With his future coach – Arizona’s Sean Miller – observing from the stands, St. Francis senior point guard Kobi Simmons showed he still has more left to do for his current team and coach.
The McDonald's All-American made steals, scrambled for loose balls and scored 26 points – a couple of which came by way of his signature, poster-worthy dunks to thrill the crowd – in leading the Knights (21-7), the No. 2 seed in the Class A private school playoffs, to an easy 95-43 first round win over 15th seeded Savannah Christian (14-9)
While St. Francis, the two-time private school champions, nearly cracked 100 on the score board, the key to the win was defense and rebounding, two elements of the game that have been a focal point since mid season, according to head coach Drew Catlett.
“We stress defense and rebounding all the time, but we had games where we were not consistent with our defensive effort,” Catlett said after the win. “And we talked about the fact that if we want to reach all of our goals – and that was to win our side of the region in the regular season, which we did, then win the region tournament, which we did, and go for a third state championship – we were going to have to be more consistent in our defense and rebounding.”
The Knights wasted no time in putting those thoughts into practice as they limited Savannah Christian to zero second-chance baskets in building a 27-10 lead after one quarter.
The Raiders would get no closer than that 17-point margin in the blowout loss. It was the last high school basketball game for Demetris Robertson, recognized as the top unsigned football recruit in the nation. The receiver/defensive back, who is still mulling over offers from Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame and Stanford, led Savannah Christian with 20 points.
“It’s all about this team and leaving everything out there on the floor for Coach Cat,” said Simmons, who has played for a state title in each of his three seasons at St. Francis. He was a starter as a freshman when his young team lost in the finals to Greenforest Christian. Both Catlett and Simmons, who has now won 99 games in four seasons at the Alpharetta school, agree that he has grown more than just physically since then.
“His maturity and his leadership have grown so much since he’s been here,” Catlett said. “He’s handled the tough stretches we’ve had and he’s been mature in handling situations where we as his coaches have gotten on him about how he can improve. He’s just been tremendous for us. I can’t say enough about him.”
“I think I’ve grown tremendously as a leader, on and off the court,” said Simmons, who led the cheering section from the bench in the fourth quarter as every player on St. Francis’ roster saw significant time on the floor. “When those guys are in there, it’s like the first quarter to them, so we want to make sure we’re cheering them on just like it’s the first quarter.”
This season Simmons has been the clear leader of a young team that lost a tremendous amount of talent to graduation after last season. Simmons’ former backcourt mate, Malik Beasley, is now the leading scorer as a freshman for Florida State (16 points per game), while forward Kaiser Gates averages more than 10 minutes a game at Xavier, a team many experts think may be one of the top four seeds in the NCAA tournament next month.
Still, Simmons said he has not had to alter his game at all. His supporting cast, led by senior guard Anthony Showell, a transfer from Duluth, has been solid. Showell – who is getting looks from mid-major college programs like Furman, Wofford, and George Mason, but is still looking for his first college offer – matched Simmons with a game-high 26 points.
“I don’t feel like I’ve had to adjust my game any, it’s just that now I have to be the leader of the team,” Simmons said. “I’m still playing as hard as I can, still trying to do whatever I can to help us win.”
Even without stars like Gates and Beasley, Simmons believes this team can win its third consecutive state title.
“Most definitely we can,” Simmons said. “We have to stay focused, keep playing good defense and keep playing as a team. If we do that, we’ll be there.”
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