Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

High School Basketball:

Findlay Prep off to New York in search of first national title since 2012

The Pilots (28-2) are the No. 6 seed in the Dick’s High School Nationals. Their first game airs Thursday at 9 a.m. Las Vegas time on ESPNU

McDonald's All-American Send-Off Party

Steve Marcus

Ronald McDonald serves food to Findlay Prep players during a send-off party for three local basketball players at McDonald’s, 6690 S. Rainbow Blvd., Tuesday, March 24, 2015. The players were selected for the McDonald’s All-American high school basketball game in Chicago on April 1.

Amid all the changes at the top, Findlay Prep has kept on winning. Just how successful the Pilots have been with their fourth coach in four seasons, though, depends on your perspective.

Much like a Division I team earning a high seed in the NCAA Tournament, Findlay Prep has put up dominant regular-season records and yet it’s sometimes the tournament result that leaves a lasting impression. On Thursday, more than a month since its last game, Findlay Prep begins play in the Dick’s High School Nationals in New York City as the No. 6 seed in the eight-team tournament.

Findlay Prep is the only program to appear every year of the event, which is entering its seventh year, and the Pilots won three of the first four tournaments. That stretch ended with a wild comeback against Montverde Academy of Florida for the 2012 title, and since then first-year head coaches Todd Simon and Jerome Williams each fell in the semifinals.

Now it’s Andy Johnson’s turn. The first-year head coach was an assistant for the last five of these tournaments, and he thinks this year’s field could be one of the best the event has assembled.

“It’s eight of the top 19 in the poll, so even the bottom seed is one of the best in the country,” Johnson said. “Every team’s got a really good chance to win it.”

Findlay Prep (28-2) is ranked No. 8 in the country but that was only good enough for the No. 6 seed. The top two seeds are Oak Hill Academy of Virginia (45-0) and back-to-back champ Montverde (28-1), while the Pilots’ first opponent is an undefeated public-school state champ from Florida.

Blanche Ely (28-0) is unique among the tournament’s participants. The competition is always great and usually built on top recruits, but Blanche Ely doesn’t have a single player ranked in ESPN’s top 100. Instead it relies on four players under 6-foot-2 to anchor a full-court press attack with a quick pace and plenty of 3s.

For comparison’s sake, Findlay Prep has five players in ESPN’s rankings, the most of any team in the field. The highest-ranked senior of those is shooting guard Allonzo Trier (No. 15), who will spend Wednesday night in Chicago for the McDonald’s All-American game at 6 p.m. Las Vegas time on ESPN before heading to New York City for Thursday’s game at 9 a.m. on ESPNU. Trier is expected to land in New York three hours before game time.

That’s a double dip that’s become customary for Findlay Prep’s top talents — last year it was Kelly Oubre Jr. and Rashad Vaughn — and for the Pilots to win it’s important for Trier to navigate it well. The team is healthy, so they shouldn’t lack for depth, but a dialed in Trier makes everything easier.

“His ability to score is as good as there is at the high school level,” Johnson said.

While Trier prepares for his multiple showcase events, another major annual hurdle for the Pilots is the long gap in their schedule. Johnson said their basic system to fill the time is a week off to start, then a cycle of four days on and three days off with regimens of weights, film study and a heavy dose of scrimmages.

Forward Justin Jackson, a UNLV commit, said the team knows it can’t replicate game speed exactly, but he’s confident they’re not far off and once the Pilots get comfortable they have just as much, if not more, talent than anyone in the field. That talent has already led to a great regular season. Jackson preferred to focus on what still remained.

“We can do this,” Jackson said. “I think we can win.”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy