The Milwaukee’s got talent show
Phenom University is a star-studded AAU team
Milwaukee always seems to have top-notch basketball talent.
Several players from the city have reached the NBA. There have been elite travel teams and nationally ranked high school squads.
But this year’s 17-and-under Phenom University AAU team might be the greatest collection of amateur basketball talent in state history. Every kid on the roster has scholarship offers from NCAA Division I schools, and some of the players are among the most coveted recruits in the country.
Phenom is playing this week in the Peach Jam, the national championship for Nike-sponsored travel teams on the highly competitive EYBL circuit. It is played during a NCAA evaluation period, so the sidelines in Augusta, Georgia, will be crammed with big-name college coaches.
Phenom’s players are already well-known to talent scouts:
Jalen Johnson is a 6-foot-8, fivestar prospect who committed to Duke last week.
Patrick Baldwin Jr. is a 6-10 forward widely seen as the No. 1 prospect in the 2021 class.
Reece Beekman is a smooth 6-2
point guard who will play at Virginia.
❚ Jaemyn Brakefield is a rugged 6-8 forward who is the No. 17 prospect in the 2020 class according to ESPN.
❚ Long-limbed 6-8 forward Jamari Sibley is a four-star recruit.
❚ Carter Gilmore is a 6-7 big man whose offer list includes DePaul and UW-Milwaukee.
Phenom is headed by Antonio Curro, an intense basketball impresario who is known in hoops circles for organizing events with his NY2LA company, including the “Summer Jam” tournament at Homestead High School that often features top AAU teams. Curro also runs camps and youth leagues around Milwaukee, so he is familiar with the top players from the area.
But he didn’t create Phenom until last year. He said he was reluctant to coach.
“Last January and February there was a lot of movement, with some of the other programs (in the area),” Curro said. “There were a few kids that didn’t have a place to go. And so I had some people ask me if I wanted to do this, but I had avoided (coaching) for so long.
“But every one of these kids has grown up in front of me. So it was just kind of the way it developed. It just happened.”
Phenom qualified for last year’s Peach Jam in the 16-and-under division and finished second. The team added some more talent and will be one of the favorites to win the tournament this year.
Combining powers
“Superteam” is a term thrown around basketball quite often these days. NBA stars link up in free agency or by forcing trades. Top recruits band together at college programs. Critics trace this line of action to AAU basketball.
Talent likes to be around talent. The Phenom players are among the nation’s elite, so it made sense to them to play together.
“It makes us a superteam but not only that we’re just unselfish people,” said Johnson, who led Nicolet to the state title last season while playing with Sibley. “We love winning and I think that’s what separates us from other AAU teams.
“We don’t have any players who are just here for the scoring. We’re all here because we love the game and we love to win. And we love playing together, most importantly.”
Johnson said egos don’t clash. “We all have high-major offers,” he said. “So we can’t walk in here thinking we’re all that because the guys to the left and right of us have the exact same offers. The same major conferences. It’s just really pushing each other to strive to be the best.”
Sibley, whose top-10 list of schools includes Marquette, said he has improved dramatically since Phenom started last year.
“It’s really no other team in the state that can offer you the level of other players that are high level,” Sibley said. “Other teams have good players, but everybody on our team is Division I and we push each other. And we want to be the best. Playing with those guys helped me get better every day.”
That competition also attracted Brakefield and Beekman, Milwaukee natives who have moved to different states. Beekman lives in Louisiana and Brakefield attends Huntington Prep in West Virginia.
Beekman said he stays with relatives in the city during summers. He’s also close with Steve Smith, who helps Curro coach the 17U Phenom team along with Jose Winston. It was the right situation for the savvy point guard whose playmaking skills attracted Virginia coach Tony Bennett.
“Just being back with some of the guys I grew up playing with,” Beekman said. “Coach Steve, he’s been my coach for a long time.”
Hard preparation
Phenom’s talent is undeniable, but the team also puts in work. Before the players left for the Peach Jam, they held several three-hour practices at Homestead. Before that, they were doing intense track sessions to be in peak condition.
Curro doesn’t just roll out the balls. He is a demanding coach who has the team run timed sprints and full-court one-on-one drills. There was a focused intensity even during the team’s water breaks.
“You got to play hard 36 minutes by clock, the way they play 17U,” Curro said. “You’ve got to able to train for 2-3 times that (length) at high intensity.”
It’s not how typical teenagers spend their summer days. But these aren’t typical teenagers, and the rigorous practices are a preview of the next level.
“It’s basically like college before college,” Johnson said. “Practicing like how a college team would. It’s very good mental preparation, as far as having this talent around you. It’s kind of surreal just the level of competition in this gym.”
Baldwin Jr., the son of the UW-Milwaukee men’s basketball coach, savors the environment. He is a year younger than most of his Phenom teammates, but his talent jumps off the court. During a team scrimmage, he drained threepointers off the dribble with ease and showed incredible passing vision.
“Just playing up (in age) in general, you get to challenge yourself against older competition,” Baldwin said. “You get be around great guys like Jalen, Carter, Jamari, Reece, Jaemyn. Just really good basketball players. And talking the game with older players is really beneficial to anyone, I believe.
“That’s really what my parents and some people in my corner advised me to do is play up."
State of talent
The hard work from the Phenom players is one reason why Baldwin thinks this is a golden age of young basketball talent in the state.
“To be honest everybody put in the work to get to this point and they’re still putting in the work,” Baldwin said. “Just based off the talent we have now, and the work ethic, it’s easy to see why they’re all stockpiled in Wisconsin.
“A lot of people may not know about Wisconsin in the past. But when you look back at the history, there’s been great players. Good teams. I’m just fortunate to be in this situation with all this great talent.”
There have been many impressive AAU teams from Wisconsin. The Vic Tanny Warriors in 1989 boasted Jim McIlvaine, Damon Key, Silas Mills and Calvin Rayford and finished second in a national AAU tournament. The Wisconsin Playground Warriors in 2000 were led by Travis Diener and Greg Brown and are the only team from the state to win the Peach Jam title.
Curro knows and respects that history. But he also knows how special his team is.
“It’s just a unique group, very versatile, very talented with a lot of upside,” Curro said while watching players run defensive drills. “You’ve got Virginia, national champion (Beekman). Duke (Johnson). Patrick can go wherever he wants. Jaemyn’s got 50 offers. Jamari’s got 30 offers. Carter’s got 10.
"Come on. It’s not heard of. Ever.”