By Paul M. Banks
Evan Turner attended St. Joseph high school in Chicago, along with another Big Ten point guard who’s been his team’s MVP- Illinois’ Demetri McCamey.
I asked Turner about his friendship with McCamey. “Demetri- obviously we’ve known each other since we were 14, we’ve probably done everything that is possible to do with each other, high school ball, AAU teams going around the country. It’s like having a brother no doubt,” Turner responded. I followed up with a query about the friendly rivalry they have.
“We were just so competitive growing up, sometimes I’d be at the gym at night, leaving the gym and I say: ‘Yo fat boy I just put up 400 shots, I hope you’re doing the same thing, because when I see you I’m about to kill you.’ But you know he takes it all in fun. We take it all in fun. It’s about the need to push ourselves, back in high school it was like what did Evan do? What did Demetri do? How did he do? I’m gonna beat him. So it definitely helped us a lot,” Turner replied.
So could they remain friends if McCamey was on Michigan? “If he was on Michigan I wouldn’t be able to talk to him anymore- That’s the rule. But it’s all good he’s a good guy,” Turner answered.
This year McCamey is leading his team in scoring and the conference in assists, and he’s accounted for about 60% of his team’s offense in the past five games. The 6-foot-7 Turner averages team highs of 18.6 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists while shooting 58.3 percent from the floor. Here’s his most impressive stat though- four Big Ten player of the week awards, despite being healthy for just six weeks this season.
I was going to ask McCamey a few questions for this piece on Saturday, but he was made unavailable to the media by his coach. For more on that click here.