Tavon Sledge made a real impression with the WVU basketball coaching staff when he came to their Elite Camp in the summer of 2009. So much so that Bob Huggins decided to offer the pint-sized point guard a scholarship for the 2011 season.

Now he intends to show off how much he has grown in a year when he comes back to Morgantown on June 5th for this year’s camp.

Sledge may still have one more high school season ahead of him, but he is already getting a taste of what the college game will be like by taking on some of the elite Division-I talent in the nation this summer. A week ago, he was pitted against two players the Mountaineers will have to deal with next season on the court.

Those players were J.J. Moore, who has signed with Pittsburgh, and Mike Poole, a future Rutgers Scarlet Knight. How did Sledge fair when he took on these two BIG EAST-bound ballers?

Well, not too poorly. He scored a game-high 49 points.

You won’t hear Sledge himself harping on such a feat, however, because he doesn’t think it was overly impressive. The game was a part of the Escalade Classic, a first-year charity event put together by former Harlem Globetrotter Troy Jackson.

“I was going to the basket a lot, I had a couple of threes,” says Sledge. “It was a charity event, so I took it seriously, but not as much as I would a regular game. I’m a competitor, so I wanted to win the game and I did what I had to do.”

This is what Sledge has been doing for some time at Half Hollow Hills West High School in Dix Hills, New York. As a junior, he averaged 17.8 points and 10.4 assists per game. Aided by players like Tennessee Volunteers signee Tobias Harris, the Colts finished as New York Class AA runners up in March. Sledge had 33 points for his team in the losing effort.

Despite his proven ability to score, Sledge admits he is just as enamored with dishing to his teammates as he is making plays of his own.

“I’m the floor general,” he says. “I’m a point guard that can get his teammates involved. I averaged a double-double this year as far as points and assists. I’m not just one of those point guards who tries to just score. I can do both and get my teammates involved.”
 

“A lot of people [question my height], but then when they watch me play they don’t believe it, as far as my athleticism. I jump high and I’m fast and I do a lot of the things that big men do,” says Sledge.

“I get on the court the same way anybody else gets on the court. It doesn’t matter how tall or short I am. I just have the heart to go out there and play. I feel every time I get out on the court I have the biggest heart on the court. A 6-8 player wouldn’t scare me and a 5-8 guard wouldn’t scare me. I’m just out there to play.”

Because of his height, Sledge can’t avoid the obvious comparisons to three-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner Nate Robinson. Watching the Celtics’ reserve guard take over in a series-clinching Game 6 victory Friday night, no one would scoff at such a comparison. Sledge has also proven that he too can get some air for high-flying dunks of his own.

At this point, he is not ready to name favorites when he discusses his future in college basketball, but with four offers currently on the table, he has options. Sledge says he looks forward to reacquainting with New York City friends Truck Bryant and Kevin Jones this coming weekend and finding out exactly why WVU should climb to the top of his list.

For now, he’s focused on the present, which starts with his AAU team, Rich Soil, playing for a district championship in New York Monday night. Who knows – maybe he can go for 50 this time.

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Those who know him say he is Chicago’s best kept secret. One of Illinois’ top guard prospects, Phil Greene has made a name for himself locally through electric play on high school and AAU courts. This summer, his plan is to let out his secret, and start gaining more national recognition.

He knows the best way to do just that is by making as many appearances on the court as he can, and that will start with his AAU team, MeanStreets. The Chicago-based team has been performing well, and Greene says his role on the team has grown immensely since he became part of the squad.

“The team is really good,” says Greene, currently wrapping up his junior year at Chicago’s Julian High School. “We’ve got a couple of top players and my role is to score and be aggressive and vocal.”

For MeanStreets, Greene has been playing both point and shooting guard, often switching his role in the middle of the game. He frequently starts games as the two guard and is moved to the one as the game progresses. In his conversations with college coaches so far, he is hearing that many of them like his dual abilities and intend to use him at both positions rather than cornering him into one set of responsibilities.

Right now he has raked in five offers, but he is hoping to add many more to that list by attending a number of camps at different schools this summer. The first stop on his tour is Morgantown, where he is scheduled to take part in West Virginia’s Elite Camp.

“I’m going up to West Virginia next week for Elite Camp and when I come back I’m going to Oklahoma State. Then I’ll go to Bradley, Ohio and Dayton,” Greene told wvillustrated.com Wednesday.

Greene knows that a strong performance at WVU could be all he needs to prove to the Mountaineers that he is worthy of a scholarship offer. With that in mind, he is focusing on putting forth the best effort he can and impressing Bob Huggins and the rest of his staff. Greene says his conversations with WVU assistants have led him to believe that an offer is right around the corner.
 

Greene saw guards who had been given the green light by their coach, who trusted them with the ball in their hands whether it was running the offense or just running to the bucket. Whether it’s taking outside jumpers or driving the lane, Greene sees himself as a player willing to do what it takes to get the ball in the basket.

“I’m a player that’s always in attack mode,” says Greene. “I’m going to stay attacking and keep my foot on the pedal. Whatever team gets me will be getting a hard worker, one who’s going to stay in the gym and help produce wins.”

Greene thinks his style of play most closely resembles that of Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford in that both are aggressive and have great range in their shooting ability. At 6-foot-2 and just 165 pounds, Greene is not quite the same stature as Crawford, but he plans to get there in the next few years with a quality strength program.

His goal is to reach a playing weight 20 to 30 pounds greater than his current size. With that in mind, West Virginia’s program may be exactly what he needs.