Introducing three-star junior Tyler Whitney-Sidney
In the coming weeks, we will be looking at several under-the-radar prospects that were primed to use the travel circuit to boost their recruiting stock this summer. Now, with grassroots basketball on hold as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, these prospects may not get the exposure in the coming months as they would have otherwise.
Today, we take a look at Tyler Whitney-Sidney.
WHO IS HE?
A 6-foot-2 lead guard from Somerville, Massachusetts, Whitney-Sidney just completed his second season at the Brooks School. He has grown close to three inches since last summer and, along with his quickness, athleticism and ball skills, makes for one of the more slept on prospects out of New England.
Still just 17 years old, he is planning to run with the Mass Rivals travel program this summer on the adidas circuit. Whitney-Sidney missed 11 games over the winter due to a sprained ankle but he did go on to average 14 points, five rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
RECRUITING SNAPSHOT
Offers have steadily come in for Whitney-Sidney as some of the better academic schools throughout his region have come calling. His list of offers includes the names of Brown, Bryant, Fairfield, Murray State, Providence, Richmond, Siena, UMass and Yale.
He has already taken unofficial visits to the campuses at Boston University, Brown and Yale. If it wasn’t for the coronavirus, he was expected to take an official visit to Richmond in March. Others including Maryland, Penn and Princeton have also shown varying degrees of interest in him.
WHY I LIKE HIM
Whitney-Sidney is a good-sized lead guard with extra length that makes him a more than capable two-way weapon at the point of attack. He is super skilled and possesses a tremendous feel for the game, along with quality vision and passing abilities that he relies upon in knifing up the defense with the pass on the go.
He is at his best off the bounce where he has no issues getting his defender on skates via the change of speed dribble, but has the requisite breakdown abilities off the first step. He is a sneaky athlete at the basket and is a very effective playmaker that makes others around him better.
Bringing quality quickness and instincts to the point guard position, Whitney-Sidney is a serviceable jump shooter to the perimeter that can hit with a contested hand in his face. Thanks to his size, he can play in multiple ballhandling units that might ask him to act more as a scorer rather than as a facilitator first. However, he is at his best whenever the ball is placed into his hands and displays value as an on the ball defender that can shut down an opposing unit’s best perimeter scorer.
Questions remain as to whether a travel season will begin but, either way, it is difficult to dispute the abilities of Whitney-Sidney. The 2021 class is not one that is known for great depth at the lead guard spot which is why it wouldn’t come as a surprise if another group of high-majors entered his recruitment.