Texas SG Has Top Interest
Casey Forge, a versatile 6-foot-4, 195-pound shooting guard from Everman High
School in Texas, may not play his hoops at the state's highest classification.
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Nevertheless, a number of major conference programs are keeping an eye on his
development, and have been in contact with him this summer.
Texas Tech, Arizona State, Colorado State, New Mexico and hometown TCU and SMU
are among the major conference programs that are keeping a close eye on Forge.
Smaller schools such as North Texas, Arkansas-Little Rock, South Alabama,
Louisiana-Monroe have offered. Forge, who cannot take any official visits
until he takes the SAT in September, plans on taking all five visits and hopes
to sign in November, but could wait until the spring.
A nice-looking athlete, Forge has a versatile game and can score in a variety
of ways, either from deep or at the hoop.
"I'm all-around," said Forge. "I can shoot the three, but I can also finish
above the rim as well."
At Everman, a 3A school in Texas' 5A classification system, Forge's physical
abilities allow him to have an advantage over most opponents. Last season, for
a state championship team, Forge was used in a variety of ways on the floor.
"He's extremely versatile," said Everman head coach Brian Hannas. "He played
one through five for us. He has the ball-handling skills to play the point,
but is probably a natural two guard. He has an extremely bright basketball
IQ."
"He's got good size to shoot over people," he added. "He can defend bigger
players too."
What Hannas would like to see more out of his star guard is improvement in some
of the little things that help win ballgames.
"He needs to get better at defending quicker players," said Hannas. "I am also
going to ask him to rebound more this season too."
This summer, Forge missed out on some of the bigger events because of a broken
wrist. But he was able to bounce back in time for some of the later
tournaments with the Team Ft. Worth AAU program.
"I played in the Denton Shootout and in Las Vegas," said Forge. "Everyone was
like, 'Where have you been?'. But I'm healed now and I'm ready to go full
effect."
As a junior, Forge averaged 14 points on a balanced scoring attack that saw
many of the starters sit out most of the second half because the team would be
on the winning end of a blowout. But because of graduation losses, the team
will not be as deep, so Hannas is counting on Forge for more this year - and
will put the ball in Forge's hands when it comes down to crunch time.
"He's definitely going to be the main man," said Hannas. "We'll still have
some balance, but he'll be on the floor for most of the game."
"He loves the big game and loves to take the big shot," he added. "He doesn't
shy away from it at all - he loves the challenge."
And for Everman to pull off a repeat of their state 3A championship, Forge
knows he'll have to step it up.
"I've got to be the leader," said Forge. "But if everyone works hard, we can
do it."
Jed Tai is a senior writer with Hoopville.com