What's Up With Duncanville & Lincoln?
by Alex Schwartz
Two teams that met on ESPN earlier in the year, Duncanville (TX) and Lincoln (NY), both had very high expectations entering the season. Duncanville was the preseason number one team in the nation on many different websites, yet lost two games before that showdown with Lincoln, which it would actually win by 20. Since that game, both squads have gone in a downward spiral. It looked as if maybe
Duncanville's impressive dismantling of Lincoln would lead the team to show why it had such lofty preseason expectations, while for Lincoln, that was merely the Railsplitters' first loss of the season. Since that night, December 11th, both squads have suffered multiple losses, some to teams that really should have had little shot of pulling off the upset.
As for Duncanville, the squad has six high-major division one players, in future Oklahoma State Cowboys Reger Dowell '09 and Roger Franklin '09, Texas-signee Shawn Williams '09, stud junior Baylor-commit Perry Jones '10, Jamison Sterns '10 (a former Baylor commit), and Julian Washburn '10. As well, the team from the Lone Star State has some nice underclassmen in Jamar Goodson '11 and Chris Washburn, Jr. '12. So far, all this talent has managed to somehow lose seven games, including a couple to local rivals. Besides the win over Lincoln, this team from Texas has done very little to support its preseason ranking, and has even fallen out of many Top 25 rankings.
Lincoln has been defeated by Jamesville-DeWitt (NY), Boys & Girls (NY), and Wheeler (GA). For Lincoln to have lost to two New York public school teams this early in the season is almost unthinkable. Superstar Lance Stephenson '09 is playing well, and other role players like Anthony Allen '09 have stepped up at times, but "Born Ready" does not have enough help. That is interesting, as the team lost very little from last year's NY Federation TOC Championship, and have added Shaq Stokes '11, a transfer from St. Patrick's (NJ). Dwayne "Tiny" Morton's bunch also has Maryland-bound big man James Padgett '09. Either Lance is going to have start scoring 50 points a game, or other Railsplitters will need to step up if Lincoln wants to win a fourth straight New York City title.
Only time will tell where these two squads end up, and a state title would likely be redemption for each of them, but with the way they are playing, even that is in question. Local fans cane see both of these teams play on Friday, back-to-back, at the RAC at Rutgers University in the first of five days of the Prime Time Shootout. Duncanville faces DeMarcus Cousins '09 and LeFlore (AL) at 6:30pm EST, and then Lincoln meets Lance Brown '09, Fuquan Edwin '10, and Paterson Catholic (NJ) at 8:00pm EST.
Note- ZagsBlog used as a source for information
Note- photo is of Roger Franklin and is from http://scouthoops.scout.com/
Two teams that met on ESPN earlier in the year, Duncanville (TX) and Lincoln (NY), both had very high expectations entering the season. Duncanville was the preseason number one team in the nation on many different websites, yet lost two games before that showdown with Lincoln, which it would actually win by 20. Since that game, both squads have gone in a downward spiral. It looked as if maybe
Duncanville's impressive dismantling of Lincoln would lead the team to show why it had such lofty preseason expectations, while for Lincoln, that was merely the Railsplitters' first loss of the season. Since that night, December 11th, both squads have suffered multiple losses, some to teams that really should have had little shot of pulling off the upset. As for Duncanville, the squad has six high-major division one players, in future Oklahoma State Cowboys Reger Dowell '09 and Roger Franklin '09, Texas-signee Shawn Williams '09, stud junior Baylor-commit Perry Jones '10, Jamison Sterns '10 (a former Baylor commit), and Julian Washburn '10. As well, the team from the Lone Star State has some nice underclassmen in Jamar Goodson '11 and Chris Washburn, Jr. '12. So far, all this talent has managed to somehow lose seven games, including a couple to local rivals. Besides the win over Lincoln, this team from Texas has done very little to support its preseason ranking, and has even fallen out of many Top 25 rankings.
Lincoln has been defeated by Jamesville-DeWitt (NY), Boys & Girls (NY), and Wheeler (GA). For Lincoln to have lost to two New York public school teams this early in the season is almost unthinkable. Superstar Lance Stephenson '09 is playing well, and other role players like Anthony Allen '09 have stepped up at times, but "Born Ready" does not have enough help. That is interesting, as the team lost very little from last year's NY Federation TOC Championship, and have added Shaq Stokes '11, a transfer from St. Patrick's (NJ). Dwayne "Tiny" Morton's bunch also has Maryland-bound big man James Padgett '09. Either Lance is going to have start scoring 50 points a game, or other Railsplitters will need to step up if Lincoln wants to win a fourth straight New York City title.
Only time will tell where these two squads end up, and a state title would likely be redemption for each of them, but with the way they are playing, even that is in question. Local fans cane see both of these teams play on Friday, back-to-back, at the RAC at Rutgers University in the first of five days of the Prime Time Shootout. Duncanville faces DeMarcus Cousins '09 and LeFlore (AL) at 6:30pm EST, and then Lincoln meets Lance Brown '09, Fuquan Edwin '10, and Paterson Catholic (NJ) at 8:00pm EST.
Note- ZagsBlog used as a source for information
Note- photo is of Roger Franklin and is from http://scouthoops.scout.com/
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