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Player Diary: Bryan Mullins of Downers Grove South High School
Bryan Mullins Special to ChicagoHoops.com August 4, 2004 Email Questions/Comments To brian@chicagohoops.com Bryan Mullins of Downers Grove South High School brings the second installment of his Player Diary to ChicagoHoops.com. Bryan ranks among the top Class of 2005 basketball prospects in the state of Illinois. This summer, Bryan will bring us a special look inside his workout routine, his recruitment, and his life on and off of the basketball court. Hey, What’s up everybody? I know it has been a while since my last entry, but the month of July was the busiest month of my life. I started off the month going to Reebok ABCD Camp in New Jersey. ABCD Camp was a great experience. It was the best players in the country competing against each other every day for five days straight. Besides basketball, we had academic sessions, and guest speakers that would talk to us. The guest speakers were Sonny Vaccarro, who ran the Camp, George Karl, and Slam Magazine. George Karl was the most interesting because he told us about his experiences with different NBA players, and what he thinks about the NBA. In terms of basketball, we would have stations everyday in the morning, and then we would play games in the afternoon and at night. Every player was assigned a team, unfortunately my team was not the greatest. The team I was on had a lot of ball hogs, which was expected at an all star camp, but my teammates were very selfish. At times during the games it became very frustrating to play with them because as a point guard I want to get my team in an offense, but with this team if I passed the ball, I was probably not getting it back. I still played very well throughout the camp, and it was a once in a lifetime experience to be there with the best players in the country. After ABCD, I immediately went to the Best of Midwest tournament in Indianapolis with my AAU team, the Illinois Wolves. I was very happy to be back playing with an actual "team". This tournament was a warm up tournament for Las Vegas and Florida because we hadn’t played together as a team for 2 months. We won all the Pool Play games there by a good margin. In the semifinals we won by 3 against Spiece 2005 who featured Dominic James (Marquette) and Jordan Armstrong (Southern Illinois), and made it to the Quarterfinals at Nationals later in the month. Our 16 year old Wolves team also made it to the championship, so we decided to split first place and get some extra rest for the next tournament. I was able to get a couple of days of rest before leaving for Las Vegas with the Wolves. Las Vegas was the best trip out of all of them. The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. All the lights and the Hotels on the Strip was the best part of it. We had a great tournament there as well. We won all of our games, and advanced to the quarterfinals before having to leave for Florida. There were 345 teams at the tournament, making it down to the Elite Eight was a great accomplishment. We beat O.J. Mayo’s team (D1 Greyhounds) on a last second shot by Sead Odzic to advance to the quarterfinals. If we would have had time to stay, I think we would have won it all. The last tournament of July was 17-U AAU Nationals in Orlando, Florida. We had a great tournament to end the season. We won our pool, and then made it to the quarterfinals where we played the Georgia Stars with Louis Williams, whom many consider to be the best player in the country. We lost to them by 2 points. They took an early 15 point lead on us in the first quarter, but by the fourth quarter it was back and forth for the rest of the game. We had 2 or 3 chances to win the game, the shots just didn’t fall. They ended up winning the National Championship. We won our next 2 games by 20, and took fifth place in the country. The month of July was very busy for me. My team was 22-1 against the best teams in the country. We were just one basket away from being National Champs. Individually, I felt that I played very well for the whole month of July. I played great defense, shot the ball well, and helped my team win. Right now I am taking a couple days off to relax. In terms of recruiting, I should be getting quite a few calls these next couple of weeks, and that will help me narrow down my list, so I can take some official visits. To all the present and past Wolves, thanks for making it the best TEAM I ever have played on, it’s been a lot of fun. To My Dad, Mr. Frasor, Mr.Rice, Mr. Smith and Troy, thanks for everything. IT’S A WRAP! Until Next Time, Bryan Mullins Downers Grove South High School |
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