Findlay hoops adds two from Turkey

By Rob Miech (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 | 1:37 p.m.

Findlay College Prep basketball coach Mike Peck polished off his 2009-10 roster, and upgraded his low-post game, with two recent additions from Turkey.

The gem is 6-foot-10, 250-pound Enes Kanter, the MVP of the summer’s Under-18 European Championships.

He had 32 points and 25 rebounds in a semifinal victory over Serbia, and he followed that with 35 points and 19 boards in the championship against Lithuania.

“He’s the real deal,” Peck said. “After working the NBA Top 100 camp this summer … there are good players out there, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t know anybody who matches what he has.”

Including Tristan Thompson, the 6-9 lefty who played such a key reserve role in Findlay’s run to the ESPN National High School Invitational championship last spring?

Peck said they’re different players. Thompson, Peck said, plays a bit more with his face to the basket, on the perimeter and in transition, and can handle the ball.

Kanter will live in the low post.

“It’s going to be interesting watching those two in practice,” Peck said. “I think our rebounding will be pretty solid.”

Kanter is doing the opposite of what Jeremy Tyler did, Peck said. Tyler skipped his senior year of high school ball in San Diego to play professionally in Israel.

The director of FIBA, the sport's world governing body, and the prime minister of Turkey, Peck said, did not want Kanter to leave his country.

But Kanter and his family decided that a year of elite high school ball in the States and then a year at a prominent collegiate program would best prepare him for the NBA.

“They contacted us a while ago,” Peck said of the Kanter. “They wanted to keep it hush hush. He wanted to get a good base of English. He’s great. He’s very serious. He’s very tuned in. He wants to go every day.”

Findlay players, who attend the Henderson International School, started classes last week. Through the middle of September, they’ll participate in individual workouts with Peck and assistant coach Todd Simon.

Kanter apparently wanted to start full team practices and scrimmages the moment his plane landed at McCarran International Airport.

“He’s very mature,” Peck said. “He looks like college seniors hope to look like. We’ve got some talent, I’ll tell you that much. As long as I don’t screw them up it should be a fun year.”

Peck is 65-1 in his two seasons running Findlay.

Kevin Kaspar, a guard who played on the Turkish junior national team with Kanter, also is in the fold, and other new guards include Nick Johnson, Marko Petrovic and Nigel Williams-Goss.

New forwards include Winston Shepard, Dekeeba Battee-aston and Jabari Brown.

Cory Joseph, the outstanding point guard who ran the Pilots last season, is back with Thompson, his good friend from the Toronto area, and power forward Godwin Okonji is the other returnee from Findlay’s title team.