ESPN

Providence College became the first school to offer a scholarship to Windsor (Conn.) Class of 2015 hoops standout Jared Wilson-Frame last night. The offer comes following his strong play on consecutive weekends at the Nike EYBL circuit in Los Angeles, Calif., and Hampton, Va.

Wilson-Frame, who visited Providence unofficially earlier this month, was ecstatic about receiving his first offer.

“It’s really exciting to know that a school wants to give you a chance where you can get a free education and play basketball at a high level,” Wilson-Frame said.

He has been well-known on New England’s high school basketball scene as one of the region’s best players, especially after leading Windsor to a 49-6 record over the past two seasons. This season, the small forward was named to the Connecticut High School Coaches Association All-State Team.

In an attempt to become a better-known prospect on a national scale, he accepted the invitation to play with Expressions Elite this summer.

“That’s one thing I always said to myself. I always go on ESPN or on Twitter and I’ll see kids getting offers who I have played against--kids who I honestly feel like I have played at their level or better," he said. "That really motivated me to want to play at a higher level."

Wilson-Frame is considering the prep school route next school year, but says for now he is focused on finishing this year strong academically and continuing to build his name on the AAU circuit. Expressions Elite has made quite a splash at Nike EYBL, sitting at 9-0 after the first two weekends of play.

“They’re good guys off the court," he said. "Our whole team was hand-elected, so we hadn’t played together before. But now we’re always on each other [off the court], joking and laughing…it really is a family environment."

He’s the leading scorer on the number-one ranked team in Connecticut, the next great player out of the Connecticut Basketball Club AAU program, following in the footsteps of Detroit Pistons forward Andre Drummond, former McDonald’s All-American Kris Dunn, and Capital Prep’s USC commit Kahlil Dukes. Jared Wilson-Frame has led the Warriors to a perfect 8-0 record so far this year -- including a tight win over New Mission, the third-ranked team in ESPN Boston’s boys hoop top 25 poll, at the BABC Holiday Classic.

Wilson-Frame came onto the scene on a regional and national scale last January at the Hoophall Classic, where he scored 16 points to lead Windsor to a win over Springfield Central, the eventual state champion in MIAA Division 1. To further that reputation, the muscular 6-foot-5 junior forward scored 45 points last year against Kuran Iverson’s Northwest Catholic squad, finishing the game with 9 three-pointers in all. In the quarterfinals of the CIAC Class LL state tournament, Windsor fell short of Dunn’s New London team despite a double-digit second half lead; the Warriors finished the season 25-3.

Since his big year, as well as breaking out this summer on the AAU circuit, he has heard college interest from Division 1 programs such as Connecticut, Georgetown, Providence, and Virginia Tech. We sat down and talked with him about playing against New Mission, AAU friendships, his father-son relationship with Windsor Coach Ken Smith, and what he likes to do in his free time.

Q: You guys were recently ranked as the top team in the state of Connecticut by the Hartford Courant. How much stock do players take in team rankings like that?
A: “When it comes to rankings, we understand what we are, that we’re number one, we see it. But we don’t take it as ‘Oh we’re number one so we can turn it on or off whenever we want.’ We take it a different way, knowing that were number one, teams are coming to play us every night like it’s a championship game. Every team, every time we step up on the court, we have to take it like it’s our biggest game of the season because who doesn’t want to beat the number one team in the state? I know I sure would if we weren’t number one.”

Q: How does having that target on your back change your mindset going into each game?
A: “Well, in Connecticut basketball, Windsor has always had a target on their back because we’re so known for being successful every season, we’re known for beating teams that we weren’t supposed to, winning so many games each year. We already have a target on our back, now this just makes us realize it even more than we’re ranked number one.”

Q: When you aren’t playing high school ball, you play AAU with CBC (Connecticut Basketball Club) in the summer, what kind of friendships evolve within an AAU team when you guys are with each other all summer like that?
A: “I’ve made a lot of friendships; I first played for CBC before they even had a sponsorship when I was like 9 or 10 years old. That’s where I first met Levy[Gillespie], Kahlil [Dukes], Andre [Drummond]. From there it was a family environment, the whole organization, they realized that we all have to play for the same team. Whenever Andre was gone Kahlil had to step up and be that guy, when Kahlil is gone, me and Levy are going to have to step up. We just learned from each other, really just have a lot of love for each other as brothers.”

Q: How often to you see your AAU teammates on the court during the season, and what’s it like going head-to-head against your friends?
A: “We don’t see Kahlil or Levy at all during the season [Windsor is in Class LL, for the state’s largest schools, while Capital Prep is in Class S, the state’s smallest], but I played against Kris [Dunn] last year in the state playoffs, and you just don’t really look at them as your friend anymore. Off the court we have a strong relationship, and I still talk to Kris once in awhile to see how he’s doing. But that game when you’re going up against somebody who you already know, there are no friends on the basketball court. You can’t let that get to you and you can’t give them an advantage just because you have a close relationship. When it comes to the court, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re still my opponent, you’re trying to beat me as badly as I’m trying to beat you.”

Q: You have a close relationship with your high school coach, Ken Smith. What are some things you have learned from him?
A: “Only people who really know me know this, but Coach Smith, for all purposes necessary, is my father for me in my life. He looks out for me, he takes care of me when I may not be feeling good, he’s let me stay at his house for weeks because things at home for me weren’t going great. He’s just a great person to me, all my life. My older brother played for Windsor, and ever since he’s just brought me in, taught me the game, taught me situations, and really taught me how to be a man, period. He’s taught me basically everything.”

Q: Being one of New England’s top public school players obviously didn’t come easy, what kind of workouts do you do in the off-season?
A: “Being around Kahlil [Dukes], Kahlil is probably the hardest working basketball player I know, and the hardest working person I know, period. Talking to him, I used to rarely do anything once I got back from AAU in the summer, and now you would never catch me anywhere but the court. Even if it’s outside, I don’t care, I have a park near my house where I go when I get back from the summer. Losing to Kris Dunn and New London last year in the playoffs, I missed two free throws that could have won the game. I had that in the back of my head all summer, and every time I went to the park this summer I’d make 500 free throws before I even started my actual workout.

"Coach wants me to become a more well-rounded ballplayer, so my workout was a lot of ball handling, a lot of shooting drills, doing box-out drills with some of our big men. Every basic skill that comes with playing basketball, I worked on it.”

Q: What kind of things have you, as a leader on your high school team, done to create chemistry?
A: “Usually the story with public school is that the kids grew up there and know each other already. I’m not going to lie, some of the guys on our team didn’t really like each other, didn’t hang out, and we didn’t know each other personally much. But the motivation of playing for Windsor and playing for Coach Smith really brought us together. The tradition creates a bond for us. We realize now, that at the end of the day that to stop playing with each other is to quit, and none of us are going to quit, so we came together.

"Before out actual scrimmages, I called the team in the locker room and we had a team-only players meeting, coaches didn’t even know about it. And the thing is we were supposed to be practicing, but we were in the locker room talking it out, for like an hour and forty minutes, just expressing to each other how we need to be a family because there have been a lot of great Windsor teams that could have won championships and didn’t, and we don’t want to be one of those teams that could have won a championship. We want to get it done this time.”

Q: Who is the toughest team you guys have seen so far this season?
A: “The team up in Massachusetts we played, New Mission, they’re definitely the toughest team we’ve faced. They have size, they kids who can score the ball, and they’re just gritty, grimy, and their playing style reminds me a lot of our playing style: we’re going to get after it on defense, and then do whatever we want on offense because you just aren’t going to stop us. They came out the same way we came out, they didn’t really know who we were, and they didn’t care who we were, just like we didn’t care who they were. We just came out and played basketball. At the time, one of starting bigs wasn’t even playing, so that was tough early on in the game.”

Q: What teams or players are you particularly looking forward to playing against?
A: “I say this to my team all the time: every team that we play has to be our rival. Every team we play has to be that team we hate that beat us last year. We have to play hard against everybody because every team is going to play us like it’s their last game. I’m not really looking in particular to play a certain team, whatever team is on the opposite side of the court, that’s it.”

Q: Outside of basketball, what other interests do you have?
A: “One of my biggest things is writing, I like writing a lot and I do it all the time. After games I’ll go home and write about how it went. I like to write my thoughts, I have poems in my journal and stuff like that allows me to be free and express myself. I like to draw too, I draw a lot of basketball related things.”

BOSTON -- Junior phenom Jared Wilson-Frame led the way for Windsor (Conn.) with 28 points in their BABC Holiday Classic showdown against New Mission, and the Warriors were able to hold off a barrage of points from the Titans in the final minutes, escaping with a 74-71 win.

“Well it’s a tough environment to play in, it’s a good little gym and they’re a good team,” Windsor coach Ken Smith said following the game. “I’m pretty sure they’re going to make runs. I watched them play the other night [against Mansfield], that’s a good team you got there and I’m sure this is going to be a springboard for them.”

New Mission trailed by as many as 10 points late in the fourth quarter, but were given a nice boost by Isshiah Coleman in the paint. In the game’s final minutes, the senior forward cleaned up on the offensive boards and put back six of his 10 points on the afternoon.

The Titans (4-3) were able to cut the deficit all the way down to one in the closing seconds on a steal and fast-break lay-up from Percio Gomez, but were slow to commit a foul on the ensuing Windsor (5-0) possession and had to settle on sending Wilson-Frame to the line rather than senior Jaquan Harrison.

After Wilson-Frame hit both free throws to extend the lead to three, New Mission, with 7.3 seconds left on the clock, looked to leading scorer Juwan Gooding (18 points, six assists) to send it to overtime. Windsor was ready though, triple-teaming Gooding behind the line as the sophomore tossed up a prayer that found the backboard and the rim, but not the net.

Following the game, New Mission head coach Cory McCarthy attributed his team’s loss to their performance at the free throw line (7 of 21), and the effort on the boards by his bigs.

“I’m not upset about the loss at all,” McCarthy said. “That’s something that the players have to put on themselves. They have to say to themselves ‘I have to get better, I have to do better, I gotta help our team win’, and that’s what it came down to.”

“I like Windsor a lot, I like what they did, and I’d play them a hundred times if we could. At the same time, I feel like we didn’t stay true to who we were today.”

Guarding Windsor: Entering today’s game, Windsor averaged just under 80 points per game, including a 94-point performance two weeks ago against South Windsor (Conn.).

The Warriors are led by Wilson-Frame, a 6-foot-4 junior who is drawing interest from Miami, Providence, UConn and UCLA just to name a few.

Included in his 28-point performance was a put-back that put a halt to a 7-0 scoring run in the closing minutes for New Mission, two free throws that found nothing but net with the game on the line in the final seconds, and a silky-smooth drive to net throughout the game that is surely leaving scouts drooling.

“We came out in a diamond and one [press]," McCarthy said. "It was pretty effective against him but he hit some huge hero shots. He played Superman for them tonight and he delivered. I thought our diamond and one bothered him early, and then when Nate [Anderson] came out of the game we had less length on him.”

McCarthy was also quick to credit Windsor point guard Tyler Rowe who, despite being listed at just 5-foot-6, gave New Mission fits on the glass and on the floor through out the afternoon.

“He was tremendous, every decision he made was 100 percent right," McCarthy said. "He was totally efficient, and I have no problem with that.”

Grueling three-day swing: No matter what the future may hold for this year’s New Mission team, no one can look back at the end of the season and say they played a soft schedule.

For that reason, McCarthy likes his team’s chances going forward.

In the past three days, the Titans have taken on a Christ The King team thought by many to be No. 1 in the state of New York; beaten previously-undefeated Mansfield, ranked number No. 4 in ESPNBoston.com's statewide poll; and hung until the final minutes against a Windsor team that is also ranking in at No. 4 in Connecticut.

“You will see in the middle of January, how much better we are because of this,” McCarthy said of the three-day stretch. “This is no disrespect to anybody else, but we won’t see three more teams as good as the three teams we just played for the rest of the year.

“If we can play above, or at that level that we played at for the last three days, I’m confident of where we will be in the end.”

Asked what his motivation was to schedule three straight games against three teams of that capability, McCarthy pointed to building his team’s character.

“I just want my guys to get tougher," he said. "I want to deflate some egos. If we start reading the clippings, and thinking that we’re better than everybody else...It humbles guys.

“So we see that sort of level. Can we match that level? Can we win on that level? I think we can, I think we have some little things that we can work on to get it done."

Adding to what has already been an impressive season for Connecticut power Windsor High, the Warriors' star sophomore forward Jared Wilson-Frame has been named the East Region Player of the Week today by ESPNHS, following an explosive performances over Hartford power Northwest Catholic. Wilson-Frame went off for 45 points -- including nine 3-pointers -- in the win.

Windsor's two games against Massachusetts opponents were wins -- a 98-68 thrashing of New Bedford at the BABC Holiday Classic in December, followed by a 61-55 win over Springfield Central (ESPN Boston's No. 1 team in the state) at the Hoophall Classic in January. In both of those contests, Wilson-Frame was a major contributor.

ESPNHS breaks down their selection of the 6-foot-3 Wilson-Frame on the Basketball Blog:

EAST

Jared Wilson-Frame, Windsor (Windsor, Conn.)
The 6-foot-3 sophomore wing exploded for a personal-best 45 points as the Warriors defeated Northwest Catholic (West Hartford, Conn.) 74-65 in the semifinals of the Central Connecticut Conference Tournament. Wilson-Frame, a touted junior high football-basketball player before he stepped onto the Windsor campus, converted nine 3-point field goals in the game. An All-CCC honoree, he followed up with 23 points in the 105-72 tournament final win over Manchester (Conn.). The Warriors take a 23-1 record into the state tournament starting this week.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Up by four points with about a minute and a half to go Saturday against Springfield Central, Windsor (Conn.) High's Andrew Hurd dribbled the ball up over halfcourt.

Together with his teammates, they worked the ball around the floor, bringing the shot clock down to five seconds. Two seconds later, Jaquan Harrison hit a layup to put his team ahead 59-53 with under a minute to go.

That proved to be the dagger, as the Warriors went on to win, 61-55, to kick off day three of the Hoophall Classic, at Springfield College's Blake Arena.

Windsor (8-1) led the whole game until 1:33 left in the third quarter, when Central senior guard Chris Prophet (16 points, 7 rebounds) converted a three-point play to put his team ahead 43-40. Windsor quickly answered back with a basket of its own, but Central (8-1) took the 1-point lead into the final quarter.

It was then that Windsor went on a 10-2 run to take the lead right back.

“We didn’t play as good as we could have played, I thought we could have played a lot better,” said Windsor coach Ken Smith. “Springfield Central is a very good team. They’re the best team, they say, up in this area, so I thought we fought real hard. We didn’t give up.”

One could not help but think of the slogan on the back of the shirt Smith wore on the sideline during the game: “How bad do you want it?” When things got tough for Windsor, was when it picked its game up the most.

“The third quarter was that adversity. They fought to the bitter end, and that’s what we ask them to do, and they did it.”

Central almost caught a break with 4:12 left in the game. Down 52-50, Windsor committed its seventh foul of the half, meaning that for the last half of the fourth quarter, Central would be shooting foul shots. Almost on cue, Windsor stretched its lead to 8, negating any effect its foul troubles might have gave them.

“That’s just how Windsor is,” said freshman Jared Wilson-Frame, who contributed 15 points and five rebounds off the bench for the Warriors. “If we get down, we’re going to come back. We’re going to come back and pick our heads up. We never get down on anything.”

Central's Tyrell Springer was just behind Prophet in the scorebook with 15 points and 7 rebounds of his own.

Controlling the glass: One of the biggest reasons Springfield Central kept the game close was its success on the defensive glass. Early on, not only did the Golden Eagles prevent Windsor from getting second-chance scoring opportunities, but its big men allowed the guards to get out in transition and create plays. When it pushed the ball up the floor, it lead to missed Windsor defensive assignments and easier baskets. Windsor tried to match the pace, but Central just ran its breakouts more effectively.

Although Central out-rebounded the Warriors 53-44, it was Windsor that was better on the glass down the stretch, preventing Central from getting those tip-ins and other opportunities it was getting in the first half.

“We don’t really have a big, strong guy this year,” said Wilson-Frame. “One of them is a junior (Jaquan Harrison) and one of them is a senior (Theodore Lee) who wasn’t even on the varsity last year. We’re working with them to get them tougher, but to me they played a strong game today.”

“They killed us on the glass in the first half, so we had to make an adjustment,” said Smith. “What really helped us we got their big guy (Kamari Robinson) in foul trouble. When he got in trouble, that limited it, but sometimes with kids, they relax. That’s what hurt us also.”

Fab Frosh: Wilson-Frame made a statement for himself as a freshman with his performance on a big stage. With his 6-for-12 showing from the floor, he turned a lot of heads and proved himself to be someone to watch as he moves forward in his high school career.

“He has a lot of upside,” said Smith. “My thing is building his character. He needs to have good character if he’s going to play for me, and he needs to work hard and have a good work ethic. I don’t think he realizes how good he really could be. If he even felt like he was a lot better, he would have played a lot more and did a lot more things. But he has to play defense first. If he’s not going to play defense, we’re not going to play him.”

The third annual "New England Elite 75 Showcase -- Frosh/Soph Edition" took place on Saturday at Boston University’s Case Gymnasium and included many of the top underclassman prospects the New England region has to offer. The event featured two sessions, with the freshmen taking the court in the morning and the sophomores in the afternoon.

Here is a look at five lessons we learned after taking in the day’s action:

1. Noah Vonleh is a Potential Star in the Making

Haverhill High School sophomore Noah Vonleh stood out as the most impressive prospect at the event. What sets him apart is a combination of three factors. First, he has the talent to dominant his peers right now. Second, he has demonstrated the work ethic to consistently improve his game. Third, his physical upside is tremendous. Vonleh only recently celebrated his 15th birthday and already stands 6-foot-7 with a strong body. He could still be growing and is certainly still growing into his body and consequently hasn’t nearly peaked athletically. He has terrific economy of motion, taking the ball off the defensive glass and going coast to coast in three or four dribbles and only requiring a single bounce to get to the rim in a half-court set, to go along with a rapidly developing skill set. If this young man continues to work hard and make good decisions, the sky could be the limit.

2. The Class of 2013 has Tremendous Depth

New England has some very well known talent in the class of 2013. Connecticut native Kuran Iverson is the second ranked player in the country and Everett native Nerlens Noel is third, according to ESPNU’s most recent Terrific 25 list. But beyond the obvious star power of Iverson, Noel, and Vonleh the region, and the state of Massachusetts specifically, has great depth in the class. Beaver Country Day guard Rene Castro already owns a scholarship offer from Boston College, Brimmer & May’s Jake Fay has one from UMass, and a variety of others in action on Friday had the potential to earn similar opportunities including Milton Academy’s Ikemefuna Ngwudo, Cushing Academy’s Andrew Chrabascz, Springfield Central’s Cornelius Tyson, and Weymouth’s Jared Terrell.

3. Getting to Know the Class of 2014

This was our first major opportunity to check out the incoming freshmen and there was plenty to like. Milton’s Jeremy Miller has the size and raw talent to potentially be a high level prospect down the road. Fellow big men Aaron Falzon (Newton North) and Bonzie Colson Jr. (St. Andrew’s) have similar upside. There are plenty of talented local guards including Lawrence Academy’s Johnnie Vassar, Cushing Academy’s Idris Taqqee and Stoughton’s Jonathan Joseph. The state of Connecticut also offers a particularly talented group with the likes of Jared Wilson-Frame, Levy Gillespie Jr., Winston Morgan and Kahari Beaufort.

4. Prep Talent Arriving Earlier than Ever

New England has always been the hub of prep school talent in the country, but it used to be that talented players only arrived for their post-graduate, or sometimes senior, seasons. Saturday’s event showed they are now coming much earlier and opting to play in the NEPSAC for multiple seasons. Some of the event’s top prospects, like Northfield Mount Hermon’s Dekeeba Battee, Worcester Academy’s Asur Madison, Winchendon’s Dennis Green and the Kent School’s Travis Berry are all from outside of the region but are boarding students at local prep schools.

5. One Year Can Make a Big Difference

There was a notable difference between the morning and the afternoon session as the sophomores delivered a significantly higher quality of play. The biggest difference was obviously physical as players were bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic given the extra year of physical maturity. But the other interesting trend was the higher caliber of basketball acumen. Some examples were more obvious as the sophomores tended to both share the ball more as well as play without it, but others were more subtle like looking into the post, using jab fakes or understanding how to defend from the weak side of the floor.