To most casual onlookers, this was about watching Cathedral’s Colin Hartman and Carmel’s AJ Hammons. Hartman is a 6’6″ freshman wing, who is as complete a perimeter there has been as a freshman. With and without the ball, he is active, and while Carmel completely over matched the youthful Irish, Hartman dazzled and showed the variety in his skills.

Hammons, very much the same. He plays with a group of upperclassman that benefit greatly that teams have to game plan for Hammons. The 6’10″ sophomore has great hands, D1 size, which continues to be reshaped and conditioned, and good foot work. Offensively, his major weakness is he doesn’t demand the basketball. Defensively, he struggles away from the lane, and teams which can exploit that will cause Carmel to make tough personnel decisions.

Cathedral wasn’t that team. Hammons was allowed to patrol the lane, and while Hartman looked great on the perimeter, Hammons was impressive on both ends. Several blocks and rebounds, he also showed a variety of post moves. Almost every time out, his improvement is noticeable with the one caveat being his propensity to pick up fouls.