Its human nature to want to be first, rather in competition or with news, everyone wants to come in first or be first out. In our business there is particularly a want to get information out first. The word “breaking” has a lot of meaning, and carries weight. However, at Phenom Hoops we take pride in our ability of getting the information right. While we have been first to press with a lot of information and countless players over the years, it is our reputation of being right that has helped us build our status among the most trusted.
In the age of social media and digital media it is hard for players to truly fly under the radar, however it does happen. Some kids are late bloomers, some kids are from extremely rural areas that aren’t conducive to the glamour of media, and some kids just aren’t that flamboyant and media hungry.
Whatever the case may be there are some kids that do legitimately fly under the radar. You can add the Elmore twins out of Branchville, South Carolina to this list of players. Branchville is a very small town just outside of Orangeburg, nestled in about 55 miles southeast of Columbia and 60 miles northwest of Charleston. Branchville High School is a small 1A school with a total school enrollment of 309 students.
However, Branchville High School is also the home of these Elmore twins. A set of twins that D1 coaches around the region need to familiarize themselves with. Lydell Elmore and Navar Elmore have not grown up around social media or much digital media. In doing a quick Google search for them, all you find is a couple of local newspaper articles, some short and grainy video, and their not filled out Max Preps page.
Well Lydell and Navar, welcome to the much needed spotlight. Lydell and Navar stand at a very long 6’8” (pushing 6’9”). They each carry 7’ wing spans and run with non-stop motors, like gazelles. Each twin tips the scale around 175 pounds and have the ability to jump, with the explosion and quickness of a pogo stick. To say these two are raw is an understatement.
While the twins are gym rats, they had never even shot on a gun until just this past week. As evident with their size, they will need some strength work. But there is no denying that this set of twins were blessed with all of the high level traits you can’t teach, especially considering that they project as long wings/skilled fours at the next level.
They are brand new to the college recruitment scene. While local South Carolina State has been by to see them play, the twins had not fielded any college phone calls until this week. As we have gotten their names out to our local college subscribers, their phones have been non-stop (and rightfully so).
For Branchville High School’s varsity team in 2014-2015 Lydell, who is a little better offensively, averaged 23 Points, 12 Boards, 6 Assists, and 5 Blocks. Navar, who is a little better defensively, averaged 13 Points, 8 Assists, 5 Boards, 3 Blocks, and 2 Steals. They are asked to do a lot for their high school teams, bringing it up, scoring, rebounding, etc…and are not offered much help.
As we circulated the names and some of that short grainy video around to some college coaches that subscribed to our service the responses were all similar. One ASun Coach jokingly stated, “Is this a joke, these guy’s a pro.” Another Big South Coach said, “How has no one seen these kids before, we got to get them on campus, ASAP.”
As these two get proper coaching and start to play in higher level games, look for their skill set to really expand. As their skill set expands, watch out, these are the type of players that will really make a jump quickly.