McMillian Propels All-Ohio to 7th Place Finish

Paul McMillian IV-2022 PG Cincinnati

By the time their run ended at the U-10 AAU Nationals in Cocoa Beach, Florida earlier this week, John Mobley’s 5^th grade All-Ohio Red squad  had secured a 7^th place finish. Mobley’s squad rolled though pool play with a 4-0 record, and was into the second round of bracket play before falling to the New Your Gouaches in a close one. A second set back in as many games to Marylands Finest landed then in the 7^th/8^th place game, where All-Ohio would right the ship with an easy win and a top ten finish.  It should come as no supervise that All-Ohio is one of the elite teams in the country in the class of 2022, as at least 6 of the players listed on their roster are currently ranked in our 2022 Watch List.

By most accounts, the central Ohio based team was powered by the outstanding play of Cincinnati’s Paul McMillan IV (5’4/PG/Cincinnati/2022), who averaged roughly 21 points over the course of the week long tournament. As evidence of his production, in at least 2 games, McMillan dropped 30 plus points on the opposing team, including three 20 plus point games.  McMillian was more than just a scorer, as he rebounded and dropped dimes at a high rate. Coach Mobley is apparently a big fan, as he raved about McMillan’s game. “They [opposing teams] could not guard him at all,” said Mobley. “The speed of his game; he was aggressive and he’s just mentally tougher since he has been playing up a grade for several years,” continued Mobley. Mobley also added that during the game against Marylands Finest, the defending national champions, “he just took over. “Easily, he [McMillian] was one of the top 5 players there [AAU Nationals].  He separated himself from a lot of guys in the class,” Mobley said. 

Holden, Keene, Francis, Johnson, Jones & Mobley

Also on their games in Cocoa Beach were Sean Jones (4’9/PG/Columbus/2022) and Dior Connors (5’6/WF/Columbus/2022), both of whom averaged about 10 points.  You have to add John Mobley Jr. (just a 3^rd grader) to the list of standouts as evidenced by the fact that he went for 18 points during a pool game.  In terms of McMillan’s national reputation, if his name does not appear in top 100 national rankings at the end of the season, somebody is not doing their job! Congratulations to Coach Mobley and his entire team for represented the great state of Ohio!

All-Ohio is not the only program out there reppin Ohio, as Meechie Johnson’s Hardwork Basketball programs sent 2 seventh grade teams to Las Vegas last week and both squads brought home championships at the AAU West Coast Nationals.  The White team finished 4-1 and was led by Meechie Johnson (5’8/PG/Garfield Heights/2021), Nehemiah Benson (6’2/SG/WF/Streetsboro/2020), and William Jefferies (6’2/SG/Erie, PA/2021).  The Blue team finished 5-0 and was paced by Shama Scott (5’9/PG/Solon/2020,  Nick Ferguson (6’2/PF/Shaker Heights/2020) and Sean Johnson. 

Hardwork Basketball-2015 West Coast AAU national Champions

While we are giving shout outs, big props to DeMarko Bradley’s 2019 All-Ohio Red squad for a 3 tournament stretch run that ended with a 16-1 record and 2 championships. All-Ohio began their southern trek at the Nike Elite Tournament in Augusts, GA, where they finished 6-1 overall. Bradley’s squad lost a 35-18 half time lead to Team Takeover in the Elite 8 before losing 53-45.  Next up was Big Shots I in Atlanta, where All-Ohio went 5-0 on their way to the U-16 championship.  All-Ohio finished their run with a 5-0 record and the championship in the U15 division of the Big Shots II. Tanner Holden was named MVP of if the first tournament, while Jeremiah Keene and Jeremiah Francis shared the honor in the second event. For the season, Bradley’s team finished the season an impressive 65-9, having won 10 of the 15 tournaments the team entered.