Recruit Roundup: Feb. 25

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Steven Tydings

In this week’s Recruit Roundup, we have updates on the end of the season for Penn’s men’s basketball recruits Tony Bagtas, Dave Winfield Jr., Matt Howard and Dylan Jones. All four players’ high school careers came to a close this past week.

6’0 Guard Tony Bagtas: Westlake High School (Ga.) began its state tournament on Feb. 20 with an 81-76 victory over Rockdale County. With the Lions down 60-59 heading into the final quarter, Bagtas scored seven of his 18 points to lead Westlake’s comeback. But the Lions’ run in states came to a sudden end on Feb. 23, as Westlake lost to Tift County, 100-83. The Lions gave up an early 15-3 run and couldn’t recover from the early hole. Bagtas had 34 points to lead all scorers, which included Mr. Georgia Basketball and Tift County shooting guard Brannen Greene.

6’9 Center Dave Winfield Jr.: Harvard-Westlake High School’s season came to a close in the third round of the California Southern Section Division 4AA playoffs as the team lost 78-58 on Feb. 19 to Bishop Montgomery High School. Winfield finished the year with a solid showing, putting up six points on 3-for-5 shooting while grabbing six rebounds. The senior ended the season having averaged 5.9 points and 4.3 boards per game.

6’4 Guard Matt Howard: A.C Flora High School’s run in the South Carolina Class AAA upper-state basketball playoffs ended in the semifinals, as the Falcons lost 54-50 to Daniel High School on Feb. 19. Flora was winning after three quarters, but Daniel’s free throw shooting helped it pull away in the end. Howard led Flora with 16 points in the final game of his high school career.

6’7 Forward Dylan Jones: Jones and the Village School (Texas) finished the season with another blowout victory over a familiar foe. The squad faced off against Christian Home School Sports Ministries, a team the Vikings defeated by 36 on Feb. 6. In this meeting, Jones led all scorers with 24 points as the Vikings won handily, 101-57. The game was over early on, as the Village School led 31-9 after only one quarte

Recruit Roundup: Feb. 11

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Steven Tydings

Matt Howard scored a game-high 21 points Tuesday to lead A.C. Flora to a win in its regular-season finale. (Courtesy of the Columbia Star/Careese Robinson)

In this week’s Recruit Roundup, we have updates on Penn men’s basketball recruits Tony Bagtas, Matt Howard, Dave Winfield Jr. and Dylan Jones as each player’s high school nears the end of its regular season before playoffs begin in the coming weeks.

5-foot-11 Guard Tony Bagtas: Bagtas dominated on senior night for Westlake High School (Ga.), scoring 32 points to lead Westlake to a 71-53 victory on Feb. 8 over nearby Langston Hughes High School. Westlake moved to 21-4, including 9-1 in its region, as it heads into the regional tournament next week. After the game, Bagtas’ coach, Darron Rogers, had nothing but good things to say about the senior guard.

“Tony’s a four-year starter for us at point guard, and he’s our catalyst,” Rogers told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He can do it all. He’s going to Penn so you know he’s intelligent and has basketball smarts. He can score the basketball, but tonight I was glad to see him show his toughness, too. He went to the hole and made some tough baskets tonight.”

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Recruit Roundup: Feb. 5

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Steven Tydings

In this week’s Recruit Roundup, we have updates on Penn’s men’s basketball recruits Matt Howard, Tony Bagtas, Dave Winfield Jr., Dylan Jones and Preston Troutt.

6-foot-4 guard Matt Howard: A.C. Flora High School (S.C.) played two games within their region (Region 4-3A) and won both this week. On Jan. 29, the senior hit two three pointers in the first five minutes of play and helped lead A.C. Flora to a nine-point victory over nearby Westwood High School, 51-42. He led the team with 16 points.

On Feb. 1, Howard finished with a game-high 23 points to help A.C. Flora defeat Lower Richland. Lower Richland is in first place in the region and had previously defeated A.C. Flora. A.C. Flora is now just one game behind Lower Richland and is assured of a spot in the postseason, as Flora has now clinched second place in Region 4-3A.

6-foot-0 guard Tony Bagtas: Bagtas, a senior at Westlake High School in Atlanta, Ga., has played well this season, with Westlake sporting a 20-4 record on the season. In back-to-back games a week and a half ago, Bagtas helped lead Westlake to two victories.

On Jan. 25, Bagtas had 29 points, 11 assists and two steals, which assisted Westlake in avenging one of its early season losses against Douglas County. The following day, Jan. 26, Bagtas scored 21 points to go with 9 assists and three steals, as Westlake defeated Tri-Cities High School.

Overall, Westlake has won 10 straight games, with nine of the 10 victories coming by double-digits.

6-foot-9 center Dave Winfield Jr.: Harvard-Westlake (Calif.) had three games last week and went 1-2 in the three contests. On Jan. 28, Winfield scored two points and had one rebound in a loss to Chaminade High School. Winfield followed that up with a seven point, five rebound performance during a victory over Alemany High School on Jan. 30.

On Feb. 1, Winfield had a solid outing with eight points and four rebounds in a loss against St. Francis. Winfield went 2-for-2 from the field while hitting all four of his free throw attempts.

6-foot-8 forward Dylan Jones: There was a death at the Village School (Texas) this past week and all games were canceled as a result. Their next scheduled game is Wednesday.

5-foot-11 guard Preston Troutt: The Trinity Christian (Texas) senior still has not played since mid-December due to injury and it is unclear when he will return.

M. Hoops picks up its third commit

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Megan Soisson

Jerome Allen and the rest of the Penn men's basketball team got a great commitment Wednesday night in Matt Howard. The shooting guard from Columbia, S.C. announced his decision on Twitter Wednesday evening:

He chose Penn over Harvard, Stanford and Virginia Tech. He visited Penn on the weekend of Oct. 5 and Harvard the weekend after.

ESPN scouted him as a 67 and said the 6-foot-4, 185-pounder listed him as the No. 6 recruit in the state and the No. 82 shooting guard in the country. Howard joins Tony Bagtas and Dave Winfield, Jr. in what will be Penn's Class of 2017.

Penn hoops picks up its first commit

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Megan Soisson

On the same day Penn basketball announced its captains (Miles Cartwright, Fran Dougherty and Dau Jok), FOX Sports's Josh Gershon is reporting that the men's basketball team picked up its first commit of the 2013 class in center Dave Winfield II.

The 6-foot-9, 260-pound center from southern California is a student at Harvard-Westlake in North Hollywood. His father, Dave Winfield, is a hall-of-fame baseball outfielder who played in the MLB for 23 seasons. He went to the All-Stars 12 straight times from 1977-1988 as a San Diego Padre and New York Yankee.

Here's a quick 30-minute YouTube clip of Winfield at Harvard-Westlake (#35). Link if video embed doesn't work.

This one is 51 minutes if you have more time —