Century will be TALL; JM has hope

The Rochester Century boys basketball team has an opportunity to be stunningly tall next season, and skilled, too.

There are two towering sophomores on that team who saw minutes in Century’s quarterfinal playoff win over John Marshall on Wednesday night. One is 6-foot-8 Carter Evans, who has gotten increasing playing time as the season has progressed and shows obvious skills around the basket.

The other is the younger brother of current Century 6-foot-5 junior star Ater Manyang. The younger brother, Akolda Manyang, is also a sophomore and goes 6-10 with extremely long arms. Stretch those arms out and he’s already got the wingspan of a 7-footer, plus he’s no skinny kid. Watch the younger Manyang lope effortlessly up and down the court, and you see obvious potential here, though his lateral quickness still has a ways to go.

Now, projecting to next season and expected continued growth from these two sophomores, and it’s easy to imagine a Century starting front line that goes 6-11, 6-9, 6-5, with quick and powerful 6-3 Alvin Franklin also figuring into that starting mix.

Under that scenario, Ater Manyang would shift over to shooting guard (my idea; I have no idea what Century coach Joe Ohm thinks about this). Ater has the skills and speed to play on the perimeter right now.

If these guys can stick together, next year’s Century team will go down as one of the tallest in Rochester history. But maybe not THE tallest. Back in 2001-02, John Marshall started 7-foot Mike Kinsella and 6-10 Longar Longar, with a couple of 6-5 guys also in the mix. Kinsella and Longar both went on to play at major Division I programs.

Ater and Akolda Manyang are Longar’s cousins.

• John Marshall went through an awful season in terms of wins and losses. The Rockets finished just 1-22.

However, JM made serious progress from a team that began the season routinely losing by 30 and 40 points.

That progress showed up in February. That’s when JM lost by just two points to Century, and stayed reasonably close against two more of the top teams in the Big Nine Conference, Winona and Mankato East.

JM still has an obvious ways to go, as was shown in Wednesday’s lopsided playoff loss to Century. But there is some promise for next year, with a number of young players flashing ability this season, led by sophomore point guard John Mattison, a couple of shooters in juniors Christian Hermansen and Riley Amy, a decent ballhanlder in junior Tony Webster, and a budding 6-5 sophomore in Michael Bosshart.

Add to that that JM has a terrific freshman team, led by point guard Deonte Moore and 6-6 center Ngor Barnaba, and there’s some light at the end of JM’s tunnel.

— Pat Ruff