Hoops Marinara: J.P. Tokoto

Showing posts with label J.P. Tokoto. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

J.P. Tokoto Is Smoother Than Ever

Sophomore J.P. Tokoto doubles as the top prep player in Wisconsin and one of the hottest national recruits. I didn't get to see Tokoto play live this season, but watched him last summer in a few AAU games and saw a skilled, natural talent worthy of the hype.

Though he sat out last weekend's state AAU tournament in Stoughton (he's currently a little dinged up physically), Tokoto displayed his full array of skills with the Wisconsin Playground Warriors at the Bill Hensley Memorial Run N' Slam tourney in Fort Wayne, Ind., to start the month of May. Judging by his highlights from that event, the 6'6" swingman has been working hard on his game in the past year.

In particular, note the ease with which Tokoto crosses his dribble over between the legs (see :34 and 1:28). He is a natural help-side shotblocker and his explosive ability to rise and finish is already well-documented.

Tokoto averaged 18.6 ppg and 10 rpg for Menomonee Falls last season.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Wisconsin State AAU Tournament

Unfortunately I was not able to scout any Badger prospects in person this past high school season, so when I heard the Wisconsin State AAU Tournament was going to be held in Stoughton, I knew I had to check it out.

So I traveled down to the Impact Sports Enhancement Academy on Saturday to take in a few games. Unfortunately a couple of teams did not show up for the event, leading to some of forfeits. Despite the cancellation of a few games, I was still able to see one each for the likes of Vander Blue, J.P. Tokoto, Wally Ellenson, Marquis Mason, Chip Rank, Kyle Kelm, Nimrod Hilliard and Jamar "Popcorn" Morris.

Outside of Blue and Mason, I had never seen any of these guys play live before. Needless to say, watching Tokoto was my main objective.

However, the first game I caught was in the 17U division, between Blue's Madison Spartans and the Wisconsin Force. Unlike the Spiece tourney last week or day 1 in Stoughton, Blue did not quite have his touch this time. He struggled from the field and subsequently, the Spartans lost by a few points to the Force, led by Josh Cameron and Sam Gage. But Blue continues to have his way getting to the basket at this level and had quite a few free throw attempts down the stretch. The Badger commit also tried a ridiculous dunk over his defender from outside the free throw lane on the baseline -- the gym would have erupted if it had stayed down. He still got the star treatment afterwards with a Channel 3 interview.

Playing on the court next to Blue around noon was the stacked Wisconsin Swing-Selk team, who completely ran away from the Wisconsin Blaze. I was pretty impressed by Chip Rank. He slammed the boards (knew how to box out well) and played with intensity all game long. His handle and shot were decent too. Mason's footwork inside stood out to me. Pretty nimble guy that should make a good receiver for the football team. He was the one guy I saw who able to actually put down his dunks, although he seemed a little lazy when it came to getting rebounding position.

Sadly, nothing Kelm did shouted "prime-time player" to me. He seemed more fatigued than others (didn't get the ball over the rim on a dunk) and just hung out by the 3-point line all game long.

Madison East's Hilliard found his rhythm behind the arc in the second half to fuel a big comeback for the 16U Madison Spartans against the Wisconsin Playmakers club. Miles Chamberlain's bucket at the buzzer gave the Spartans the win after being down as many as 16 points. Hilliard was fun to watch, very smooth.

After that I caught the first half of the 15U Wisconsin Force against one of the Wisconsin Swing teams. Junior Lomomba was not playing for some reason and was hanging out with the Madison Spartan kids. That left Popcorn Morris to handle business for the Force. He reminded me a bit of Flavien Davis -- 6'4" or 6'5", can lead a fast break, do work under the basket and get up for alley oops. I wanted to watch more, but the 15U Wisconsin Playground Warriors finally were ready to tip off.

Like Blue, Tokoto did not set the world on fire with his shooting touch, but he did get a few more buckets to drop in the second half as the Warriors kept the pesky Northwest WI All-Stars at bay. It must be hard to judge Tokoto when he plays down at this level because he is so much bigger and more athletic than any of the opposing players. He played up a lot in the full-court pressure the Warriors played and made several hustle plays that coaches love.

I tried to take a couple of videos with a weak Canon PowerShot, but they leave a lot to be desired. The first one shows Tokoto (#24) posting up and the second, blurry one shows him skying to retrieve what looked like an alley oop pass gone awry.

Ellenson was an interesting player to watch. He was quick enough to take any defender to the rack. Even though he was predictable in that way, his strength and aggressiveness earned him at least 10-12 points on those drives alone.

Links:
- There will be a rule change in 2009-10 regarding taking charges while under the basket -- it is now a blocking foul every time. There are a couple other rule tweaks and points of emphasis too.
- The Daily Cardinal checks in with Rashard Griffith.
- Many of Wisconsin's recruits and/or recruiting targets played well in last weekend's big Spiece AAU tournament (ie: Bill Hensley Memorial Run 'N Slam) in Indiana, including Blue, Tokoto, Evan Anderson, Chasson Randle, Nnana Egwu, Jacob Williams and J.D. Weatherspoon.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A Big Time Recruit and a Big Time Opponent

Still pretty swamped, but several pieces of very big news landed today ...

First off, Mark Miller is reporting on Wishoops.net that Bo Ryan has offered a scholarship to J.P. Tokoto of Menomonee Falls. This is the first offer extended by Wisconsin to a member of the the 2012 class.

Because Tokoto is so young -- one of the youngest ever to receive an offer from Wisconsin as Miller points out -- none of the recruiting services have rated him yet. But the 6'5" freshman is a very well known commodity in basketball circles. Expect him to get the same kind of hype as Jamil Wilson got throughout his career (5 stars?). Tom Crean sure knows about him and Indiana will be just one of the household names following in Wisconsin's footsteps here.

Tokoto plays AAU ball for the 15U Wisconsin Playground Warriors, as well as up with the 16U team. He is lengthy, athletic, skilled and intelligent. Think about having Brian Butch's skills in Ryan Evans' body. And according to Menomonee Falls head coach Ben Siebert, maybe a little Kevin Love?

"He’s so very talented and he’s only going to get better. The first thing that you notice about him is his rebounding. Our whole fast break is predicated on him getting the rebound and launching the outlet pass."

Given the new rules about recruiting players in April, it was great to see Ryan and Greg Gard jump on this by getting on-site right away at a Menomonee Falls open gym, just days after keeping close tabs on Tokoto's performance on the AAU circuit via text messaging. They want this kid badly.

Needless to say, this is a pretty nice day for Tokoto's family and Badger fans alike. Since many have been merely counting down the days until this offer was official, Hoops Marinara already has a recruiting open thread ready to go for Tokoto.

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The second bombshell of the day is word that Wisconsin will host Duke on Wednesday, December 2 as a part of next year's Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Badgers will be looking for a little payback after the 82-58 spanking they received at the hands of the Blue Devils two years ago.

I was so pumped up for Wisconsin's first trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium. That team had a lot of good pieces despite the loss of Tucker and Taylor. But the chance to put a Badger stamp on the college basketball landscape was a disaster, thus my tempered enthusiasm this time around.

On the bright side, this is a true home game at the Kohl Center (not any of this Bradley Center garbage). Plus, despite the fact that while Duke has posted great records the past two years, the program has not quite lived up to its old standards of dominance lately, so I do not forsee any potential embarrassment. If junior Gerald Henderson bolts to the NBA as expected, Duke is really the two-man team of Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer. Those are two very good players, but not exactly the swarming winged studs that gave Wisconsin fits in the first meeting.

BadgerBeat.com covers all the angles here and here.

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And finally, though it's not Badger-related, one-time Louisville commit Jeremy Tyler has announced he is skipping his senior year ... of high school! Tyler, one of the top-rated juniors in the land, plans to play in Europe for the next two seasons as a professional. The young power forward may wind up in Spain. Dan Wetzel disects the matter over at Yahoo! Sports.

This may end up trumping last year's Brandon Jennings fiasco, especially since it comes on the heels of the bizarre Rick Pitino extortion case. After the departure of Pitino's son from Louisville to the coaching bench at Florida, some think the Cardinal empire is starting to crumble.