Some people are just late bloomers. You find it all over the landscape of basketball, kids are great when they are in the 7thand 8th grade, only to fade out later in their careers. You will find that some people, are the exact opposite, don’t break out until later in their careers, Frank Kaminsky comes to mind here.
6’9” Queens Grant HS Junior Patrick Tape is the latter. The young man has always shown glimpses, he is very long and very athletic. However, he has previously been awkward with his hand eye coordination. Tape has always carried great shot blocking and rebounding numbers, however offensively his game lagged. That was before!
Tape has some great qualities working for him.
First, he has a naturally long frame, with that long frame he has a sturdy build, and powering that long frame and sturdy build Tape is an explosive run and jump athlete.
Second, Tape affects the parts of the game he can. Even while his offensive game is coming together, Tape averaged 11 boards and 8 blocks. That was not a misprint, I’ll say it again for affect, ELEVEN boards and EIGHT blocks per game as a junior. These attributes translate.
Third, Tape is a high academic kid. His high school coach (Jay Forsythe) says he has a 4.0 GPA and just scored a 1230 on his 2 part SAT.
So to recap, Tape is a long 6’9”…He runs and jumps like an explosive wing…He is raw, but has a high motor to still have a game changing affect on the game…He is a high academic kid that could get him scholarship money if he didn’t play basketball…
Tape plays high school ball at tiny Queens Grant High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. They don’t even have a gymnasium on campus. A wrist injury caused Tape to play for the Pro Skills Basketball (PSB) B-Team. Tape is not active on social media and does not have a ton (or any) of scouts or videographers at his games. There are a lot of instances guys like this fall through the cracks. Especially since Tape is a late bloomer.
However, this will not happen. Tape experienced a break out at Grassroots Tip Off Classic. Former College Coach and current Phenom Hoops Scout Mark Bialkoski stated, “Honestly, he reminds me of Mike Thorne (started at Charlotte and transferred to Illinois) and how raw he was offensively. If he goes high it will need to be as a redshirt guy. He has a huge ceiling because of his size and athleticism.”
College Coaches, don’t miss out on this one. You don’t want to be the team facing him when it all comes together.