6 months away is never too early to think about all of the great basketball still in Fort Wayne

A tremendous year has come to a close in Fort Wayne for boys high school basketball, specifically in the Summit Athletic Conference.

While North Side flexed its muscles on the way to a second straight league title AND a Holiday Tournament crown, Snider and Bishop Dwenger played inspired basketball often and every other school showed signs of power while individual players flourished (Concordia’s DJ McCall is an Indiana All-Star and Wayne’s Justin Mitchell broke the school’s all-time scoring mark).

But the chance to see so many of the stars of the SAC’s recent years comes to an end officially Sunday (at least at a high school level anyway) with the Nancy Rehm Indiana/Ohio game, highlighted by a trio of those North Side stars (Tre Crews, Oosha Mitchell and Mike Davis), along with McCall, Mitchell (and his brother Levi), as well as South Side’s Nate Thomas, among others.

It leaves hardcore area prep fans wondering how we fill the gap next year. With so many power players graduating from every school, what will the SAC be like in 2014-2015 during its final year as an 8-team league (Carroll and Homestead join the following year)? But this has happened before and it will happen again. While it will be hard to reload at the same level of the SAC, with so much parity, of this past season, there is a lot of interest to peak the city when basketball rolls around again in about 6 months (I, for one, think it is too far away).

The biggest question will be with the back-to-back champs, who graduate 6 that include four starters and another all-area performer off the bench. But it also returns a strong core of JV post players to get tested and more importantly, a senior trio back court of Sean McGee, Terrell Crews and Marco Lee.

The game plan changes immediately with these three versus, say, Tre’Vion Crews as North now has three score-first guards. McGee is a solid shooter and a gritty kid who will fight for every inch. But, he will also have to shoulder a heavy scoring load and will probably need to average 20 points per game, especially early on as North feels out its new legs. Will the younger Crews develop into a significant scorer? There is no doubt that Terrell can play defense and was a nice energy guy off the bench but he will go from being “the little Crews” to “the Crews,” and I think he will fill those shoes adequately. Lee is the intangible with this group because of where he may or may not fit. In my opinion, he would be the first look to take over the point guard role, but does his game fit that? He is an explosive finisher when on his game, can he also slow the pace and run the team every possession like the elder Crews has done and coach Shabaz Khaliq has become accustom to?

Snider also looses a lot, but still has strong experience returning, especially with All-Area talent Devlyn Williams. His size and diversity in his game make him a tough match-up and added maturity will help him. Devlyn’s pull up game and athleticism will push him and the Panthers. His taller (little) brother Malik will also take more pressure off what Devlyn will be expected to do in the post. Good varsity experience as a freshman and hopefully a summer in the weight room will make Malik a tough draw for area posts. This is a kid I watched, before he ever played a high school game; embarrassingly dunk on Homestead’s Caleb Swanigan in an Always 100 league game. That speaks volumes about his ability that can be developed. As long as the guard play is decent at Snider, the Williams brothers will propel them far.

Bishop Dwenger, the other SAC power of this season, will be the same story: lose a lot, return a lot of intrigue. Kyle Hartman is back and he led the Saints well as a junior a lot of times. He got better getting to the basket throughout the year and his willingness to scrap will only be beneficial. He, and fellow Class of 2015 returner Ryan Christman are also prolific spot up shooters who you don’t want to get too hot. If brought along early, sophomore-to-be Campbell Donovan also has a soft touch and his corner threes could help free up Hartman for some added looks.

Their rival, Bishop Luers, will only get stronger as they get older. JJ Foster had a strong freshman campaign and will only get better as each year passes. This year, once again, he won’t have to shoulder the load because of the development and break out of Tyrell Johnson, who was the key guy for a lot of Luers’ push back this season against teams who were expected to beat the massively rebuilding Knights.

Youth also is the key at Concordia and Northrop. With a new coach on the horizon, things could change dramatically at Concordia. After all, the philosophy there hasn’t changed in a long time. Will it with a new head man? Either way, there are a pair of juniors in Reggie Tharp and Paxton Bergdoll that will be a great tandem. Tharp, on his game, is as dangerous as anyone in the conference this year. He is a shoot first, ask questions later talent, whose talent is catching up to his superior mentality. I expect him to put a great summer in on the AAU circuit and be ready to lead Concordia back into SAC contention next season. And with a healthy Bergdoll to mirror Tharp’s outside game down in the post, it could be tough for defenses to solve the Cadets’ puzzle.

At Northrop, there is some upper-class talent and the Bruins know it is still rebuilding time from the exit of the Scott twins in 2013, but there is a lot of younger talent I am excited about. Junior-to-be Jagger Surface is smooth when let loose. Like with Concordia, a good perimeter game between Surface and senior-to-be Aaron Thomas can only help their chances at Northrop. Anton Berry was super raw inside as a freshman, but there is no doubt coach Barak Coolman will get that polished a lot this summer. Add in hidden gem in sophomore-to-be Richard Robertson and the Bruins could be a team you never want to look past.

Wayne and South Side will need some break outs to be competitive, but with talent like Kye Black (Wayne) and Nick Thomas (South Side, younger brother of Nate), this is always a possibility. For South Side, can Nick lose his laid back style and become more aggressive? Mike Novell sure hopes so.

And let us not forget some names not mentioned. Fort Wayne Community Schools plus parochials always equal random transfers, so you never know where some people may end up. Some of those moves are already being gossiped about.

And if the SAC really isn’t your bag, you don’t have to look too far for some amazing basketball next year. Blackhawk Christian returns loads in Wes Davidson, Joey Morlan and Riley Reimschisel; Carroll is plugged in returns from Chandler White, Jeffrey and Jeremy Kalonji and Kyle Mallers and Garrett will be run well by Justin McCoy. And oh yeah, Homestead has this Division 1 prospect named Caleb Swanigan, and they don’t call him “biggie” for nothing.