By Zach Smart
Thriving during the recent Real Scout Big Apple Jamboree at Brandeis HS this aeekei was 5-foot-11 Jordin Walker.
Buoyed by a sustained relentlessness throughout the game and playing as if a city title was at stake, Walker’s full bore style of play should be an appealing factor to Division-I coaches.
A quick, twitchy, athlete with know-how, Walker has seized the leadership reins on this year’s Cardozo team.
The hard-driving guard plays with an abundance of relentlessness and swagger, aspects notable during his performance at Brandeis HS this past weekend.
Walker scored the ball on the full array of slashes, stepbacks, mid range pull-ups, and was surgical in his knack for creating space.
The largely under recruited guard has a unique draw to his game in his ability to hit tightly contested shots around the rim, those with a high degree of difficulty and amid defenders closing out on him at a furious pace.
Walker possesses considerable burst to him on his forays to the rim as well. With a purity of vision, he’s able to make difficult mid-air passes and locate cutters.
Longtime and legendary Cardozo coach Ron Naclerio has lofty aspirations for his seasoned, veteran guard.
A prospect who, in Naclerio’s eyes, is being sorely overlooked while the NCAA coaches continue to make the transfer portal a priority of utmost importance without wavering.
“Jordin Walker is right now, for what he’s done for us, is the Player of the Year in Queens,” said Naclerio.
“Definitely a First Team All-City. He may be the Player of the Year. I text and call and Instragram message 58 Division-I coaches. Somebody better be smart, because (Walker) has got the whole package. Today wasn’t a good day for him, either. And yet you see what he does. He does whatever it takes to win.”
Naclerio has helped nurture the production rate of 93 Division-I players, four of whom have gone on to author NBA careers.
He undoubtedly envisions Walker as another one of those Division-I players, despite his pin drop quiet status on the recruitment market.
“(Walker) definitely is one of the top guards,” Naclerio opined. “He’s a two-way guard. He does whatever it takes. If it means stopping the guy he’s guarding. If it means facilitating as a point guard, if it means scoring he’s coming down the lane or hitting the three. He does it all.”
Cardozo has several unique pieces flanking Walker, who is the younger brother of former Manhattan guard Aaron Walker, who himself starred at Cardozo under the venerable Naclerio.
Among those is 6-foot-2 senior combo Joseph Ching. Ching set a loud tone with his confrontational defense on Saturday, disrupted the passing lanes and engineered the high-flying attack.
He was able to manufacture points at all three levels and also make his teammates beneficiaries of his presence with his ambidextrous, slick passing arsenal.
JUDGEment Day: John Bowne’s 6-foot-1 gunslinger Chris Judge authored a venerable outside shooting clinic on Saturday, spreading the floor out and keying runs with his deft, deadly shot-making.
Judge remains cloaked in obscurity on the recruiting front the more traditional route.
Conventional wisdom indicates that the prolific scoring guard, who has played possessed as of late, will take the traditional, traveled route in today’s game with a prep or a JUCO year, while Division-I coaches express a desire for transfers and fifth year players.
Judge scorched the nets to the tune of eight three-pointers, banging straight-away 3s and even burying a pair in transition.
Seizing the hot handed stroke and never relinquishing it, the Queens native blitzed WHEELS to the tune of a 38-point game during the second game of the event.
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