Metro League Tuesday: If There Was Hype About Anrio Adams, You Could Believe It

Doing my extensive preparation for Metro League Tuesday, I noted that Franklin sophomore Anrio "Rio" Adams gets little love from the national scouting services. Scout.com calls Adams a one-star recruit, and Rivals doesn't rate him at all. I've seen Adams play a couple of times, and I remember a fast, intense, long-armed, tall guard with good skills. A superstar in the making. Was I missing something?

No. I was not. Adams was stellar in Franklin's 87-59 victory at Ingraham High. He was unstoppable in the open court on offense. He showed a deft passing touch, sometimes giving up a shot to find open teammates. And he displayed his athleticism, rising from practically a dead stop to thrown down a dunk.

And then there was his defense. Long-armed and explosive, he's a nightmare for opposing guards. And he takes instruction well. Before one Ingraham inbounds pass, Franklin coach Jason Kerr yelled to Adams, who was defending the inbounder. "C'mon, Rio, deflect a pass." Rio did just that, leading to a Franklin steal and basket. Anrio Adams is legit, and the scouting services need to get their acts together.

I'd expected a matchup between Adams and Ingraham's leading scorer, Devonte Spellman. But Spellman played sparingly. Perhaps he was in foul trouble. Or perhaps he had upset his head coach, Jeff Menday, who was upset for most of the game. Menday, a D1 head coach in the mid-90s, and more recently coach at Shoreline Community College, barked out instructions in a husky voice that resonated gym-wide.

"Malik! Stay down!" he yelled at 6'4" sophomore Malik Barnes.

"You gotta go in there harder than that," he yelled at one player after a passive drive. "That's soft!"

When the referees missed an obvious Franklin travel, Menday fired his pen on the court in frustration, then had to go retrieve it mid-play.

This is not to single out Menday for yelling. I've never seen a successful high school coach that didn't yell at his players. I'll never forget Franklin's Jason Kerr screaming "GET OFF MY COURT!" at his players after a poor defensive effort at Ballard.

Kerr was a little more relaxed in this game. After one time out, he asked the refs to check to see if his team had one second left on the shot clock. "Could you verify that? I don't really care either way." Franklin had jumped out to a healthy lead at this point.

Kerr's undersized, inexperienced Quakers can be beaten if you play a half-court game (as Lakeside did in a titanic upset) but Menday's Rams tried to run. When you miss a bucket in transition and a 6'4" speedster with skills like Rio Adams is coming the other way, you are going to start to look bad.

Franklin had 49 points at halftime, a three-point-per-minute pace. To put it in perspective, if it were a 48-minute NBA game, they'd be on pace to score 150. (Defending 4A champs Federal Way scored 137 in a win over Kentlake last night--which would work out to 205 points in an NBA game.)

One Ingraham player I would like to single out is 5'6" senior guard Joshua Chessin-Yudin. Chessin-Yudin didn't play until the game was already decided, and when he came on the court I admit to being a little scared for him. Even more so when he had to guard Adams, who had an eight-inch height advantage, not to mention a pretty substantial athleticism advantage. But Chessin-Yudin didn't play timid. On offense, he fired a terrific pass to a teammate which ended up glancing off the guy's hands and out of bounds.

"Great pass," I said.

"No it wasn't," said a companion, "it was a turnover."

"The guy didn't cut!" said a third friend. "You don't want to play with me. If you don't cut, I'll call you on it."

He was right--Chessin-Yutin had made a perfect pass, his teammate should have been cutting to the hoop. Basic basketball, but the turnover goes to the guard.

Too bad Chessin-Yudin isn't at Seattle Academy or Northwest School, his lack of height wouldn't be as much of an issue there. He looks like he actually knows a little bit about how to run a half-court offense. That skill is not in demand under his current coach, though, who prefers an up-tempo style.

Franklin snapped a five-game losing streak (four losses in a holiday tournament) and take a 2.5 game lead in the Metro 3A Valley Division.

Next Tuesday we'll be at O'Dea for their all-Catholic-school battle against Blanchet.

The remaining Metro League Tuesday schedule:

• 1/12 TUES Blanchet @ O'Dea
• 1/19 TUES Bothell @ Garfield
• 1/26 TUES Flex Schedule
• 2/2 TUES Roosevelt @ Garfield