A BIG FUTURE

Andre Drummond is 6 feet 10, but he wants you to know his game is not built on height alone. "People look at my height and think I'm just a big inside player," Drummond said. "When anyone asks me what position I play, I say, 'All of them.' " Drummond is predominantly a center for Capital Prep Magnet School in Hartford, but he can play all over the court, making a midrange jump shot, rebounding, breaking a full-court press with his dribble, blocking shots, passing and defending. All one has to know about his potential is that UConn coach Jim Calhoun attended the Parish Hill-Capital Prep game Jan. 7. UConn assistant coach Patrick Sellers has been a frequent visitor to the team's games. And Drummond is only a sophomore. He's rated three stars (five being the highest) for all high school players by ScoutHoops.com. That surely will change when rankings are updated after the season. The New England Recruiting Report rates Drummond the No. 1 sophomore in New England. College coaches cannot talk about any high school player until he has signed a national letter of intent. What can be said about Drummond is that he weighs 235 pounds and wears size-18 basketball shoes. "And I'm still growing," he said. His favorite team to watch is UConn. He has seen the Huskies play Georgetown, Hartford and Seton Hall at the XL Center. He wants to play Division I basketball, then in the NBA where his favorite players are Kevin Durant and Kevin Garnett. "There have been games where two or more college coaches are in the stands," Capital Prep coach Levy Gillespie said. "It's no secret people have their eye on him. He has stayed composed with the whole situation, like when we played Ellis Tech. A man came up for an autograph. Andre said, 'Are you serious?' and the man said he was. Andre took it in stride." Drummond applied for and gained admittance to Capital Prep as a resident of Middletown. One advantage to being there is the opportunity next year to take a few college courses at Capital Community College. "I'm a pretty good student; I get B's and C's," he said. "Academic interests for me? Well, I'm interested in engineering and being an entrepreneur." As for basketball, he already has received questionnaires and general letters from about 15 colleges. "It started in the eighth grade," he said. "All along all I want to do is be the best player I can be, hopefully in college and the NBA." This season, Drummond is averaging 19.5 points, 17 rebounds and 7.6 blocks. He has made a lot of progress since the start of his freshman year. "In his first game against Classical Magnet he had a breakaway dunk, but he bounced the ball off his foot out of bounds," Gillespie said. "That kind of bothered him. He practiced and worked hard and you could just see in four weeks or so how much better of a player he was." Capital Prep advanced to the Class S semifinals last season, losing to eventual champion Bloomfield. Drummond averaged 13.1 points, 12.5 rebounds and 6.8 blocks. In the summer he played for the AAU Connecticut Basketball Club and in the Greater Hartford Pro-Am League. "I think playing against tougher dudes than I sometimes play against [in the Constitution State Conference] made me step up and got my game better," Drummond said. Still, his game has faults. He sometimes prefers to take an outside shot rather than carve out space and demand the ball down low. He sometimes shies away from physical contact inside. But his talent and promise far outweigh any shortcomings. In a 78-74 overtime loss at Berlin he threw a no-look pass from the free-throw line to a sprinting Jordan Green for a layup. Drummond stole the ball three times from Berlin players 40 feet from the basket. His arms extended far above the crowd to snatch 19 rebounds. He dribbled past four defenders for a layup. He had 14 blocks and affected at least 10 other shots. Berlin coach John Fote had seen his share by game's end. "He's a phenomenal athlete," Fote said. "He has all the tools to break people." He often has done that for the Trailblazers, who are 8-2 this season. But as Gillespie says, Drummond is still only 15 years old and maturing, mentally and physically. "Every day I look at Andre, he's just beginning to tap into what he can to," Gillespie said. "If he continues to work over the next two years he can be five times better than he is now."