Photo by Sarah Finnegan
Hoover’s Ahman Ellington (4) will take over primary point guard duties for the Bucs this winter.
Charles Burkett believes he had the best the team in the state last season.
As the head coach of the Hoover High School boys basketball team, he led the Bucs to a masterful season that saw them compile a 27-4 overall record and a berth in the Class 7A Northwest Regional final.
But in that regional final, a 70-63 loss to Sparkman, it all came crashing down on Hoover. In the first quarter, Marion Humphrey and Trey Jemison — two of the Bucs’ top three players — went down with injuries.
“Who can compete on a state level when you lose two of your top three players in the first quarter?” Burkett asked.
The Bucs did everything they could, though. Sparkman opened up a 15-point lead in the third quarter, but Hoover came back and tied the game midway through the final period. Jamari Blackmon scored 35 points in a Herculean effort in his final high school game.
“We just ran out of gas,” Burkett said. “We’re going to grind it out. We’re never out of a game by any means. But it was sad. I hate it for them, because they wanted to get on the [Final Four] stage with the other three best teams in the state and show who was the better team and they didn’t get to do that.”
Other than the sour ending, the Bucs put together a strong body of work in 2017-18. They ran unbeaten through Class 7A, Area 5 and won the area tournament. Their only three regular season losses were to Wenonah, Huffman and Mountain Brook. Leading up to the final game, Hoover won 11 consecutive games and was playing some of its best basketball.
Jemison signed with Clemson, Blackmon went to North Alabama and Humphrey is playing at a prep school in hopes of landing at a university. It’s not easy to replace a 6-foot-11 post presence, the program’s all-time leading scorer and a player athletic enough to play any position, respectively. With those three standouts graduated, the Bucs will be forced to replace more than 90 percent of their scoring from a season ago.
“There’s no replacement, whatsoever,” Burkett said. “But we have a program here, and we have some young guys that are going to be ready to go.”
Even though there is no one like Jemison on this year’s roster and so much scoring to replace, Burkett said the Bucs won’t have to alter their system much. Jemison was versatile enough to fit in to an already-established style of play and handled it well.
“That was a testament to Trey, being able to adapt to what we do, because we didn’t change a beat,” Burkett said. “He’s a big guy but he could run and he knew how to play the game.
“No changes here at Hoover. We’re going to pick you up full court, and we’re going to make you earn every single thing. We’re going to get the ball out and go and we’ve got guys that love to get to the basket and we’ve got guys that love to shoot the 3 ball.”
One player who will step into the limelight after several years of contributing is senior Ahman Ellington, who will be a four-year starter for the Bucs. The left-handed ball handler will step into the point guard role and is someone who has “been through the trenches.”
“For the lack of experience, what makes it really good for us is our most experienced player is our point guard, our floor general, and that makes a big difference,” Burkett said.
CJ Melton, who has committed to Presbyterian College, also brings a good bit of experience back to the floor, as he will be relied upon in many ways.
“He can play any position on the floor,”Burkett said. “He can score from all levels of the floor.”
Burkett said the Bucs have “some good complementary guys” surrounding Ellington and Melton, including PJ King and Devin Wilson, who each had roles last season. King is a “solid point guard who had an exceptional summer,” and Wilson is still learning the ins and outs of the Bucs system entering his second year with the team.
Beyond that, Burkett is excited about a handful of his seniors who played on the junior varsity team as juniors simply because Hoover had so much depth. The sophomore and junior groups are also sprinkled with emerging players.
Colby Carter, DJ Fairley, Jeremiah Harris, Patrick Knight, Josh LeBlanc, Alex Price, Shun Sheffield and Sam Warren round out the varsity roster.
“When you add all those guys in there together, I like my team,” Burkett said.
Hoover did itself no favors with its schedule, facing the likes of Huffman, McAdory and Ramsay, all local teams that are among the most talented in the state. The Bucs will also face defending Class 7A state champion Mountain Brook, along with competing against Oak Mountain, Thompson and Tuscaloosa County in Area 5.