On Tuesday of last week, I ventured southward thru a torrential downpour on I-75 to take in parts of all 3 games in a Deveroes Summer league trifecta. I had scoped out the schedule and took note that KW’s Stan Litz team would face the Cintas squad that includes local HS hero Vova Severovas. I was due for a trip to Cincy and Columbus to visit clients, so why not combine the two?

Only one problem: Vova didn’t show up. Fellow WSU freshman Zakee Boyd and Deshawn Lynch played, but not V. Oh well.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I wondered to myself what else was going on at Oak Hills in the middle of the summer to fill all of those spaces? When I got inside, I knew why it was so crowded: Sean Finn’s team was playing the Slats squad featuring UC recruits Robert Whaley and James White. As I looked around, most of the folks were wearing UC garb.

Now granted, I only saw the tail end of this tilt, but here’s what I came away with on the 2 future Bearkitties:

–James White is going to be one helluva player. He scored on several crowd pleasing dunks and showed amazing athleticism. Don’t know what his problem was at Florida, but I’m sure Huggs is wetting his pants in anticipation.

–Robert Whaley didn’t seem like he was into it. Yeah, I saw him hit a long-range jumper and the paper says he scored 15, but I wasn’t too impressed. In the few minutes I saw, SF stole the ball from Whaley and later scored a hoop and the harm was on the big fella. Sean only scored 3, so I saw all of his offensive production. Finn looked bigger in the shoulders and arms and he has lost the farm boy haircut, too. The PG for SF’s team was a little guy named Malcolm Andrews who has some serious jets.

The feature game of the tripleheader was built up by the PA announcer as the brothers vs. the brothers-the Waleskowskis vs. the Doliboas. Pete finally got his wish-his boys are playing together again. James Cripe is also on the Stan Litz team, along with Miami Redskin-er-Redhawks Josh Hausfeld and Tim Schenke and a little PG named Brandon Miller from Butler who has a nice game.

The one thing you have to keep in mind when you talk about the fraternal matchups is this-Cain Doliboa is a pro. He and Yuanta Holland play on the same Boncourt team in the Swiss Pro League. KW and AW are still college kids. That said, the W boys held their own and ultimately beat the Springboro Slingers with the ultimate weapon-team work.

Both Cain and Seth have really filled out their upper bodies. At first, I didn’t recognize Cain, between the broad shoulders, bulging biceps and his flowing locks-I remember the skinny dude who played for OP at UD. Cain went for something like 35, including five 3-pointers, mostly in KW’s face. Is it fair to ask Keith to cover such a deadly outside shooter 25+ feet from the basket? No. Conversely, could Cain cover Keith underneath? Not a chance! On one particular move under the hoop, KW absolutely schooled CD with a great fake and layup that had the crowd oohing and aahing.

Cain and Seth were both hitting early and Cintas lead by 10 at the half. Then the W brothers went to work and included their teammates in the comeback, where Cain and Seth took virtually all of the shots for their team down the stretch. When the 3-pointers started not to fall, the Cintas’ lead evaporated. James Cripe had a nice showing. He still needs to work on recognizing who is open when he gets doubled after he receives the ball, but he dominated the backboards when he was in there. He also looks like he’s been working on his upper body.

AW was particularly effective in crunch time. On one play, he blocked SD’s shot, KW got the rebound and fed a streaking AW for a hoop. He made several key layups and ended the game with a rim rattler. I don’t think he appreciated the PA announcer’s nickname for him: where Keith is “Mr. 9 to 5” (a definite compliment to KW’s work ethic) AW’s moniker was “Mr. Part-Time”. Ouch! Seth’s nickname was “Mr. Destiny”…don’t know where that came from. The PA dude should definitely keep his day job. When it comes to nicknames, Chris Berman he ain’t.

I finally figured out what “Deveroes” means. Roughly translated it’s “monster dunk, game over”. Both of the first 2 games ended on killer jams by James White and AW, respectively, and the PA guy said “game over” even though there was still time left on the clock. Who knew?

The third contest featured Nate Green and DJ (“Wake up, DJ!”) Stelly-or “Steely” as the man behind the PA preferred to call him-vs. a bunch of guys I never heard of. Nate’s nom de hoops was “The Bull” because “Nate Dogg” was already taken by a guy on the other squad. Seriously! I lost interest real fast in this game and soon I was headed for the Montgomery Inn and a date with some ribs.

I had gone to a summer league game in Miamisburg last year and I must say that Deveroes is a vastly superior league. You have to be a man to play at Oak Hills, no chumps allowed. I don’t know if BG told the guys not to play in M-burg, but I wouldn’t blame him if he did-the comp just wasn’t there.

I’m glad to finally be writing something about an actual basketball game being played. Too bad I have to wait another 4 months to do it again!