City Hoops

The metoric rise of Isaiah Sykes is unparalled, to say the least. Sykes spent his freshman and sophomores putting up his numbers for Detroit Chadsey, which meant that unless you were a city hoops junkie or astute follower of the Hurricanes (his AAU team for which he ran all of once last summer), you didn’t see much of Sykes actually playing basketball.

Outside of Detroit and inner-circle college coaches, Sykes was hardly a household name. Then, after a summer transfer to Finney, Rivals.com’s Jerry Meyer put out an article where Finney coach Ray Reeves compared his new stud to Magic Johnson, called him a “five-position player” and said “he’s the best player we’ve had in the state in a long time.” Seriously. You can read the article here yourself if you’d like.

This story came out during late October, which meant that Sykes had blown up during a month with no AAU, no team camps, no team practices … after no organized basketball or anything of the sort. Perhaps an open gym, a phone call (or ten) from his coach or a run at St. Cecilia’s.

Sounds like someone hunting for their next meal ticket.

Rivals, which didn’t even have Sykes in its database prior to the article, began touting him as a potential 5-star recruit. Scout added him as well, said that Tom Izzo and Tony Jones (Tennessee) and Cornell Mann (Dayton) were in hot pursuit, and bam: the hype machine was in full swing.

It hasn’t stopped. Preseason, Sykes vaulted into the top five Michigan players regardless of class from people who simply hadn’t seen him play. Now, he’s touted as the next big thing out of Detroit.

Sykes does sport an impressive list of schools, but this recruitment is clearly based on potential rather than production. From someone that has seen a Chadsey game and has seen Sykes on the court, he fits the modern PSL stereotype: tough, athletic, but will need to significantly improve his shooting and handles to impact a college team. Maybe he’s made quantum leaps since then focusing on individual skill development, something our current grassroots basketball landscape wholeheartedly fosters (please catch that sarcasam). 

Unfortunately, if fans want to see if Sykes is more Manny Harris than Kavon Rose, they won’t be able to until mid-Janaury, because Sykes is currently ineligible. By that time, he might be a six-star recruit and be likened to Magic Johnson (wait, that already happened).

In his absence, Finney, a team that has also vaulted into the top 10 of some rankings despite not returning a single starter, was smacked around by our No. 6 Southeastern, 57-43. The quote from The Detroit News was that they were “outworked and outhustled,” and obviously were outplayed.

But they were missing their best player, which will get talked up as an excuse, because that - talk – has been happening a lot around the Finney camp these days.