Top Five College Basketball Players that came from the WCAC

The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference is the home to some of the area’s well-known schools like DeMatha, Gonzaga, St. John’s, and Good Counsel. This conference also has produced a numerous amount of Division I and professional athletes especially in basketball. Below is my list of some of the top college basketball players today that came from the WCAC.

1. Melo Trimble (Bishop O’Connell)- University of Maryland 

Terps point guard Melo Trimble has been at the top of this game since playing basketball at Bishop O’Connell.  He was the number player in the state of Maryland, the seventh best shooting guard and the 29th best player in the country. In his senior year of high school, Trimble averaged 23.1 ppg and scored a career high of 47 points in a game against Gonzaga.

Melo took his talents to Maryland and was an immediate impact to the team. He led the team in scoring with 16.2 ppg. Trimble scored a total of 568 points during the season which puts him in second place behind Joe Smith on Maryland’s freshmen single season scoring list. Melo Trimble led the Big Ten in free throw percentage and was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team. Not to mention, he helped the Terps go the NCAA Tournament.

Melo will be returning for his sophomore season and with the help of incoming freshmen Diamond Stone, the Terps are likely to be favorites to win the National Championship.

2. James Robinson (DeMatha Catholic High School)- Pittsburgh 

James Robinson or what his high school coach Mike Jones called him, “Mr. Consistent,” was one of the top high school point guards in the area when he played for DeMatha Catholic High School. He is the winningest player in DeMatha basketball history with 120 career wins. He helped DeMatha win three WCAC championships, three city championships, and two Alhambra tournaments. James was second team All-Met as a junior and first team All-Met when he was a senior. Robinson averaged 11 point per game and six assists per game during his senior year. It was the same year DeMatha was rank number one in the state of Maryland and number 11 nationally by USA Today. James had offers from Maryland, Virginia, Miami, and many other schools but he decided to go to Pittsburgh.

In his freshmen year at Pittsburgh, James started in almost every game. He led the Big East in assist:turnover ratio, he was second in assists and third in minutes played. His sophomore year, James played in all 36 games. He set the school for assist:turnover ratio and was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award (nation’s best point guard).

During his junior season, James averaged 8.9 points per game and 5.1 assist per game. He scored a career high of 23 points against Duquesne. He had a double-double (15 points and 10 assist) in a win against Notre Dame, a team that featured Robinson’s former high school teammate Jerian Grant.

James is a floor general type of point guard that had an excellent high school career and a solid college career.

3. BeeJay Anya (DeMatha Catholic High School)- NC State 

Taking the third spot on the list is ACC Sixth Man of the Year and former DeMatha big man BeeJay Anya. At DeMatha, BeeJay was a three-year starter and one of the top centers in his 2013 class according to ESPN. He was a three-time All-WCAC honoree. Anya averaged 13.8 points per game, 10.6 rebounds per game, and 3.8 blocks per game in his senior year. In his junior year, BeeJay set the school record for blocks per game with 6.8.

BeeJay was the ACC Sixth Man of the Year this past season and was nominated for ACC Defensive Player of the Year. One of the biggest highlights of his college career came during the NCAA Tournament when he hit the game winning layup to beat LSU in the first round of the tournament.

4. Patrick Holloway (Paul VI)- George Mason 

Coming in at number four is George Mason’s guard. Back when Holloway played high school basketball for Paul VI, he was one of the top players in the WCAC especially in his senior year. Holloway was the Washington Post All-Met Player of the Year and the Virginia Independent Player of the Year in his senior season. That was the same season Paul VI beat DeMatha in the WCAC Championship. Patrick shot 35 percent from the three-point line and averaged 13.2 points per game.

This past season Patrick Holloway was second in the team in scoring with 10.9 points per game. He led the team in three-point field goal attempt with 121 and shot 33.1 percent from beyond the arc. Holloway started in seven games for George Mason and played a total of 27 games. In the first three games of the season he led the team in scoring. In the first game he scored 22 points, The second game he scored 19 points. And in the third game which was against West Virginia, Holloway scored 17 points.

5. Kris Jenkins (Gonzaga)- Villanova 

Former Gonzaga forward Kris Jenkins closes out my list. The 2012-13 Boys Basketball All-Met Player of the Year lead Gonzaga to a 30-9 in his senior season. In that same year he averaged 18 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game. Jenkins also averaged a double-double his junior year when he scored 20 points per game and grabbed 10 rebounds. Jenkins was a two-time WCAC Player of the Year and District of Columbia Player of the Year. He had the chance to go to schools like Clemson, Miami, and Xavier but he chose to play at Villanova.

This season, Jenkins averaged 6.3 points per game for the Wildcats who was one of the top basketball teams in the nation.

Ryan McFadden is the President of Inside The Locker Room and alumni from DeMatha Catholic High School. He will be attending IONA College in the fall with the plan to major in Mass Communications. Follow him on Twitter @RMcFadden15  

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