TaShawn Mabry Demands Respect
Words. Jason Jordan
Photo. iHigh.com
It’s not that he’s being whiny or ungrateful or even unappreciative.
It doesn’t keep him up at night or affect his daily routine or dominate his thoughts.
It’s just the one thing that, no matter how hard he tries, he just can’t shake…
Rocky Mount (N.C.) High’s TaShawn Mabry, a 6-foot-6 rising senior forward, feels underrated.
“I’m not in the top 150 in most rankings,” says Mabry. “That’s crazy. I definitely feel underrated.”
Though sure, the mere notion is cliché. Truth is every player not ranked No. 1 feels underrated to some degree.
Still, Mabry is different.
His case is legitimate. His points are well-taken. His progressive numbers speak volumes - Freshman year: 22.2 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and two assists. Sophomore year: 24.2 points, nine rebounds, 4.5 blocks and three assists. Junior year: 26.5 points, nine rebounds, 4.6 blocks and three assists. All while playing for a team that rarely, if ever, puts the ball in his hands.
Mabry’s not “kind of” good, he’s “potentially breaking into the HighSchoolHoop top 50” good, which says a lot since our rankings disregard class. Here’s a kid who is 271 points away (Mabry has 1,823 points) from breaking a 35-year old scoring record held by former Rocky Mount High star point guard Phil Ford (2,093 points), who went on to star at North Carolina before being named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1979.
We caught up with Mabry to chat about everything from being underrated to what he’s doing about dropping that label….
HighSchoolHoop: What’s the main reason you feel like you’re underrated?
TaShawn Mabry: I just feel like for years I’ve played all of the top players in my class and outplayed them head-to-head. I’ve done that consistently, and it doesn’t seem to be paying off.
HSH: That must be frustrating.
TM: It is a little frustrating to be honest. At the same time I try not to let it bother me too much. I just use it as motivation and try to stay hungry. That’s what I’m focusing on right now.
HSH: What schools are you considering right now?
TM: North Carolina State, VCU, Clemson, Miami, Akron, Xavier, Maryland, Wake Forest and LSU. Right now, State, Clemson and Miami have offered.
HSH: Do you have any favorites?
TM: Not really… Well, right now I’d probably say State and Miami are my favorites, but I’m pretty open.
HSH: Keeping with the underrated theme, are there other schools you would like to see get involved?
TM: Yeah. I would like more ACC schools to get involved and more SEC and Big East schools too.
HSH: Do you feel like you’ve done all you can do to garner the attention that you want from these schools?
TM: No, I feel like I can do better. That’s all that I’m focused on now with my AAU team (Carolina Cobras). I’m focusing on workouts and getting better for tournaments.
HSH: Are you planning to take official visits this summer?
TM: Yeah. I want to get down to Miami, and I’ll visit State and a few others. I will probably take all five and decide either at the end of the summer or at the beginning of the school year.
HSH: Why did you consider not playing AAU this season?
TM: Honestly, AAU wasn’t as fun as it had been in the past. I thought about it for a while though and decided to play in a few of the bigger tournaments that coaches will be at. I’m looking forward to playing now.
HSH: What tournaments have you played in so far?
TM: I played in the Carolina Challenge and averaged about 14 points per game, and at the LeBron James tournament I averaged about 18 points per game. It was important for me to start strong. Now I’m just focusing on being consistent.
HSH: What’s the next tournament you’ll be participating in?
TM: The Tournament of Champions over Memorial Day weekend.
HSH: The general knock on you has been that you have lapses where you don’t play as hard. Do you agree?
TM: Yeah I do. That is the main thing that I’m working on now. I think it’s because I get tired sometimes in games and I’m not as active, but I think even more than that it’s a mindset thing. I’ve been really concentrating on playing hard all the time. I’ve improved a lot so far because that’s not something I want people to be able to say about me.
HSH: What aspect of your game are you working on?
TM: All of it. I really feel like I’ve improved my jump shot because I’m a lot more confident with it now.
HSH: Who would you really like to matchup against this AAU season?
TM: Probably Harrison Barnes. He’s the one guy I haven’t played against.
I agree he is underrated so the only thing work hard and believe n yourself. yes I have seen him dominate some of those guys that’s rated higher. it is no need to worry about the rankings everyone will see on the next level.
I agree he is underrated. I have seen him dominate guys rated higher than him. I want worry about rankings everyone will see at the next level
I think rankings are overrated anyway, but seeing tashawn play, i have seen any of the top guys play the way he does. Tashawn has went head to head with the top 10 small forwards in the country, and by far denfinetly out played them all, what does the kid has to do.
what are the requirements for a person to be rank anway, you guys doing the rankings, can’t even see all the player anyway, so tell me how do you guys do it. you have a player in the top 10 and he didn’t even play aau last summer and he is still ranked in the top 10, did you go on his high school information, if that’s the case then tashawn high school number where better, I don’t know, you writers tell me.
JJ always make the words jump off the page. I can’t stop reading once I start. JJ you have always had a way with words and keep up the great job. Send me more articles.
Great article JJ…I TRULY THINK THAT U R ONE OF THE GREAT YOUNG SPORTS WRITERS WE HAVE TODAY! I have seen tayshawn play about 45-50times over the past 3years, i can honestly say that he’s gotten better in every facet of his game each year.
As he says it in the article…that one thing that he’s lacking is that consistant effort on the defensive end of the floor. He also needs to b able to play through bad starts…i think that both of those two things should be his biggest improvements over this aau summer circuit, and his senior season at RMHS. Keep using that “underated” fire as motivation, D.Wade did it, so did Agent “zero”, Caron Butler……u get the point!
Good luck.
Even scout.com has seen his improvments. Over the last few months, his grade has jumped from 70-92. He was like the #60-70th rnk SF, and now he’s 24.
I also still don’t agree with that, but that will also change with his ability to consistantly guard his position, the key is attention to detail and technique…,outside of overall effort of course.
I was sitting with a few of my friends friday night a the Dean dome and tashawn was playing against three players that NC State are recurting and tashawn out played them all. The question still remains, who is responsble for the rankings and what does he have to do. The kid if you ask him about the rankings, he would tell you, thats up to the writer. I personally think he should be in the top 10 small fowards in the country. Lets see what dave telep and rivals will do now, probably nothing,they never do. But will take a player who didn’t even play aau ball last summer, and he is still in the top 10, what did you do dave take his high school numbers.
[...] Mabry (2010), SF, Carolina Cobras – Remember when we said “Mabry’s not ‘kind of’ good, he’s ‘potentially breaking into the HighSchoolHoop top 50… in a recent post? We’ve been validated. Mabry dropped 31 points and 10 rebounds in a win over [...]
Just by looking at the numbers, this kid looks ridiculous, I don’t understand how he isn’t on every top 150 board right now, I hope he lands in the acc playing for my yellow jackets in the ATL
[...] It was around this time last month that Rocky Mount (N.C.) High’s TaShawn Mabry, a 6-6 rising senior forward, told HighSchoolHoop about how nearly every national recruiting service was sleeping on him. (Read “TaShawn Mabry Demands Respect”) [...]
TaShawn Mabry was involved in a gang related shooting over Christmas. During the incident he held a gun to a girl’s head and threatened her. The story has been covered up by his high school coach. His coach lied to the University of Miami and told them TaShawan was sick and would not be playing in the Christmas tournament when in fact was told not to play for the safety of the tournament. All schools should be aware!