Two new faces to watch at New Hampton

New Hampton (N.H.) School head coach Jamie Arsenault has coached his fair share of Division I prospects in his day. Guys like UNC star Rashad McCants, former Hoosier guard Tom Coverdale and Michigan stud Bernard Robinson have all played under his tutelage. Talk to Arsenault this year, he believes he has two more names to add to that prestigious list.

Radar Jones Onguetou, 6-foot-5, 215-pounds, and Menghe Nyam, 6-foot-6, 185-pounds, both came to the United States in August from their native Cameroon and since then the two class of 2006 players have made improvements in their respective games by leaps and bounds. And that is exactly why the grounded Arsenault is doing something he doesn’t like to do, speak so highly of guys that colleges haven’t even caught onto yet.

That could change after this weekend when New Hampton plays at the Fork Union tournament.

“After that tournament I know what’s going to happen,” Arsenault said. “They are going to go off the charts. They are fired up. We play Hargrave on Friday and they know what kind of team they are. I can see the fire in their eyes.

“When (coaches) see them play, they are going to ask, ‘Who are these guys?’ I think they are really going to go off.”

They already have been going off. Dubbed by those at the school as the “Cameroon Connection”, the duo are collecting victories.

In the young season, the duo has punished opponents with their pedal to the metal mentalities. Onguetou scored 30 points earlier in the week against Holderness (N.H.) School. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski happened to be in the crowd to watch Martynas Pocius for the game. Nyam put in 17 in the 89-80 victory.

New Hampton picked up a 74-64 win over the Titlon School (N.H.) thanks in part to Nyam’s 21 points. Titlon’s star, UCLA bound Alfred Aboya, was held to 11 points. Arsenault believes it was the defense of Onguetu that shut down the man child. Try this twist of irony: Onguetu and Aboya are cousins.

“The kid Radar can put up 30 without blinking,” Arsenault said. That’s a far cry from where he was four months ago.

“When I first saw him I thought he was okay and pretty raw but every week he got better and better,” Arsenault said. “I’ve never seen anyone play harder than him. He doesn’t have amazing skills but he’s kind of like Dennis Rodman in the sense that he just has a knack for getting it done.

“He’s still raw and he’s not smooth and but he can jump out of the gym and get the job done. He’s built like Rashad. With two more years he could even better (physically) than Rashad.”

Nyam, the slender one of the two, has been the ying to Onguetu’s yang this season.

“(Nyam) more of a sleek athletic wing and an undersized four man,” Arsenault said. “He’s got a lot of Ron Artest and Dennis Rodman in his game. He’s big and strong and he’ll defend anybody. (Nyam) is just relentless. He knows how to play hard and shoots it a little better than Radar. (Nyam) is probably more skilled but he needs more improvement.”

With a competitive schedule in the competitive New Hampshire prep school league, the duo will be battle tested all season. They’ll play in front of dozens of college coaches and they’ll probably be listing off high-majors by the end of the year. And to think what they can become. That is what is the scariest, says Arsenault.

“I’m stunned at how much they’ve improved,” the coach said. “I had Rashad for two years and I knew he had the ability to get to the level he is at now. They don’t have that knack to shoot like Rashad but they can attack and rebound and handle the ball like Rashad.

“I really believe they’ll be recruited by all of the high-majors by this time next year,” Arsenault said. “It’s crazy because literally no one has seen these guys.”

Let the floodgates open.