Time to reveal your desired Kenner pairings.  Since Kenner limits teams to no more than two college teammates per Kenner team, this annual exercise asks for the two GW players you would like to see play on the same Kenner team.  It should go without saying that there is an excellent chance that not all players will be participating at Kenner; in fact, I believe that only Ricky Lindo (who incidentally has a workout with the Wizards today, as did Brendan a few days ago), Noel Brown and Max Edwards took part last summer.  So let's assume everyone is available.  Also, I am counting 10 on the roster right now (excluding walk-ons Luke and Laziz) so we'll work with these 10 (or hope that Luke and Laziz play together.

James Bishop-Jacoi Hutchinson:  I suspect that JB will be playing off the ball a bit more which means that he will want to develop chemistry with Jacoi Hutchinson.  While both Trey Autry and Christian Jones possess point guard skills, I'm giving Jacoi the inside track at being the team's true floor general.

Max Edwards-Christian Jones.  This one's a bity lazy given that this is a reunion of high school teammates.  Nevertheless, I think there is value in seeing how the two play together and whether any pre-existing chemistry carries over to the next level.

Trey Autry-Zamoku Weluche-Ume.  Would love to see if Zamoku has a developed post game at this point.  We will need a good distributor to feed him and fundamentally solid Trey is a great candidate.

Darren Buchanan-Benny Schroder...Both were incredibly gifted coming out of high school.  Both were banged up during their freshman seasons at Va Tech and Oklahoma respectively.  Both figure to be major contributors assuming good health.  Let's see how they play together.

Keegan Harvey-Garrett Johnson.  Probably not a great pairing as each hold similar skill sets to the other.  Am guessing that Harvey is the purer shooter while Johnson is the better athlete.  Anyway, that's who is left so let them play together. 

Gwmayhem wrote:

Time to reveal your desired Kenner pairings.  Since Kenner limits teams to no more than two college teammates per Kenner team, this annual exercise asks for the two GW players you would like to see play on the same Kenner team.  It should go without saying that there is an excellent chance that not all players will be participating at Kenner; in fact, I believe that only Ricky Lindo (who incidentally has a workout with the Wizards today, as did Brendan a few days ago), Noel Brown and Max Edwards took part last summer.  So let's assume everyone is available.  Also, I am counting 10 on the roster right now (excluding walk-ons Luke and Laziz) so we'll work with these 10 (or hope that Luke and Laziz play together.

James Bishop-Jacoi Hutchinson:  I suspect that JB will be playing off the ball a bit more which means that he will want to develop chemistry with Jacoi Hutchinson.  While both Trey Autry and Christian Jones possess point guard skills, I'm giving Jacoi the inside track at being the team's true floor general.

Max Edwards-Christian Jones.  This one's a bity lazy given that this is a reunion of high school teammates.  Nevertheless, I think there is value in seeing how the two play together and whether any pre-existing chemistry carries over to the next level.

Trey Autry-Zamoku Weluche-Ume.  Would love to see if Zamoku has a developed post game at this point.  We will need a good distributor to feed him and fundamentally solid Trey is a great candidate.

Darren Buchanan-Benny Schroder...Both were incredibly gifted coming out of high school.  Both were banged up during their freshman seasons at Va Tech and Oklahoma respectively.  Both figure to be major contributors assuming good health.  Let's see how they play together.

Keegan Harvey-Garrett Johnson.  Probably not a great pairing as each hold similar skill sets to the other.  Am guessing that Harvey is the purer shooter while Johnson is the better athlete.  Anyway, that's who is left so let them play together. 

 My desired pairings are as follows ... pair up and get extra workouts in and skip Kenner. It's just bad basketball.

Sometimes the truth is no fun lol.

Gwmayhem wrote:

GWRising wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

Time to reveal your desired Kenner pairings.  Since Kenner limits teams to no more than two college teammates per Kenner team, this annual exercise asks for the two GW players you would like to see play on the same Kenner team.  It should go without saying that there is an excellent chance that not all players will be participating at Kenner; in fact, I believe that only Ricky Lindo (who incidentally has a workout with the Wizards today, as did Brendan a few days ago), Noel Brown and Max Edwards took part last summer.  So let's assume everyone is available.  Also, I am counting 10 on the roster right now (excluding walk-ons Luke and Laziz) so we'll work with these 10 (or hope that Luke and Laziz play together.

James Bishop-Jacoi Hutchinson:  I suspect that JB will be playing off the ball a bit more which means that he will want to develop chemistry with Jacoi Hutchinson.  While both Trey Autry and Christian Jones possess point guard skills, I'm giving Jacoi the inside track at being the team's true floor general.

Max Edwards-Christian Jones.  This one's a bity lazy given that this is a reunion of high school teammates.  Nevertheless, I think there is value in seeing how the two play together and whether any pre-existing chemistry carries over to the next level.

Trey Autry-Zamoku Weluche-Ume.  Would love to see if Zamoku has a developed post game at this point.  We will need a good distributor to feed him and fundamentally solid Trey is a great candidate.

Darren Buchanan-Benny Schroder...Both were incredibly gifted coming out of high school.  Both were banged up during their freshman seasons at Va Tech and Oklahoma respectively.  Both figure to be major contributors assuming good health.  Let's see how they play together.

Keegan Harvey-Garrett Johnson.  Probably not a great pairing as each hold similar skill sets to the other.  Am guessing that Harvey is the purer shooter while Johnson is the better athlete.  Anyway, that's who is left so let them play together. 

 My desired pairings are as follows ... pair up and get extra workouts in and skip Kenner. It's just bad basketball.

GWRising, I'm guessing that if you're a parent, your child or children were around age 4 before you told them that Santa Claus wasn't real.  Am I close?

Yes, right after I told them that the Kenner League has become a complete farce.

Gwmayhem wrote:

HAS BECOME a complete farce?  Was there a point in time when it wasn't?

Seriously, maybe this has to do with expectations, or perhaps with what one prefers to see?  If you are looking for cohesive team play, great execution out of timeouts, or other aspects consistent with a higher level of play, then Kenner is not for you, and likely was never for you.  It's a glorified pick-up league, period.

However, if you want a fix of live ball to break up the April-October period, have a rooting interest for GW players, or would like to see GW's newcomers in action for the first time (assuming of course that they play), then July at McDonough is your ticket.

Actually there was a time ... probably 15 or more years ago ... where you had consistent teams, teams received some decent coaching and they actually practiced together at least once lol. It was a time when winning the championship actually mattered vs what kind of stats you had. In those days, Kenner served a purpose because kids couldn't practice during the summers. Now that you have kids on campus and workouts/team practices/open gyms, leagues like Kenner have lost most of their value. It's more like organized pickup against some different faces. So yes, if you just want to see guys run up and down - fine. If you think it has any meaning for anything once the bright lights come on ... good luck. That's why I just laugh when someone reports back here that Player X dominated his Kenner League game and we should be excited. If I had a nickel for every Kenner League standout that shit the bed in November, I could retire.

I agree with Gwmayhem, we may get reports (from people like me) about how great guys like Darian Bryant, Brian Bynes and Miles Beatty performed at the Kenner League, only to see them ride the bench when they put the GW jersey on, but you can definitely see who isn't ready for prime time. 

I also thought Kenner was/can be beneficial when multiple starters play together on the same Kenner League team or seeing how an unproven newcomer performs against some decent competition. Some examples would be: TJ Thompson and Chris Monroe playing together the summer (2001) before TJ's freshman year at GW. TJ, Pops, Mike Hall and Omar Williams playing on the same team the next summer, they won the Kenner League championship. I believe that Kenner team had 4 guys who ended up being starters for GW when the 2002-2003 season started. Carl Elliot, Ricky Lucas and Pinnock played on the same team the next summer. Isiah Armwood and the Core 4 (McDonald, Garino, Larson, Savage) played together before their freshman year. Cavanaugh, Mo Creek and Max Edwards all played well at the Kenner League before their first year at GW.

The NCAA putting in the rule that only 2 players from a particular college team can compete on the same summer league team sort of ruined things for fans/alums of local schools (GW, Georgetown, Maryland, American U, University of Virginia) because you could go to games and see 3+ starters on the same team every weekend. 

The Kenner League schedule is out (no rosters yet!), it starts this Saturday at 1PM. There are 12 teams, 8 of them are the usual suspects like Tombs, Clyde's, Higher Level, Hoop Magic, On Point and A.Wash Associates. Based on previous years, I assume Hoop Magic and Higher Level will each have 2 of GW's better players. We have a few new teams/sponsors this year in Quashie Family Dental, Jim Crouch/Cominator DMV and D.C.Raiders. 

https://twitter.com/HilltopHoops_/status/1674237497327472642  







 

I remember watching Jeff Green in Kenner several years ago....he was playing at 50-70% speed and still dominated whenever he wanted to.

LSF,  I agree, I think Kenner will always be useful and/or revealing when looking at unproven or unseen (transfers, freshman, seldom-used reserves) players. Max and Noel Brown were good examples as you pointed out. Noel's Kenner League play didn't necessarily translate to what we saw during the season, but the opposite was true with Max!

jf,  'Call Your Mother' had a team last year and I questioned the name on here (thinking it was some sort of coded phrase that youngsters use! LOL) but a poster or two pointed out it was a nice deli/food establishment in or near Georgetown in NW D.C. They added 'Deli' to the team name this year though, maybe so people wouldn't make assumptions of what kind of business they are. 

Schedules? Rosters? That is a far cry from the Kenner I knew (back in the "Madonna is the hot new singer" Era).
Given this is the first look we will get of the Revolutionaries, Kenner is worthwhile. And I seem to recall that Satan´s Den was blessed with air conditioning, so there it that, too. (Not that climate control in any way takes away the stench of that hellhole).