Published: 10:08 AM, Tue Apr 20, 2010
Locals face ACC seniors on Barnstorming Tour
North Carolina's Deon Thompson can score inside all he wants. Wake Forest's Ishmael Smith has a free path to the basket. But Duke's Jon Scheyer better be ready to play at this year's Fayetteville Barnstorming Tour stop.
That was the message from the area high school basketball players who will comprise the Fayetteville All-Stars. They don't care if any of the outgoing ACC stars put on a show at their expense, but they don't want the Blue Devils' point guard going off in the exhibition game at 7:30 tonight in Terry Sanford's gym.
"I'm going to shut him down," said Bulldogs guard Kelvin Okons, one of the few players who pegged Duke as one of his favorite teams. "He's seen good defense before, but he's never seen Terry Sanford defense. And I've been studying his tape."
For the second year in a row, locals will get to measure their skills against members of college basketball's national championship team. Along with Scheyer, Duke will send center Brian Zoubek and forward Lance Thomas.
They shouldn't expect the warm welcome North Carolina's players received last year after their title run. The game was even moved to Crown Arena to accommodate the extra thousands of fans who turned out to watch Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green and the other UNC stars play.
Greg Paulus was the lone Duke representative in that contest, and Tar Heels fans let their rivalry-fueled hatred show every time he touched the ball. Westover guard Jason Campbell, a lifelong UNC fan, said he'll make sure the Duke players know where his loyalties lie.
"I'm going to clap if (Marcus) Ginyard and Thompson do something," Campbell said.
Can Scheyer dunk?
Fifteen players from six area high schools will participate in the event. Participants must be graduating seniors who will not be playing somewhere on a college scholarship next season. They also cannot be playing a spring sport.
The exhibition opportunity already has plenty of trash talk circulating. Campbell said his Wolverines teammates have been teasing him that Scheyer will dunk on him. But the 6-foot Westover guard doesn't recall ever seeing the Duke sharpshooter throw one down.
"He's (6-foot-5), so I assume he can get up," Campbell said. "If he can't dunk, yeah, that would be pretty embarrassing."
The event will include slam-dunk and 3-point contests along with autograph sessions. Tickets are limited, with general admission available for $15. VIP tickets, which include courtside seats and a postgame pizza party with the players, are $50. Students with valid Cumberland County Schools identification can get in for $10.
While the game is about the ACC players entertaining the crowd, the local participants view this as one last chance to play together. They might have gone to different high schools, but many have known each other since middle school and play AAU ball together in the summer.
"Even though it's going to be an exhibition, you always want to be challenged," said Trinity Christian guard Mario Crawford, another lifelong UNC fan. "We're going to play hard, especially in a game like this, but not too much. We just want to have fun."
Staff writer Paul Shugar can be reached at shugarp@fayobserver.com or 486-3513.