Las Vegas Day One: New Orleans D-1 Ambassadors Elite

With New Orleans D-1 Ambassadors Elite Head Coach Greg Holmes back in the Big Easy along with 2014 6'8" Craig Victor (#3 Nationally) and 2011 and 6'6" unsigned senior Antoine Tobias who could not make their flight you might think that the D-1 Ambassadors might be at a severe disadvantage as they rolled into Sin City.  Throw in the fact that 4 of their key players are also 2012 guys and you'd think that the chips were really stacked against them.

Not so.  With six other players at 6'7" and above they had plenty of firepower and the 2012 guys play like they're old hands.

New Orleans D-1 Ambassadors 79  Poly Nation (CA) 50

With 17 points, 12 rebounds & 5 blocks Top 10 National Player 6'7" Ricardo Gathers of Riverside, LA dominated the California team.  The word "beast" can be overused at times, but not when it is applied to this 16 year old man-child in the Class of 2012.

2012 Ricardo Gathers

2011 P 6'7" Trevante Drye was also busy adding 18 points, 8 rebounds & 6 assists.  Drye has added range to his face up game this year and continues to grow.  He's got a bullseye on his chest as his Pops, Louis Earl played for LSU and his uncle Lester Earl a former McDonald's All American who also played for LSU & Kansas are legends back home in Baton Rouge.  None of this bothers the hard working Drye who also sports a 4.2 GPA.

Which Tre Drye do you prefer?  This year's version with the New Orleans D-1 Ambassadors (below left) , or last year's version in black and orange as he suited up with the Texas D-1 Ambassadors (below right).

2011 PG Zavieral Jackson of New Orleans St. Thomas Aquinas is a jet.  He added 10 points, 5 assists and a monster reverse jam.

New Orleans D-1 Ambassadors 73  Compton Magic Red 71

With the game tied at 71, 6'7" Ricardo Gathers broke the press with a behind the back dribble and then floated an ally to Trevante Drye for the oop and the win against a sharpshooting Compton Magic squad.   2011 W 6'10" Jernard Jarrou had 14 points and 8 rebounds, following up an 11 point effort in the opener against Poly Nation.  Jarrou is wafer thin but extremely agile and skillled. He's grown from 6'5" to 6'10" and is learning to be a big man.  Look for him to develop into something special.

Trevante Drye had 22 points and 6 rebounds, while Gathers had 8 points and 10 boards.  Gathers has now dunked the ball 4 different times with such force it looks like the rim is going to come down.  He's scary powerful.

2011 W/P 6'10" Jernard Jarrou of New Orleans McDonough

Lots more to come on the New Orleans players in tomorrow's report.