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Hovadipo

(2018) PG Robert Phinisee to Cincinnati

By Hovadipo, in Indiana Men's Basketball

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Class of '66 Old Fart    88,211

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted

McCutcheon defeats Homestead 85 - 66.  Broadcast ended without giving any individual stats but I know that Phinisee at one time had hit 9 of 10 free throws in the 4th Q.

 

McCutcheon plays the winner of Warsaw vs. Crown Point in the semi-state next Saturday.

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Class of '66 Old Fart    88,211

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted

Halftime at Lafayette, McCutcheon leads Warsaw 21 - 18.  Warsaw started out with a version of stall ball and got an early lead but McCutcheon's defense forced 11 first half Warsaw turnovers and took the lead and held it through the end of the half.  Announcers didn't provide any first half stats.

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Class of '66 Old Fart    88,211

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted

4A championship game will feature Robert Phinisee and McCutcheon vs. Romeo Langford and New Albany.  McCutcheon defeats Warsaw 40 - 37.  Phinisee with 16 pts.

 

Although McCutcheon gave Warsaw a dose of its own stall ball medicine, that is not McCutcheon's normal style of play as they typically score around 70 pts./game.  Should be a great game next weekend.  This was Rick Peckinpaugh's 516th coaching victory.

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Class of '66 Old Fart    88,211

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted

Nice background article on Phinisee from the Lafayette Journal and Courier.

Big School Player of the Year: McCutcheon's Robert Phinisee

The really good ones, they don’t let pressure get to them.

It doesn’t get to Robert Phinisee.

Not when Matt Painter or Tom Crean intensely tried to seize a verbal commitment out of the McCutcheon point guard. Not when defenses pressed. Not when coach Rick Peckinpaugh told the sophomore he would have to be the leader of the Mavericks.

Almost every night, Phinisee pulled off something that made you shake your head in disbelief.

The Journal & Courier Big School Player of the Year averaged 19.2 points and 6.2 assists, shot better than 50 percent from the field, improved tremendously from 3-point range and intercepted passes that translated to easy layups on the norm.

“Coach told me I was going to be one of the leaders,” Phinisee said. “”I had a big role with Tre’Shon (Heard) leaving. I feel like I did a good job and we had a great season.”

Phinisee undersold that last sentence.

The Mavericks advanced to the Class 4A state championship and his stats were silly for a sophomore point guard.

And how he got his points, there was a point in time where Peckinpaugh wouldn’t have allowed players he coached to attempt some of the shots Phinisee pulled off.

“He is really good on the drive and being able to finish, doing the loopty-do or whatever,” Peckinpaugh said, motioning with his arms circularly swinging. “He can hang in the air and decide last minute he’s going to change and flip it up with this hand. It’s not like he’s just throwing it up there, he’s got the angles. That’s something you can’t really coach or practice. He’s just got the instincts.”

Phinisee broke the pinky finger on his right hand as a fourth grader during AAU season. A gym rat to the fullest, he dribbled and practiced taking shots left handed while recovering.

He became so good with either hand that a number of McCutcheon’s plays are drawn up with Phinisee driving to the left.

An unselfish star player, he was just as apt to kick the ball to the perimeter or thread the needle with a pass into the post as he was to drill a jumper or drive all the way to the basket. 

Off the court, Phinisee is as humble as they come.

Every day at school, someone will try to persuade him to accept Purdue’s scholarship offer and play college basketball just down the road.

He’ll laugh it off.

In all honesty, he’s a long way from telling anyone where he’ll go to college.

“You’ve got to credit some of that to his mom,” Peckinpaugh said. “His mom keeps him well grounded and knowing that this is all really nice and great, but you’ve still got to be a nice, humble and kind person and not act like you are better than anybody else. He listens to his mom pretty well. I think you see a product of his mother in him.”

That’s a compliment to his mother.

After putting together one of the finest individual seasons in McCutcheon history with still two years of high school basketball remaining, his takeaways are the journey he had with his “brothers,” as he calls his teammates.

“Everybody was so close, all of us,” Phinisee said. “We got to go to the state championship. We played in the largest high school gym in America (at the Hall of Fame Classic in New Castle). Those were great experiences. We really bonded during those times.”

Peckinpaugh, in four decades of coaching high school basketball, has rarely seen kids this grounded.

But when the lights are on, his competitive spirit takes over.

“When you throw the ball up on a Friday or Saturday night, he’d just as soon knock you over as look at you,” Peckinpaugh said.

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Class of '66 Old Fart    88,211

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted
9 minutes ago, hoosierpap said:

http://www.jconline.com/story/sports/high-school/2016/04/09/big-school-player-year-mccutcheons-robert-phinisee/82572936/

Don't forget about Phinisee. This thread should be twice as long

Absolutely agree.  I posted an article in 2016 April Recruiting Period that highlighted Indiana kids to watch.  Phinisee is one of those kids:  " "At the 2018 level, Robert Phinisee led his Indiana Elite team to a title down at the Adidas Uprising event in Dallas. Phinisee led Indiana Elite in points, rebounds, AND assists, highlighted by a 24 point performance in a 61-52 win over Upward Stars AAU in the semis."   Not many players will be their team's stat leader in all 3 categories.  I've watched him play several games and his game is always under control.  He never gets flustered and you never see him negatively react to calls that go against him.  Can shoot from outside and can also take it to the basket. 

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hoosierpap    14,300

hoosierpap
Posted
37 minutes ago, MadAboutIndiana said:

Wait until the fall of his senior year to decide

I really don't know his timeline. I always think it's smart to wait a bit on the players end. Fall of senior year is a little later than maybe the ideal time, spring definitely too late imo. Right now for him it makes sense to see what's out there as he and his recruitment is just taking form.

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