Unsigned Senior Spotlight - Nick Bray
The 2018-19 Kingswood-Oxford basketball team was one of the best kept secrets in New England last year. A small day-school with neither boarders nor post-grads, KO didn't have any notable prospects at the time either, and yet they were somehow able to make waves in the highly competitive Class B of the NEPSAC.
In the twelve months since though, we've come to learn plenty about a handful of prospects from that team, and in so doing, understand why they were so successful.
Nick Bray was a senior guard on that team and critical to their success. He followed up his senior campaign with a similarly successful spring AAU season with New Haven Heat North in which they advanced to the final four of the Pittsburgh Jam Fest and won a championship at the Super 16 Memorial Day Showcase.
While he missed the summer with injury, Bray just finished a post-graduate season at Suffield Academy in which he proved his unique talents yet again.
Prospect Profile
Height: 6'0"
Position: PG
School: Suffield Academy
AAU: New Haven Heat
Academics: 3.0 GPA & 24 ACT
Awards & Accolades
- 1,500+ career high school points
- 339 career made three-pointers
- 2018-19 Kingswood Oxford team captain
- 2018 Kingswood Invitational Tournament MVP
- 2019 First Team All-NEPSAC Class B
Personal Statement
Over the years basketball has been something that has brought me to a lot of places and taught me a ton of things. It has taught me to keep my composure when things aren't going my way, how to deal with heartbreaking defeats, but it has also helped me make many close relationships with people and has shaped me into the person I am today. I have played six years of varsity basketball, playing in the 8th grade and throughout my high school career at Kingswood Oxford and most recently finishing a post-graduate year at Suffield Academy. Playing in the NEPSAC has undoubtedly made me a better player. Competing against the highest level of competition night in and night out has made me become a better player over the years. Over the last few years, I have heard from a number of different coaches from Division 1, 2 and 3. I am looking for a good balance between basketball and academics. On the court, I am a fierce defender who wants to guard the opposing team's best perimeter player every game. On the offensive end, I am a lightning quick guard, who can shoot the ball very well. One season I shot the ball 53% from three. I also have the ability to get past my defender and get in the lane to make plays for both myself and my teammates.
Recommendation
"Nick is an efficient and consistent player and a kind and modest young man. Any college coach would be lucky to have him in their program. His shooting ability is unique in that he is able to adjust the height and timing of his release to accommodate different closeouts. He is deceptively quick and athletic, enabling him to get a first step past his defender and explode to the rim. On a team with at least two to three other scholarship level guards, Nick was both our best on ball defender and our fastest player with the ball from end to end. These attributes enable Nick to get his own shot off whenever he wants, which makes it that much more impressive that he plays so selflessly. We always knew what we would get from Nick, and he never put himself before the team."
- Matthew Fava, Head Coach, Suffield Academy
Scouting Report
Perhaps the most impressive part of Bray’s game is the lack of a clear weakness. Versatile is a word that is often used, and over-used, to describe prospects today but almost always comes with either a correlating clear deficiency in their game or lack of a true weapon. In Bray’s case, he is uniquely versatile because he doesn’t possess a clear deficiency that opposing teams can game-plan to exploit and simultaneously has clear weapons in very distinct areas of the game – he’s an excellent on-ball defender, he has terrific end-to-end speed, and the ability to not just make shots from the outside, but make tough shots. So while he wasn’t necessarily the type of guy who was a threat to go out and put up 20 or 30 points on any given night this season, the wide scope of his talents makes him truly unique and a potential scholarship caliber prospect.
Video Highlights
Nick Bray