladipo was in attendance to root on Takeover against the first-year Team WhyNot travel squad, sponsored by 2016-17 NBA MVP Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

A total of seven Top 150 ranked prospects in the country dot the Takeover roster, including two Top 50 members of the Class of 2020 in Paul VI guard Jeremy Roach and 7-footer Hunter Dickinson. Other headline names include five-star Armando Bacot, Villanova recruit Justin Moore, UVA commit Casey Morsell and four-star guard Anthony Harris.

All brought a different element to the equation. Whether it was Bacot and Dickinson dominating in the paint with points and rebounds, Morsell knocking down 3's from the perimeter, Moore and Roach advancing the ball up the court as playmakers, or Harris providing hard-nosed defense and toughness, the TTO crew seemed to possess all the ingredients necessary for enormous success.

Leading the charge for Takeover with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds was Bacot, who came in averaging 13 boards a contest. He also had a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds in the semifinal against Mokan Elite, where Takeover benefited largely from making the extra pass in the form of 19 assists.

Nine different players scored for Takeover in its Championship victory, where they used a 9-0 run to claim their first double-digit lead at 23-13 with eight minutes to go in the first half. Team WhyNot pulled within one at 29-28 on a 7-0 run, but trailed 37-31 at the half. Takeover pushed its lead back up to double-figures with 13:23 to go on Roach's three-pointer and never looked back from there.

The unselfishness was evident from start to finish for Team Takeover, which had 22 assists on 25 field goals. Harris paced them with seven assists as they shot 49% from the field (25-of-51) and didn't settle for ill-advised long-range attempts when Team WhyNot went to a zone defense look as they converted 55.3% inside the three-point arc.

Takeover lost in last year's EYBL Finals to Oakland Soldiers, who then became the first ever two-time Peach Jam Champ. Team WhyNot edged Oakland Soldiers in this year's Peach Jam semis, 67-64, behind 25 points from Iverson Molinar and 15 points and nine rebounds by Cassius Stanley.

The other Peach Jam title for Team Takeover came in 2010, led by guard James Robinson - who played at Pittsburgh - and Michael Gbinije, a former standout at Benedictine that went on to play at the collegiate level for both Duke and Syracuse.

While Team Takeover is based out of Washington, D.C., they've been able to pull in some of the premier talent from around Northern Virginia in recent years to supplement their roster rather nicely.

In fact, five players who spent this past year playing basketball in Virginia helped comprise the Championship team...

· Armando Bacot, 6-10 PF, Class of 2019, Trinity Episcopal in Richmond

· Anthony Harris, 6-4 G, Class of 2019, Paul VI in Fairfax

· Josh Oduro, 6-9 PF, Class of 2019, Paul VI in Fairfax

· Jeremy Roach, 6-2 PG, Class of 2020, Paul VI in Fairfax

· Charles Thompson, 6-7 PF, Class of 2019, St. Stephens & St. Agnes in Alexandria

Bacot - who is on the radar of blue-blood programs such as Duke and North Carolina - recently announced that he will spend his senior season at IMG Academy in Florida.

As the grassroots season nears the conclusion for 2018, many what wonder what the future holds. Back in April, an independent commission spearheaded by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was established to make recommendations to the NCAA in an effort to improve the state of basketball recruiting in wake of the FBI probe that rocked the sport within the past year.

Among the changes being considered, college coaches would be able to attend scholastic events sanctioned by state High School Athletic Associations during the final two weekends in June along with the start of a six-day evaluation period in July for coaches to attend NCAA youth development camps. However, the proposals would threaten to end the chance for college coaches to evaluate prospects during July at showcase events put on by shoe companies Nike (EYBL), Adidas (Gauntlet) and Under Armour (UA Association).

Of the first 23 picks in June's NBA Draft, a total of 20 of them participated in the EYBL.

Matthew Hatfield serves as Publisher for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a regular contributor to the ACC Sports Journal. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him every Saturday at 10 AM to Noon on ESPN Radio 94.1.