Hoops camp brings together top prospects

John Marshall's Travis McKie is a rare two-year attendee at the NBPA's Top 100 camp.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Nearly 30 years have passed since a 6-11 kid from Clarkston, Mich., traveled to Oakland, Calif., to play in the McDonald's All-American basketball game. Tim McCormick still recalls the shock of his first practice there.

"That was the first time I'd ever played against anybody that was as tall as me," McCormick said Wednesday at John Paul Jones Arena.

Today's high school stars "are more sophisticated," said McCormick, who works for the NBA Players Association. "They travel across the country by themselves, they see much greater competition. You know, the best player from New York has probably played 20 times against the best player from California."

Many of those elite players are at the University of Virginia this week for the NBPA's Top 100 camp, which opened Wednesday. The camp, started 17 years ago, is about more than hoops. The NBPA holds classroom sessions in which players, most of whom are rising seniors in high school, receive instruction in such areas as life skills, nutrition, stress management and peer pressure.

"They tell you everything about college and [the NBA], stuff you're going to have to go through, and some people fail that," said John Marshall High star Travis McKie, a 6-6 forward. "So you can use that as a stepping stone and be like, 'I shouldn't do that. I should make the right decision.'"

Only eight percent of Top 100 alumni have gone on to play in the NBA, according to McCormick, the camp director. Even those who play at the highest level, he noted, won't do so forever.

"Everybody retires," McCormick said. "Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy, Magic Johnson, they all had to find something else to do, and without education and preparation, [high school stars'] futures are question marks."

McKie, a rising senior who has committed to Wake Forest, attended last summer's Top 100 camp at U.Va.

"Last year I was a little young, so I got kicked around a little bit," McKie said. "It motivated me in the summer to work harder and become better."

For Justin Coleman, the experience is new. A 6-4 swingman who starred at Henrico High last season, Coleman called his Top 100 invitation "a big deal. This is one of my first camps."

Unlike McKie, Coleman is still waiting for a scholarship offer. Coleman, who said he's not sure which high school he'll attend in 2009-10, sees the camp as an opportunity to raise his stock.

College coaches aren't allowed to attend, but recruiting analysts such as Dave Telep of Scout.com will report on who does well in the drills and games.

"I want these guys to know that this is a setting where you're going to be challenged, where the guy who's standing in front of you is as good as or better than you," said Telep, who decided which players would be invited to the Top 100 camp. "It's an opportunity to really test your skills."

McKie, whom Telep ranks No. 55 in the nation's Class of 2010, said: "You always want to be the best. To be the best you have to compete against the best and then beat them."

The camp concludes Sunday. Players were split Wednesday into teams led by such coaches as Sean McAloon (Benedictine) and Kevin Keatts (Hargrave Military Academy postgraduate program). Also providing instruction are 30 current and former NBA players, about a dozen of whom are interested in becoming coaches.

"A learning experience," McKie called the camp. "I love coming here."

Contact Jeff White at (804) 649-6838 or .