Editor's Note I: This blog, slightly modified, ran initially in January of 2014. With the prep hoop season underway, here is a look back and one of the best to ever do it at Bridgeport High School.

 

As I sat at home last week and watched the Bridgeport High School basketball team start off the home slate of the year with a game against Robert C. Byrd  in boys’ basketball action, I saw a whole lot of talented players dotting this year's roster. A few, it is safe to say, that have all-state potential.

 

That got me to thinking of about some of the best players I’ve witnessed playing ball for the Indians. And that thinking has led to this week’s sports blog.

 

The final product written here isn’t necessarily on who the best basketball player was in Bridgeport High School’s history. I have no idea. I only go back to the mid-1980s and was blessed to see dozens of players that were excellent from that period up until today.

 

Do you want to know who the best player I saw during that time period was? Actually, there are two that fit the bill in my mind.

 

The first was Scott Hartzell and the second was Bryant Irwin. One – Irwin – ended up being the state basketball player of the year as a senior and, to the best of my knowledge, is the only BHS boys’ player to earn that distinction. Irwin signed with St. Joseph’s before transferring to Furman and recently played professional basketball in Colombia. That, too, is something I believe can solely claim as a BHS hoops alum.

 

The other, Hartzell, was not only dominant in high school, but ended up being dominant in college for the University of North Carolina-Greensboro where he became the all-time leading scorer there, having his number retired and being inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame. For those that may not know, Hartzell’s final game was in the NCAA tournament where he nearly led an upset of No. 7 ranked Cincinnati – the Bob Huggins version – by scoring 15 points in an opening round game in 1996.

 

Sure we can debate just how good others that played were from guys such as Matt Kerns and Thomas Izzo all the way back to guys like Mark Dudley and someone I never saw play you may know named Chris Sprenger. And before you pelt me with what an idiot I am for leaving so and so out, I'm well aware that I've just thrown a few names out there.

 

Again, this isn’t about the best, but rather the most underrated. In my mind, there’s one guy that I watched play that not only was underrated, but may have been overlooked his senior year for all the wrong reasons.

 

Perhaps it was because his team didn’t make it to the state tournament. Perhaps there were other reasons that I’ll soon expound upon. For those that have followed Harrison County and Bridgeport basketball are well aware, there weren’t too many better than one Brian Ayoob. Go ahead and put him in the underrated category and while you’re at it, throw him in the conversation as among the best ever.

 

To quote Charlie Murphy, “that cat could ball.” And if you didn’t see him play or did and have forgotten, it’s your loss.

 

I guess, in fairness, there was a reason some may not remember just how good Ayoob was on the hardwoods. That reason was that during Ayoob’s senior season of 1986, Harrison County may have had more basketball talent that it had in years. Certainly – and not because it was my senior year of high school because I had already stepped aside due to the fact that I sucked – there has never been a year when there was more talent in Harrison County from top to bottom since then.

 

Can anyone think of a time where the number one or number two teams for the majority of the season in Class AA and Class A were from Harrison County and a Class AAA team was in the top 5 for most of the year? That season, Liberty hovered around the top five all year in the big school division. In Class AA, South Harrison was ranked at the top spot thanks to an undefeated regular season and Notre Dame was also in either the number one or number two position the entire year – my memory fails me here.

 

It wasn’t those teams that may have kept Ayoob out of the spotlight. It was the numbers posted by the players on those aforementioned ranked teams.

 

During Ayoob’s senior year, Brett Vincent wasn’t just leading Harrison County and West Virginia in scoring with an average in the range of 35 points per game, he was leading the country in scoring. At Notre Dame, Rodney Hairston was powering and dunking his way to 30-plus points per game and over at Clarksburg Liberty, Julius Lockett was averaging more than 25 points per game and frequently posting triple doubles against some of the state’s best teams. Heck, going head to head with Bimbo Coles of Greenbrier East – who played for more than a decade in the NBA – Lockett posted a double-double and nearly pulled off the upset in Clarksburg.

 

Vincent went on to play at West Virginia University before transferring out. Hairston was solid at West Virginia State and Lockett earned All-American status before he was finished re-writing the record books at Concord College.

 

All Ayoob did his senior year was average nearly 20 points per game and seven rebounds. Those numbers, in any other year, would stand out like me in a 40-yard dash (but not in a good way). The numbers helped him earn first team all-Big 10 and all-Harrison County honors. Ayoob was also second team Class AA all state. Believe me, much like Brian Zickefoose only making Class AAA second team his senior year in football, this was a monumental blunder on some of my older sports writing brethren.

 

Although I just posted his numbers, it wasn’t the numbers that made him impressive. What made him impressive was he was one of the most cerebral players ever. He knew the game. He understood the game and its angles. He could beat you with his mind, his passing, a pick or any other intangible that may not show up in the stat line. Lockett, who has played ball with the best of them in high school, college and many a game since then, told me that Ayoob was “by far the smartest player he’s ever played against.”

 

Not too bad of a compliment. And it’s for not too bad of a player.

 

In fact, Brian Ayoob was arguably one of the best to ever wear the red and white and Bridgeport. History tells us he’s already one of the most underrated.  

 

Editor's Note: Photos courtesy of the BHS Journalism Department and Mrs. Alice Rowe.