James Dews

04/18/06: Listed as the 100th best player in his class. - www.RivalsHoops.com

06/08/05: Listed as the 68th best player in his class. - www.RivalsHoops.com

04/27/05: James Dews' dream has always been to play in the NBA. For the Lakota East High junior, the first chance to make that dream become a reality will be June 21-27 at the NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. Dews, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound guard, was recommended by recruiting guru Bob Gibbons, who is arguably the best high-school talent evaluator in the nation. "This is my shot," said Dews, who was one of 20 shooting guards invited to the camp. "I'll have plenty of others, but this is my first opportunity to prove to them. I'm excited."

He should be. The invitation-only camp will feature the top 100 prospects in the class of 2006-07, and Dews certainly will have the opportunity to build on an already-impressive reputation.

"My first reaction (to getting invited) was I just felt happy because I think I deserved it," Dews said. "I wanted it so I could get my name out there. It's already out there. Now, it's a chance to show non-believers what I can do and make them into a believer."

At the Boo Williams Invitational Tournament in Hampton, Va. April 8-10, Dews made Gibbons a believer. Facing Team Florida in pool play, Dews poured in 30 points, including six 3-pointers, while being matched up against 6-4 guard Jeremiah Rivers, the son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers. Gibbons introduced himself to Dews after the game and invited him to the NBAPA camp. "It's a honor because it's an NBA basketball camp," said Dews, who plays for All-Ohio Red. "For somebody that high up to think I'm a good basketball player is an honor itself. To be considered in the top 100 in the nation speaks for itself."

The all-expense paid camp will feature a staff that includes current and retired NBA players, former college coaches and some of the nation’s best high school coaches. College scouts will not be in attendance. The purpose of the camp is for players to not only experience basketball at the highest level, but also learn the ins and outs of the real world as a budding athlete. "I'll learn a lot at this camp," Dews said. "It's not just a basketball camp; they'll teach us how to survive out in the real world. Of course they'll teach us basketball skills as well. It will be a great experience."

Dews will be joined by North College Hill stars O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker, along with Dunbar standout Daequan Cook, who has already committed to The Ohio State University. "I know all of them are good, just like me," said Dews, who also will attend the Nike All-America Camp July 5-9 in Indianapolis. "There'll be a lot of competition, but I’m ready."

Dews, who averaged 20.2 points per game this past season, was named Greater Miami Conference Player of the Year and was a second-team all-state selection. "It's just tremendous. I'm so happy for him," East coach Wally Vickers said. "It will be a great experience. It's more than just basketball. The NBA Players Association camp — I'd have to put that right up with an invitation to the Nike camp, maybe even above that because the NBA camp is more exclusive."

Dews also said the recruiting process is "heating up." Michigan and Purdue visited on Monday, while West Virginia was in town Wednesday and Seton Hall today. Xavier is scheduled to visit next week.

Dews hopes to make a verbal commitment after the July recruiting period, and sign during the early signing period in November.
- Middletown Journal


04/05/05: Listed as the 94th best player in his class. - PrepSpotlight.com

11/30/04: "Our Ohio Editor Chris Johnson tells us Xavier and Dayton have both offered 6'4 Jr James Dews from West Chester (Lakota East) OH, but schools like Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wake Forest, Miami-FL, Georgetown, West Virginia, and Connecticut also are showing serious interest." - HoopScoop (moved to Inactive)

11/29/04: "Lakota East traveled up to Columbus for the Spotlight Showcase, and handed Cleveland Glenville an 88-75 defeat. East's James Dews was named the tournament MVP after a 36 point outburst." - Recruiting Nation.com

11/03/04: Listed as the 3rd best 2 guard in Ohio, regardless of class. - PrepSpotlight.com

10/15/04: Will attend Michigan St's Midnight Madness. - InsidersHoops.com

09/07/04: "I’m considering Dayton, Xavier, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Wake Forest," said Dews. "It’s still early in the recruiting process for me, so I don’t have a leader. I will take some unofficial visits this year. Dayton and Xavier have already offered." - RivalsHoops.com (2 to 1)

08/25/04: Listed as the 83rd best player in his class. - PrepSpotlight

08/18/04: Listed as the 44th best player in his class. - Recruiting Nation

08/14/04: "Dews, the 6-3 shooting guard from Lakota East is widely regarded as one of the top 3 to 5 players in the class of 2006 in the state of Ohio, and more notably, the best pure shooter regardless of class in the entire state. . .
"I've got Michigan, Michigan State, Xavier, Ohio State, Purdue, and Dayton all looking at me closely right now."
Although Dews is a big fan of ACC basketball, namely North Carolina and Wake Forest, he also is interested in staying close to home." - Irisheyes.com (Notre Dame)

08/11/04: Listed as the 69th best player in his class –
RivalsHoops.com

07/11/04: Listed as the 15th best SG prospect at the Nike camp. - HoopMasters.com

07/09/04: "James Dews, a 6-3, 180-pound guard from Cincinnati, OH, is hearing from Dayton, Purdue, Michigan State, Illinois, Wake Forest, Xavier, and Ohio State." - HoopMasters.com

07/09/04: Dews is attending the Nike Camp in Indy. Other Cincinnatians there include Johnny Wolf (StX), Josh Chicester (Lakota West), and Chris Knight (Withrow). - Mike Ryan

05/04/04: "Dews played for both the All Ohio 17's, and 16's. He saw limited playing time with the older club, but on Sunday morning, he came off the bench to score 12 points, in their third round game vs. Martin Brothers Select. For the 16's he took a lot more shots, and scored a lot more points. His shot was off and on, all weekend, but when he's hot, he can carry a team." - Recruiting Nation.com

04/26/04: "The sophomore class in Cincinnati, has also represented, and no one more than Lakota East's James Dews. Dews is playing for the All Ohio Red 16's, and he had a great start to the Spring/Summer season, last weekend in Michigan. He proved that he is a great scorer, and he has also improved his defense. Dews, right now, is the best sophomore in Cincinnati." - www.recruitingnation.com

04/17/04: "James is the definition of a streaky shooter. In his first game of the day vs. the Michigan Mustangs he shot the ball well, and finished with 20 points. In the second game vs. the Family, he struggled shooting the ball, and his team struggled as well, losing by 20 points." - Recruiting Nation

04/16/04: Dews just finished participating in a tournament in Europe with a group of Ohio "All Stars" that included players like Daequan Cook from Dayton Dunbar and Chris McKnight from Lancaster. The team won the overall championship. Hed led the tournament in assists per game. Dews has the attention of Cincinnati, Xavier, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Ohio State. - Mike Ryan (1 to 2 - but there is a lot of time left)

03/03/04: Listed as the 59th best soph in the country. (Heath White #130) - HoopScoop

02/20/04: Through 19 games, Dews is hitting 49% from the field, 45% from the three point line and 87.5% from the FT line. He also averaged 23 pts, three rebounds, about two steals and one assist per game this year. In their last regular season game, Lakota east beat Colerain. Dews had 15 pts, including two treys. They play West High in the first round of the tournament. – Mike Ryan

01/20/04: “The biggest surprise in the tournament was 6'3 Soph James Dews from West Chester (Lakota East) OH, who had 32 points versus CenterReach (Our Savior New American) NY and had 35 points and hit 11-15 field goals and 4-5 3-pointers in a consolation upset against Champlain St. Lambert) QU. So Johnson talked to Lakota East head coach Wally Vickers after the game and found out that the early favorites for Dews are Ohio State, Cincinnati, Michigan, Michigan State, Xavier, and Notre Dame. However, despite Dews' lights out performance, some Cincinnati scouting services still believe that Dews is no better than the third best guard in the class in the Cincinnati area behind 6'2 Soph Keith White from Cincinnati (Winton Woods) OH and 6'3 Soph Adrian Graves from Cincinnati (Hughes) OH. In sharp contrast, Johnson has Dews ranked #4 in the state's loaded sophomore class. The knock on Dews is that he can't create his own shot, but Johnson thinks there are a lot of guys in college who don't can shoot the ball as well as Dews does right now. And Dews continues to improve his ability to create off the dribble. Dews also did an excellent job defensively against 6'1 Pierre-Marie Alfidor-Cespedes from Montreal (Champlain St. Lambert) ON, who was one of the two major busts of the entire tournament. “ - HoopScoop

01/20/04: James Dews, Johnny Wolf and Justin Orr were named to the All Tourney team for “Flyin’ To The Hoop”.

01/18/04: James Dews had 35 points on 15-18 from the field, including 4-4 behind the arc in a win over St. Lambert of Canada in the Flyin’ To The Hoop tourney.

01/17/04: “James Dews launched a last second shot, but it was off the mark. Our Savior New American got a huge performance from Juan Diego Palacios, 43 points and 9 rebounds, to pull out a 70-67 victory in overtime. Dews tallied 32 points for the Thunderhawks of Lakota East.” - HoopMasters.com

01/16/04: Tonight I watched Lakota East sophomore James Dews and his Thunderhawks face the Colerain Cardinals. Lakota East won the game by 16, pulling away late in the 4th quarter. Dews has already been on the Cincinnati recruiting radar screen for some time.

Dews started the evening guarding the Colerain PG, which may have indicated how much Coach Wally Vickers trusted his defense. Meanwhile, Colerain’s best player Dominick Goodman guarded Dews.

James had four treys total this evening, two from the left baseline (a favorite spot) and one from each ‘elbow’ of the arc. One baseline trey (shot from about 25 feet from my seat) was let loose with a hand in his face. I am not sure he could see the basket as he let it go. Swoosh. He has a nice, natural stroke and high release that could use some more speed (ala Darnell Burton), but since he's just a Soph that should come with time.

During a 13-2 run for LE to start the second half, Dews had seven of the 13 points – his two layups and the hand-in-his-face trey.

Dews finished the game 10-17 from the field and 4-5 from the arc. Four points were from driving layups. Three assists (one - a beautiful pass in the paint), two steals and one turnover. He could have easily been 11-16 as he missed two five foot jumpers in the second quarter in traffic. He played all but two minutes of the game.

Negatives are few. He sometimes does not get back quick enough on defense and got faked big time on a mini-crossover by a Colerain guard. He listens carefully and is very coachable. Also on the team is Dan Peters Jr, the son of Bearcat assistant Dan Peters. – Mike Ryan


01/02/04: “Tied 24-24 at the half, the Big Blue come back from a 6 point 3rd quarter deficit and never look back. Keys to the game included losing Jeremy Sallee to fouls midway through the 3rd quarter and the Hamilton defense holding James Dews to only 11 points.” – Lakota East website

12/21/03: Standout sophomore James Dews hit an 8-foot turnaround jumper with four seconds remaining, giving Lakota East its first lead since the first quarter and a 56-55 victory over visiting Sycamore.

East, ranked No. 8 in the Enquirer Division I coaches' poll, worked the ball for about 20 seconds leading up to Dews' shot. They ended up running a play just put in Saturday morning, in which Dews gets a screen from the weak side and posts up. "We were just trying to find the best-looking shot," said Dews, who scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half. "Jay Veal set a great screen, Jeremy (Sallee) made a great pass, and I just curled."

"Our kids had great poise at the end," said East coach Wally Vickers.

The game was a key early-season Greater Miami Conference matchup. Surprising Sycamore was off to a 3-0 start, including a victory over Lakota West last weekend. East used double-teaming pressure all over the floor to force takeaways on five straight possessions in the final 2:30. "We kept holding on, holding on and holding on," said Sycamore coach Rob Matula. "And then it's the little things that get you."

The game matched two of the leading scorers in the GMC in Dews and Sycamore junior Mike Kimmey. Dews' average was 23 points a game, and he was coming off a 35-point outburst Wednesday night against Lakota West. Kimmey was averaging 20 points a game and put on an outburst of 10 points in the final 2:17 of the first quarter, including a 3-pointer with two seconds left, that changed the balance of the game. "He's a good player. He's only 5-8, but he can create some shots," said Matula.

With the focus established on Kimmey, Sycamore's supporting cast found easier avenues to attack the rest of the way and managed to stay a step or two ahead of East until the very end. Vickers switched up defensive assignments and put Dews into denial defense on Kimmey for the second half. Kimmey only took four second-half shots.” Lakota East is now 4-1 on the year. Dews had 11 pts in one game, but has had at least 22 in every other game. - Enquirer.com

12/11/03: Princeton (1-1), used an 11-0 run at the start of the third quarter, to pull away from Lakota East (1-1), and coast to a 62-53 win. Lakota East led the game early on, behind sophomore James Dews, but the Princeton defense stiffened up, and Dews found good shots hard to come by, as the Vikings pulled out to a nine point halftime lead. Dews finished the game with 22 points, but struggled shooting the ball all night.” – Recruiting Nation

12/07/03: “Six-foot-four sophomore James Dews scored 34 points to lead East, which shot 52 percent from the field.” He had four treys. They beat Woodward by 45 for their first win of the season. – Enquirer.com

12/05/03: Listed as Fourth team All-State by HoopScoop. Others on the 4th team – Johnny Wolf, Justin Orr, (freshman) Aaron Pogue, and Isaiah Carson.

10/17/03: Dews sat in the stands for the Bearcats Midnight Madness.

10/13/03: Listed as the 95th best player in his class. (Greg Oden #1; Poellnitz, 110; Nick Duffy, 175) - HoopScoop

08/22/03: Listed as the 11th best SG in the country. (Heath White – Winton Woods - is 14th) – PrepSpotlight.com

6/17/03: Dews was selected to play in the Nike Hoop Jamboree, a showcase for 100 of the nations top rising Freshmen & Sophomores. “Shooter deluxe. James can nail jumpers all day long from 22 feet and in. He can also score off the bounce which makes him a scorer and a shooter(dangerous combination). This kid also seems to have the drive to keep improving. #3 in Ohio's daunted freshman class right now. I bet he won't be #3 when it is all said and done.” - PrepSpotlight

5/26/03: Named to the 12 man All Tournament team, 15 Under, at the Nike All Ohio Midwest Future Stars Classic in Columbus. Dews scored 21 in the championship game for the victorious All Ohio Red.

4/17/03: Dews is currently in Italy with a touring team.

3/25/03: “Can shoot with anyone- any class. Probably the best shooter in the class, even better than Poellnitz. Also can get to the rack and see the floor. Definitely deserves mention when you're talking about the best in the class.” - Ozie Davis, Ohio Prep Scene

2/20/03: Lakota East ended their season with a two point loss to Aiken. Dews line for the year –
17.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.7 apg, 1.2 spg. He hit 44.5% from the field, 88.5% from the line and played over 29 mpg. – Mike Ryan

2/14/03: “Sophomore Cordale Boyd added 14 points, and freshman James Dews chipped in 13. Dews made his first three foul shots before missing one, ending a streak of 30 straight made.” Lakota East lost to Hamilton by 3. – Enquirer.com

2/1/03: “Freshman James Dews scored all 19 of his points in the second half as the Thunderhawks rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit. Dews' scoring show helped the Thunderhawks rally from a 13-point deficit.” Dews had 2 treys and 7 FT’s in the game. – Enquirer.com

1/31/03: Dews scored 25 of Lakota East’s 44 points in a thrilling loss to Lakota West.

1/11/03: "James Dews and Cordale Boyd each scored career highs to lead the Thunderhawks. Dews, a freshman, scored 21 points. Boyd made seven of 12 shots and finished with 20." - Enquirer.com

1/8/03: James attended the DePaul-Bearcats game.

12/22/02: Dews is averaging 18 ppg, 16 shots pg and has hit 16/18 from the line in the first six games playing on the varsity, although he is just a freshman.