News and Articles

Still In The Game

For a dollar or two (back then), you could watch compelling, intense, athletic basketball from just an arm’s length away, played by young men not much older than I was but whose skills were worlds beyond my own. In terms of value for your entertainment dollar, I still believe you can’t beat a good high school basketball game.

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Tribute to My Father

Father’s Day—June 16, 2016 This will be my first Father’s Day without my father. He passed away on April 2. I think about him every day, but the memories of him are especially strong on

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Capital of Basketball events in 2020

Look for events on Facebook at the John McNamara’s author page here. This Facebook page will be updated more regularly than this blog. Order The Capital of Basketball here, or at Amazon here. January 7,

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Grant Hill: Reston’s Hometown Hero

More than a quarter-century later, with a distinguished professional career behind him and unimaginable riches to his name, Hill is an A-List basketball celebrity by any measure. But his days at South Lakes still represent something special to him. That’s why he came back for the ceremony; that’s also why he hosted a private question-and-answer session with the current varsity players afterward. To the people of Reston and the community at South Lakes, Grant Hill is a hometown hero – in every sense of the word.

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Turnovers a big problem for Terrapins

Much of the talk after University of Maryland’s 80-65 victory Saturday over New Mexico centered on the Terrapins’ ability to bounce back from a tough loss. “I’m really proud of how my team responded,” Maryland head coach Mark

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Sid Catlett, courtesy of DeMatha High School, in about 1965

Memories of ex-DeMatha star Sid Catlett

Catlett was a key figure in DeMatha’s biggest win ever, its upset of Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Power Memorial in 1965. That DeMatha victory ended the New York City school’s 71-game winning streak in front of 12,500 at the University of Maryland’s Cole Field House.

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Former local stars shuffle at Maryland

For a long time, it seemed like local basketball fixture Kevin Broadus (Blair/Dunbar) might wind up working for every local college basketball program but Maryland.   Over the year, he embarked on a tour of the area’s

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Austin Carr headshot

50 years ago Carr drives Mackin over DeMatha

But 50 years ago this week, Mackin was finally able to knock DeMatha from the top of the league standings and the top of the local high school basketball rankings.
In the first week of March in 1967, Mackin had at least two of the three factors in their favor. Star guard Autin Carr scored 21 points (including the 2,000th of his pep career) as Mackin downed DeMatha, 54-48, on the night of March 3, 1967.

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Brey has Irish Eyes Smiling

Don’t look now, but Mike Brey’s Notre Dame basketball team sits atop what may be the best conference in college basketball. Nobody should be surprised by this. It’s the sort of thing the former DeMatha

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Major milestone for Magruder coach

Dan Harwood quietly just keeps adding to his resume.harwood

The longtime Magruder High School basketball coach passed another milestone last week when he won his 500th career game. Outside of Derwood (MD), his accomplishment drew little attention.

But it bears noting, even if most in the local prep basketball world remain focused on the schools in the WCAC.

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Make 2017 a Banner Year for Adrian Branch

In the early 1980s, Adrian Branch helped Driesell accumulate 82 victories from 1981-85, a healthy chunk of the 348 wins Driesell amassed during his 17 years in College Park.
He’s the only 2,000-point scorer in school history whose jersey number doesn’t hang from the ceiling.

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DeMatha’s Fultz a fabulous freshman

One of the few certainties in this still-young season is this: Upper Marlboro native and DeMatha grad Markelle Fultz is playing as well as any freshman in the country. Through the first five games of his college career at the University of Washington, Fultz is averaging 25.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game.

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Maryland gets a break from schedule-makers

Maryland’s basketball team, coming off back-to-back 27-win seasons for the first time in school history, faces a lot of questions entering the 2016-17 season. Starters Jake Layman, Rasheed Sulaimon, Robert Carter and Diamond Stone have

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Gene Doan, a basketball architect

When Gene Doane was a young man, he thought he might become an architect or an engineer.

“I always had an interest in designing things,” he once said.

Ultimately, he was diverted from such pursuits. Basketball was in his blood, so instead he became a coach – a builder of successful high school basketball programs, an architect of winning teams.

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Jo Jo and Hawkeye: a staged match up for the ages

Clearly, the two of them were playing on a different level – and neither was unduly selfish or reckless during their 32-minute showcase. Whitney connected on 17 of 25 shots grabbed 14 rebounds and even found time to hand out four assists. Sort of makes you wonder what the rest of the Stags were doing that night.

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Mixed bag for Maryland transfers

The Internet is now Tweeting a different tune about Md Coach Mark Turgeon; but what about those players who left the program that summer and opted for the court not taken? Unable to find anything on-line or anywhere else on this, this is for Maryland fans who are interested to know whatever became of Charles Mitchell, Seth Allen, Nick Faust, Rody Peters, Shaquille Cleare and Trayvon Reed.

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Markelle Fultz

Everyone knows Markelle Fultz now

Last Friday, Fultz announced that he was forsaking all of the big-name schools to play at the University of Washington – a decision that must have led to a lot of head-scratching.

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David Robinson hook shot at the Naval Academy

Happy Birthday to “The Admiral”

Happy 50th birthday to the greatest professional basketball player ever to come out of Northern Virginia – Osbourne Park’s David Robinson. The number 50 looms large in Robinson’s career – he wore that number on his

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Some Bowie flavor to NCAA Tournament

Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant and Duke’s Quinn Cook grew up playing basketball together in Bowie, Md. and now will try to take their respective teams on deep NCAA Tournament runs. For as long as they

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Capital of Basketball

John McNamara is the author of the Capital of Basketball, a work in progress.  He has also written Cole Classics! Maryland Basketball’s Leading Men and Moments, and University of Maryland Football Vault. He has been

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