Dickerson gets well-deserved MVP

He's normally not in the spotlight on his teams. At Southern, Renardo Dickerson (in white jersey) played with the likes of seniors North-Carolina bound Melvin Scott and St. Francis (PA)'s Darshan Luckey. And his highly talented Baltmore Blue AAU squad only has one of the top juniors in the country, Carmello Anthony, who will be heading back to his native New York in 2002-03 to play with the Syracuse Orangemen.

But this weekend at Rich Marcucci's War in the Woods in South Jersey was a much different opportunity for "Nardo," as he is know by his coach and teammates.

He's just 6-4 and 215 pounds but looks and plays a heckuva a lot larger. After the opening game of the tournament, we asked Dickerson what he'd want a coach to notice after seeing him play. "That I'm a hard worker and I know how to win," he quickly said. While this is still the pre-evalauation period for Division I and II coaches, there were a few Division III coaches who surely saw his strong play this weekend.

Southern High ended up with a 19-6 record losing to Dunbar in the City Championship, perhaps a desappointment from their preseason expecations. The Bulldogs played a strong schedule considering their non-league competition included events at the Slam Dunk at the Beach and the DeMatha Invitational. Dickerson averaged approximately 15 points and nine rebounds this past year.

As for the Baltimore Blue -- this story by Mike Sullivan clearly shows the strength of Joe Connelly's program.

This weekend, the limelight focused a little clearer onto Dickerson. For one thing, Anthony took some time off between last week's European tour with the Nike traveling team where he was named MVP and this week's competition at the USA Basketball's Youth Development Festival which starts tomorrow in Colorado.

But even if Anthony had been on the court, Nickardson's play would have kept folks eyes glued to this powerful small forward.

He averaged over 20 points throughout the Blue's five games including a stellar 34 points in the championship win over a very talented Philadephia Panthers Red sqaud. Wasn't much question that he would get Most Valuable Player honors following the Blue's nine-point vistory in the finals.

Dickerson is not hearing from that many schools so far this spring. One he mentioned was Wagner, which had recruited his ex-teammate Luckey. He is holding onto a 2.0 GPA at the Baltimore school and will take the SAT for the first time later this year.

In addition to AAU matchups with the Blue, Dickerson with be at Five Star Pittsburgh and Eastern Invitational and is hoping to get invited to either the adidas or Nike camps in early July.

If one weekend is a fair measure, watch out for this young man during the rest of the summer. He can make some real noise.