ESPN’s Adam Finkelstein Visits Hargrave

Benjamin Veshi

Earlier this month, ESPN’s Recruiting Analyst, Adam Finkelstein, paid a visit to Hargrave to observe a Post Graduate Basketball workout. Below, you can find Finkelstein’s overall impressions from his visit.

Adam Finkelstein

Walk into Walter Davis Gymnasium and take a left. Follow a set of stairs up to a waiting-room-type area and look to your left. You’ll see a wall containing the mugs of former Hargrave Post-Graduate basketball players currently or formerly of the NBA.

Look up, down and across, and you’ll gain a clearer picture — pun completely intended — of the tradition not held only on the walls but, but within Hargrave’s PG basketball program as well.

Since its inception, the Tigers have dominated the prep basketball scene, winning the prep national championship under coach Kevin Keatts (now at N.C. State) and A.W. Hamilton (Eastern Kentucky).

Hargrave is a two-headed monster. The Tigers offense scorched opponents for 98.1 points per game last season and their defense was a Ziploc bag, holding opponents to 75.5 ppg. Over the past decade, the program has become a consistent pipeline for D-I schools as its produced a banquet room full of impactful scholarship players. More importantly, though, they have built a program where players succeed in both the classroom and court, become productive members of society, are just as humble in big wins as big losses and are well prepared for the adversities of life.

“They’ve done a really terrific job of building their brand both on the floor, in the school and in the basketball community,” said Adam Finkelstein, ESPN prep recruiter and analyst. “What you see in terms of hardware, their locker room and signage is really representative of the tradition of excellence they’ve achieved, dating back to three coaches now.”

And while Finkelstein, who’s based in Connecticut, had never been able to make the eight-hour trip down to Chatham, he had heard of Hargrave’s tradition well before his initial trip to Walter Davis last month and had witnessed it first-hand. He’s one of the main organizers for national prep tournaments and was on-hand for both of the Tigers’ national championships. So, of course, Finkelstein had to fan-boy out a bit when he first walked into Walter Davis.

“Of course I went up and check the wall,” Finkelstein said, laughing. “It was a cool experience to see their home base and the tradition celebrated all in one spot.”
 

O Captain! My Captain
In the 1989 drama “Dead Poets Society”, a group of students stand up on their desks and quote “O Captain! My Captain,” from Walt Whitman’s 1859 poem of the same name. The students are protesting the firing of their English teach (played by the late Robin Williams), who has been let go due to his unusual teaching methods. The scene is a touching reminder of how inspiring effective leaders leaders can be.

“The key to their longevity is their leadership, beginning with Coach Keatts, then Coach Hamilton and now Coach Martin,” Finkelstein said. “All three of those coaches are cut from the same cloth in the sense they are very charismatic, outstanding communicators and get guys to buy into a system and style of play that allows everyone to shine.”

Humility is one of the defining factors of leadership and it’s something Martin, entering his third year at the helms, is chock full of.”

“I learned from two of the best coaches in the country,” Martin deflects, when asked how he’s continued Hargrave’s tradition of leadership. “I played for Coach Keatts at Hargrave and watched how he dealt with people and players and conflicts and celebration. I watched and learned from a players standpoint. Then, I played and worked under Coach Hamilton for four years and was able to dive further into how he handled players and coaches in both positive and negative moments. It really helped me capture who I wanted to be as a coach.”

The Zig-Zag
Braxton Beverly is the prototypical point guard. He can shoot the trey, drive the ball low and creates as many opportunities for others as he does himself. And it was these characteristics that led him to a storied career — he holds Hargrave’s single game scoring record (70 points) — and was an integral part of the Tigers’ 2016 National Championship squad. So, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when Beverly’s collegiate stock took a meteoric rise after his days at Hargrave finished.

In the end, Beverly committed to Ohio State University, thinking he was going to play for Thad Matta, but Matta was fired before Beverly could step foot on the court. After Matta’s delayed firing, Beverly felt out of place in the Buckeyes’ program and did a little soul-searching in figuring out his next move. Little did he know, things were working in his favor.

Keatts was in the process of taking the helms at N.C. State, and the word was he was bringing Hamilton along with him. Beverly’s ears perked up, and he decided to follow the two Hargrave coaching alumni down to PNC Arena in Raleigh.

“He and A.W. were as close as any player/coach relationship I’ve seen in quite some time,” Finkelstein said. “So, that bond was strong that when Keatts put his stamp on Hamilton, that resonated with Braxton to hear A.W. describe the magic Keatts has in terms of charisma and personality, and when he heard A.W. describe Keatts like that, it made an impression.”

“Then A.W. decided to leave Hargrave and go to Raleigh and I think that bond between them was what it was all about. Braxton saw that bond and viewed Keatts in the same sense he viewed A.W. And it’s easy to do because both Keatts and Hamilton are gentlemen in the biggest sense. They always carry themselves with class.”

“He knew it didn’t matter about what’s fair or unfair,” Martin added. “He knew he couldn’t focus on that. He knew he had to focus on what he could control like his attitude, focus, and how to react to different situations and that’s exactly what he did. And while most of that is who Braxton is in general, I think his time at Hargrave really played a big role.”

It Takes A Village
It’s December 14, 2017, Hargrave is taking on Washington Academy in front of a packed house at Walter Davis.

With every rim-shaking dunk, long-3 made and steal recorded, the crowed gets louder until it reaches a fever pitch. However, it’s not only the cadets, dressed in their traditional beige shirts and blue khakis, who are turning Walter Davis into Cameron Indoor Stadium. Roughly 390 elementary school students from Chatham, Gretna, and Hurt are in attendance as well as a part of a deal Martin struck with them.

Earlier in the academic year, Martin and his players had made the rounds to various Pittsylvania County elementary schools where his players shared stories of what inspired them to get to their current points. At the end of each assembly, Martin promised the kids that if they performed well in school, they would get a free pass from school and a ticket to the Tigers’ game. And the students rewarded made sure their voices were heard.

“The level of support Hargrave receives from the community is unique and almost unprecedented,” Finkelstein said. “I think you have to recognize that it’s not solely due to the caliber of talent in the program, but also the people who lead the program and their abilities to connect with the community and build that culture.”

Finkelstein works mostly from the Northeast, which is the Mecca for prep basketball. The region consistently produces some of the top collegiate and professional basketball talent in the country. But one thing they don’t have a plethora of: support from their communities.

Finkelstein was on-hand for both of the Tigers’ national championships — in New York and Connecticut — and recalls Hargrave matching their opponents’ fan base, despite the fact many of them had six-plus hours of driving time compared to the 30 minute or hour’s drive their opposing fans had.

Martin, who grew up in Mount Airy, N.C. — birthplace of Andy Griffith and the original Mayberry — credits Chatham’s small-town atmosphere for the Tigers’ support.

“Having the opportunity to live and work in a place like Chatham where everybody knows everybody is a real plus for our program,” Martin said. “Hargrave is a real staple of this community. People know the kind of tradition we have and the success we’ve had and it all meshes together well and works for us.”

“People know they can go over to Chatham Public House, have a sandwich, then go out to a Tigers game and watch tomorrow’s stars.”

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