Maurice Walker

Maurice Walker is emerging on the scene this summer as an intriguing big man in the class of 2010. Maurice’s is gaining the attention of several college programs with his continued hard work. He stands in at a legit 6’10 and a trimmed down 255 pounds, and offers good hands and skills around the basket.

This summer Maurice has participated in several events with his Team Takeover Canada AAU Team. Maurice has faired well recently in Cincinnati and West Virginia with several top coaches present. The rest of his summer schedule will consist of Las Vegas this week and Portland, Oregon for the Nike Global Games. Constantly being active has done wonders for Maurice this spring and summer with shaping his body and becoming more explosive, “I’ve been busy, just getting back from West Virginia, but once things wind down, I’ll be working out everyday.”

Maurice, a very bright young man with great grades throughout High School, will attend Brewster Academy this coming fall. Often a stop for those looking to improve in the classroom, for Maurice it will give him a head start on education, while focusing on basketball. “I’m going to get my body ready and prepare myself.” From a basketball standpoint, Maurice feels he needs to work on, “My athleticism, explosiveness, and I don’t know if I can work on it with drills, but my consistency.” Maurice did point his strength’s currently to be, “My dominance in the key and I think I’m a pretty good passer, too.” At times in High School basketball in even more so in AAU settings, it can be difficult for big men to receive the ball and have as much of an impact as guards do. When asked, Is that frustrating at all, Maurice’s response was, “Yeah, sometimes. But I try to not let it bother me. I can impact other ways than scoring. Sometimes the game is up and down and that’s just how it is.” Maurice’s eagerness to improve and grow on and off the court coupled with that type of selflessness makes him all the more intriguing to college programs.

According to Maurice the school list he has now consists of, “Georgetown, Texas A&M, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Memphis, Kentucky, Nebraska, DePaul, Buffalo and Purdue.”

Contrary to recent reports, Maurice’s mother did not attend Georgetown University. “A quote from Maurice was taken out of context. But Georgetown is my favorite, just not where I went to school,” Mrs. Walker said with a laugh. Coach John Thompson III has been in contact with the family and Maurice said he noticed JTIII watching him in Cincinnati and West Virginia.

Mrs. Walker does not mind if Maurice chooses to play far away from home, “I’m fine with wherever Maurice chooses. But we are talking about the academic record of the school. Your dream is to play professionally, but anything can happen and you have to have an education to fall back on. At some places athletes just squeak by to graduate or may not even graduate. We don’t want that. It’s important he grows as a better person all around.” Mrs. Walker attended York University and is an educator herself currently.

Maurice and his mother said he will take a visit to Georgetown in August, and Pittsburgh just this past week was attempting to schedule a visit. From the academic side, Maurice is not sure yet as to what he would like study in college, something they can look into while on their visits. Maurice did point out that he does prefer to play in the Big East. Georgetown, as it’s well known has had a tremendous run over the past 25 years of developing big man. From Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Michael Sweetney, Roy Hibbert and to current big man Greg Monroe. Pitt has had some success under Jamie Dixon recently putting both Aaron Gray and DeJuan Blair into the NBA as well. Maurice said, “For sure.” When asked about if that is part of his thought process in looking at schools.

Pairing with Will Barton this coming season should make Brewster an exciting team to watch, and Maurice is sure to continue to achieve on and off the floor at the New Hampshire School.

My guess is, Maurice can and will succeed in any venue he chooses.