Now 6 years in the works, it can be safely said that the Upstate Throwdown saw its 2nd best campaign to date this past Sunday. As always, some of the premier high school basketball players New York state has to offer gathered at Rensselaer High in Albany, NY to display their skills in front of dozens of college coaches and scouts. The event, ran by Upstate Scouting Service, has continued to grow, this years event reaching near 100 participants. Sunday had even more to offer than in years past.
Former two time All-American and European Pro Steve Dagostino collaborated with Upstate Scout to help make this years event more skill driven and intense, adding a competitive training piece with a drill segment apart from the normal five on five action. This year a tournament was played with two teams of winners receiving Under Armour event dri-fit t-shirts. Dagostino is an elite level developmental coach/trainer through his own company Dags Basketball. Dagostino has trained a number of Division 1 talent, but most notably Atlanta Hawks rookie Kevin Huerter has come through his program. Aside from being a skills & developmental specialist, he is also a court coach for the USA Men’s Junior National Team. Placing him with some of our country’s up and coming collegiate, and on down the road, NBA players.
Joining Dagostino was Penn State Basketball’s all time leading scorer and Albany, NY native Talor Battle. Also a former professional overseas sensation, Battle has been working with Dags basketball for some time now, and it was exciting to have him coaching and bringing his experience and expertise to the participants last Sunday.
The event itself proved to be quite larger than the ordinary 80 player success it normally boasts. In fact, it was likely possible that the pool of players from this years event was the 2nd best to run through the Upstate Throwdown. Its first year the event hosted 10 would be D1 scholarship players. It seems that every year players come from farther out, helping add to the feeling of the event being a great stepping stone for aspiring collegiate level talent.
The athletes were hungry to have their name called by college coaches, and this class exhibited some of the finest basketball you will watch at that level. Players who want to gain exposure came to the right place, and were impressive in doing so. It would appear the Upstate Throwdown College Exposure Shootout, while on a rapid incline, is far from its peak
Chad Boyles- Staff Writer
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