Brandon Whitney is that Alemany 6 foot combo guard, fast of feet, steal your lunch pail on D, who has dreams to ball out in PAC-12 play someday.
Who’s there guiding B-Whitney, nurturing the development? Mr Robert Icart of BTI AAU and training fame.
I asked this soph what y’all do together in sessions to ignite the magic? Whitney answered, “Robert helps me visualize how to run the offense, find correct positioning, get my footwork right. He’s an energetic guy and I draw from that in our sessions, use it in games.”
It seems that Brandon’s fav b-ball player and fav rapper go hand in hand. He appreciates Paul Pierce’s steady composure. Double P was always under the microscope so it’s ironic and cool that Brandon also loves Tupac’s song, All Eyes on Me. That’s dope.
The song title is also fitting because B-Whitney has had all eyeballs on him this season for Alemany. He’s averaging 18 ppg, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds per contest.
Want to hear the crazy part? Brandon envisions a goal next year as a junior that he will try to up all his scoring, assists, rebounds by 50%, whatever it takes to help the team get that W.
“I don’t want to force the offense, just take on whichever responsibilities help us succeed. Me averaging more is because we will all be in sync. I credit my teammates for stats, they’re not my stats, they’re our stats.”
#great teammate
Impressive, all his offense on top of some feisty defense. B often defends the other team’s best guard, that’s what’s up in a kid that strives to be the best.
Praise? UCSB freshman and former Alemany teammate Brandon Davis told me this in describing B-Whitney, “He has a natural flow for offense and has a knack for hard nose defense.”
B-Whitney knows from where his love of hoop started: his father Emad Whitney who balled out for Morningside High in Inglewood and was the hoops coach at Chatsworth High. That’s genesis coming full circle.
B-Whitney will be quick to give credit to Cavs AAU coach Darryl McDonald as he states, “I’ll always be grateful to have signed up to ball for the Cavs at age 10. Them being tough on me, shouting to ‘play defense, get yourself in the game‘, that’s where it started. I’ve been lucky my whole life to have people push me to my best. I try to repay them all by playing hard. I appreciate the teaching that’s been passed on to me.”
Fast forward to now, 2018. Who better to describe Whitney’s future potential than his current trainer, Robert Icart, who has this incredible statement on him, “Brandon is so strong and fast. His strides to the rim remind me Gilbert Arenas who I trained in high school.
“Both of them have this great rhythm toward the rim. GA had a few more inches than Brandon but both work hard to get that footwork in the right place. Both of them in their prep careers have shown a great ability to be in good position to score in games.
“I love how Brandon works to get his directionality right, not just moving from east to west. He is really getting after his use of coming under screens lately, to get off his 3-point shots clean. I definitely see Brandon being a good D1 player.
“I also think he’s lucky to have such great coaches at Alemany. They reinforce everything we work on in our training together.”
Why E-Woods are you so high on Brandon Whitney, Robert Icart, BTI AAU teams and training?
Game recognizes game. Hear this one particular dad mention his feelings,
“BTI has been a phenomenal experience for my son and I’m really thankful for the opportunity coach Robert Icart has given him. He’s really made a ton of improvement in the last couple of months, and Robert’s coaching has been a huge part of that.”
Who said that?
Steve Kerr, Head Coach of Golden State Warriors.
BTI comes from a place of goodness. It’s that R-Icart has been in the AAU game for decades, trying to better each kid he comes across, find scholarships for kids to be on his teams regardless of their socio-economic background, keeping it real for kids 100.
To each team R-Icart coaches, I believe he’s a blessing, and that’s worth writing and knowing about. 100
