Future NBA players helped mold West Oaks’ Neal
Basketball coach Diana Gillion remembers those golden moments when her son AJ, at age 10 or 11, got to play in games for her Showtime Ballers travel team alongside current NBA players, including the Orlando Magic’s Dwayne Bacon and Tony Bradley of the Philadelphia 76ers.
“AJ would get to play if it was a blowout,” she recalled with a laugh Tuesday. “He didn’t play defense. He stayed down at the offensive end and waited for the guys to pass the ball to him. They’d throw shotgun passes down the court and he’d catch the ball and shoot.
“I believe that’s where he got his shooting range. Those older guys would just let him shoot, shoot, shoot.”
AJ Neal is now a 6-foot-1 West Oaks Academy senior guard winding down the last of his six years of high school basketball.
And he can surely shoot.
Neal, who came to West Oaks as a fifth grader when his mom signed on as the school’s girls basketball coach, has scored 1,886 career points for West Oaks. The program has won 132 games and sent 26 players to college basketball during his stay.
“I learned a lot from the players who had all the years of experience,” Neal said. “They helped me change my mentality.
“When I was little, I was just playing around. I saw those guys were already trying to win championships. That changed how I looked at basketball.”
West Oaks (12-7) has had a difficult 2020-21 season marred by the COVID-19 outbreak and then a rash of injuries to almost every player except Neal.
But it is now chasing its own championship.
The Flames play at The Rock School (17-5) of Gainesville in an Sunshine Independent Athletic Association quarterfinal game on Thursday night.
The semifinals are set for Saturday night, leading up to a Sunday 5:30 p.m. championship game, all at the same site.
Central Pointe Christian Academy (29-5) of Kissimmee, the top-ranked team in the SIAA, is in the other half of the bracket. The White Tigers play Potter’s House (11-11) of Jacksonville in their Thursday quarterfinal at home.
“Our team is finally healthy,” Neal said this week. “We’re going to make a run. Everybody is doubting us because of our record. Records don’t mean nothing until you win a championship.”
Neal is averaging 15 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game this season for a Flame team that includes at least 10 college prospects. He’s also a National Honor Society student.
He said he has been motivated all his life by his mom, who was a scoring machine as a college player at Florida Memorial.
“Without her, I wouldn’t have any college [scholarship] offers,” AJ said. “I’ve always played for my mom and she’s always pushed me.”
And now there’s another basketball mind in the household. Diana married West Oaks boys head coach Kenny Gillion during the 2016-17 season.
“I was cool with that,” AJ said. “Nothing really changed. Coach has really helped me become a true point guard. He ran me through so many workouts to help me get faster, stronger. He’s been pushing me every day to be a better man, on and off the court.”
And then there are all the former West Oaks and Showtime Ballers players who have served as mentors.
The West Oaks roster for Neal’s seventh-grade season of 2015-16 featured several senior collegebound guards, including Andres Feliz, who excelled at Illinois.
A year later current European pro Sylvain “Frenchie” Francisco and Oregon senior starter L.J. Figueroa were standouts for West Oaks, an independent program that restocks its lineup before each season with prospects.
They were followed by the likes of Selton Miguel (Kansas State) and A.J. Staton (Samford), who are starting as college freshmen, and Tyrell Jones, who signed with Auburn out of high school and is now set to play for South Alabama in the 2021-22 season.
“AJ was able to play with those other guys as a seventh-grader because his basketball IQ was very high for his age,” Kenny Gillion said. “He knew the plays. He was telling people where to go.”
Neal scored 36 points in one game in that 2015-16 season when starters were rested. But what he is proud of now is that he is no longer just a sharpshooter. Twice last season he had triple-doubles with 10-plus points, rebounds and assists.
“I’m an all-around point guard and that’s because all of the work my coaches and teammates have put in for me,” he said. “All I’ve been playing with all these years are older guys. I grew up fast. But that was good for me.”
Neal is confident he will be playing major college basketball next season but he is waiting to make a decision. He said he will likely sign after the college season ends, and he knows more about rosters that could be impacted by transfers and players returning for additional seasons under the NCAA’s new COVID-19 allowances.
Schools that are showing serious interest include Denver, Kansas State, Ole Miss, New Mexico, N.C. State, Oklahoma State, Samford and TCU.