Bobby Capobianco

02/28/08: Dropped to Inactive since Cincinnati has not been mentioned in a while. - Mike Ryan

02/28/08: "Loveland junior forward Bobby Capobianco is certainly one of the state's top players to watch in the 2009 class and has several offers already. Loveland coach Tim Partin said Capobianco will "more than likely make a decision in June." Partin said West Virginia, Marquette and St. Louis are the three offers that interest Capobianco the most, but other schools like Virginia, UMass and UCLA have shown interest and are waiting until the AAU season before deciding to make an offer." - Enquirer.com, Mike Dyer

02/20/08: Named the Div 1, Associated Press Southwest All-District boys basketball Second Team.

01/25/08: "Junior center Bobby Capobianco scored 26 points to surpass 1,000 for his career." - Enquirer.com

01/18/08: Capobianco led Loveland with 22 points and 16 rebounds in a win over Glen Este.

01/09/08: "In chatting with Loveland basketball coach Tim Partin today, got an update on Tigers 6-8 junior Bobby Capobianco and his college outlook: The two most serious offers from prominent programs, for now, are from West Virginia and Marquette. Saint Louis also has offered. Virginia came in recently to visit, UCLA called yesterday and Iowa is also very interested, Partin said. Capobianco is averaging 19 points and 11.5 rebounds a game for Loveland (8-3)." - Tom Groeschen from the blogs at www.Enquirer.com

11/21/07: "Loveland junior forward Bobby Capobianco averaged 20.4 points and 10.5 rebounds as a sophomore. Capobianco has several offers, including Bowling Green, Iowa, Marquette, Miami U., Southern Illinois and West Virginia. Prep Spotlight analyst John Stovall regards Capobianco as the best junior in the state. Stovall said Capobianco kind of reminds him of former Moeller standout Ryan Childress and thinks he will end up at a high-major Division I program." - Enquirer.com

10/29/07:
http://www.hoopmasters.com/article.php?aid=1193663237

10/23/07:
http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=730150

10/08/07:
http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=723908

10/02/07: "Loveland junior forward Bobby Capobianco was recently offered by Iowa, according to Rivals.com." - Enquirer.com

09/25/07: Listed as the 138th best player in the 2009 class. -www.HoopScoopOnline.com

09/19/07:
http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=716370

07/19/07:
Placed back on the active list, per tipster.

04/22/07:
Dropped to inactive per his performance at the Pittsburgh JamFest. Will possibly reactivate him down the road - Mike Ryan

03/05/07: Loveland sophomore forward Bobby Capobianco doesn't have any scholarship offers (as of Saturday night), but Purdue and Wisconsin have shown the most interest, according to Loveland coach Tim Partin. Capobianco visited Florida this past weekend. UC, Xavier, Stanford and Indiana are among others who have shown interest. - Enquirer.com

02/27/07: Scored 31, had 13 rebs and 3 blocks in a playoff game against Winton Woods.

01/27/07: Sophomore center Bobby Capobianco had 29 points and 13 rebounds in a win over Anderson.

01/24/07:
http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?cid=633575

01/24/07: Averaging 18 ppg, 11 rpg, 2.7 blocks per game. He is also hitting 46% on his three point attempts, according to the FAVC conference website.

01/17/07: Had three treys in a win over Sycamore.

01/12/07: Photo. Capobianco is in the dark uniform.

"Loveland's Bobby Capobianco is second in the league in scoring, averaging 18.1 points per-game, leads the league with almost 12 rebounds per-game and leads the league with 2.3 blocks per-game."

12/29/06: "Capobianco, a 6-foot-7 center, scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds." - Enquirer.com

12/02/06:
http://www.hackssports.com/v2/articles/basketball.Dec2.2006.loveland.mcnicholas.htm

12/02/06: "Sophomore Bobby Capobianco had 27 points and Wozniak added 21 points for Loveland. (Coach) Partin said Capobianco had close to 20 rebounds." - Enquirer.com

10/22/06:
"Bobby Capobianco is one of the top power forwards in the class of 2009 for the state of Ohio. The 6-8 PF from Loveland HS near Cincinnati has solid post moves, including a nice jump hook, and is a strong rebounder."
http://prephoopsonline.com/fan-access/catching-up-with-capobianco

05/14/06: (Snipped for length) "Bobby Capobianco isn't O.J. Mayo. He's a 6-foot-8 freshman at Loveland High School, a 15-year-old who wears size 18 shoes. His feet are big enough that a standard-issue gym locker isn't practical, so during P.E. class he is granted the rare privilege of a full-sized locker.

Bobby has played AAU basketball since he was recruited out of a YMCA league in the third grade.

Bobby is a basketball junkie. He's hard on himself, and he wants his coaches to be hard on him. He wants to be as good as he can be, and he thinks the best way to do that is to play against the best. Is that wrong? Of course not.

Capobianco's father, Bob, played football on a full scholarship at Vanderbilt. His mother, Barbara, played basketball there, also on a full ride. The former Barbara Brackman was a Parade All-American who once made both ends of a one-and-one to clinch a women's NIT title for the Commodores.

Bob's father was a landscaper, his mother an office manager. Barbara's father was a preacher, and her mother directed the choir. Neither would have gone to private, exclusive, expensive Vanderbilt without full grants-in-aid.

This is what they want for their son: The ability to test himself entirely as a basketball player, and a good education at a quality school, preferably all expenses paid. With college costs typically hovering around $20,000 a year or more, what parent wouldn't want that? As Bob Sr. says, "I can't tell you how many times we've bought size 18 basketball shoes. We're prepaying for college through our investment in AAU."

Some parents invest in their children's education with mutual funds. Others spend spring and summer weekends at AAU tournaments.

Since the end of the high school season, Bobby has traveled to AAU tournaments every weekend: Columbus, Indianapolis, Virginia Beach, Houston, Akron, Fort Wayne, Ind. This weekend, he's in Bloomington, Ind. Next weekend, he'll be in North Carolina.

Bobby leaves Thursday night or Friday, driving or flying, and spends two or three nights in a hotel. Schedules permitting, he is back in school Monday morning.

He gets all his travel paid for, either by the shoe company that sponsors his team or by his coach, Ken Blackwell. Blackwell jokes, "I can either have a beach house or a basketball team."

Bobby gets free shoes and bags. He gets all the accoutrements his high school is forbidden to give him. He plays against some of the best players his age in the country. This isn't Loveland and Glen Este on a Friday night; this is the Kingswood Classic in Houston, "the biggest recruiting tournament in all of AAU basketball," Bobby says.

After the tournament in Fort Wayne, Bobby's coach at Loveland, Tim Partin, got a call from Purdue about his freshman center. North Carolina State's query came by fax.

Free gear. Free travel. Free ego-massaging. Fridays out of school. He's 15 years old. No wonder AAU triggers conflicting emotions. "There's good stories and there's bad stories," says Jerry Doerger, who has coached high school basketball locally since 1962. He appreciates the exposure and competition AAU provides but he also wonders about the cost.

"Kids in sixth and seventh grade think more about their AAU team than their high school team. But you've almost got to play AAU to get a scholarship," he said. Or as Partin puts it, "I don't hear from a college coach unless he's seen the player at an AAU game first."

Bobby switched AAU teams recently, moving from the Ohio Force to the Indiana Elite 1s. He and his parents determined the move would benefit his "career." The Ohio coach didn't push him hard enough, he said. "I play well when I'm reprimanded," Bobby said.

The Capobiancos haven't had to make the three-plus hour trek to Bloomington yet; they just go to each weekend's tournament. There is no practice, just game after game on the weekends. That, plus the attention paid by high profile college coaches to AAU tournaments, has some high school coaches cranky about the bad habits their players might be acquiring. "They have to be deprogrammed," says Mike Price, coach of Oak Hills High and also an AAU team. "You have to be selfish at those things. You have to score to be noticed."

Bobby says he isn't a selfish player by nature and college coaches will appreciate a big man who passes out of a double team as much as one who tries to score through it. Yet he concedes the temptation to play for yourself is there.

Bob Sr. allows that AAU ball can produce "kids whose heads have been filled with grandiose ideas. It could be hard to get their complete attention" in high school games. And yet, since moving to the area just before school began last fall, he and Barbara have warmed to what he calls "the high school experience" at Loveland, and they intend for Bobby to enjoy it.

"Any kid who enjoys his high school experience is going to enjoy playing for his school and community," Bob Sr. says. "The Homecoming parade was fantastic. The stands were full at the football game. You're never going to have that in AAU. You're going to have 12 or 15 people in an empty gym. Am I selling my soul, or Bobby's, to the devil for him to have an opportunity? I don't think I'd stoop to that. It's a means to an end. Athletics may or may not last a long time, but if you have the desire to take advantage of it and get the best education you can, you should. Bobby understands he has to develop his mental acuity."

Bobby thinks he might like to be an engineer. He calls that "Plan B." For now, he will play next weekend in North Carolina, then take a break to practice 10 days with his high school team and attend a sneaker company camp in San Diego, for "the top 150 ninth graders," before the AAU Nationals in July. That will take him almost to August. When, finally, Bobby Capobianco will have time to be a kid.

Not that he wants that. "It's always about the competition," says Bobby. "Then, it's the exposure, to get to where people know you and your name is out there. And I want to win a national championship." Said Bob Sr., "If he said tomorrow he wanted to be an opera singer, we'd support him in that." - Enquirer.com

March 06: Named Honorable Mention, All District as a freshman.