SoCalHoops High School News

Santa Barbara: Ingerson Suspended
SLO: Zimmerman Improving--(Dec. 5, 2000)

Dommanic Ingerson (6'-2" Sr. SG) who has signed with Michigan for next season won't be playing in today's Ocean View Tournament of Champions, and he's been suspended from the team for five games according to an article by Dan Shiells appearing today in the Santa Barbara News-Press.  The article is available online, at this link, and we've also presented some excerpts below.  

The other big news out of the northern end of the Southern Section,  is about Ryan Zimmerman (6'-10" Sr. F) from Arroyo Grande, which may just have the tallest lineup of any team in the Southern Section, with Phillip Johnson (6'-11" Sr. C) and Zimmerman.  The San Luis Obispo Tribune's Dan Ruthemeyer wrote a nice profile of Zimmerman today and the strides and improvements he's made in his game this season. The article is available at this link, and we've also got some excerpts below.

Santa Barbara cage star Ingerson suspended
12/5/00
By DAN SHIELLS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
dshiells@newspress.com

Playing on various all-star teams over the summer, Dommanic Ingerson earned a reputation and a nickname on internet sites that track the nation's top high school basketball players. Dom Perignon. As in, the finest.

Ingerson certainly is a vintage talent. The reigning county player of the year, the 6-foot-4 Santa Barbara High senior is rated among the top 20 prospects nationally by at least one scouting service and recently signed with Michigan. He averaged 22 points last year and is averaging 30 points through four games this year. But even the finest of champagnes has a volataile quality to it. And Ingerson has occasionally popped his cork, drawing technical fouls for taunting or for disrepecting officials to the point that he was ordered out of the game.

"I'm not sure what the problem is," said SBHS coach Jeff Lavender. "And I don't know if we have the answers."

Ingerson had a major meltdown Friday night in the Dons' win over Righetti. Near the end of the game, he drew a technical foul for a demonstrative reaction to a call, and he drew a second technical foul (an automatic ejection) for some parting comments. That alone would have meant trouble, but Ingerson went out with a bang, grabbing his jersey where it read "Santa Barbara" and flashing a thumbs down signal.

As a result, Ingerson has been suspended from the team for five days. He will miss the Dons' first three games in this week's Tournament of Champions at Ocean View High but will be eligible to play again Saturday.  "I need to learn to control my emotions," Ingerson said Monday. "There was a buildup of things, a lot of things. Being on the court, basketball, that's all I got, and I play with a lot of emotion. But I can't bring my problems off the court to the game.

"I'm going to accept my punishment like a man," he added. "It was a mistake. I (pointed to the jersey) because I was pointing at myself, because I was disappointed in my performance." Lavender said Ingerson began building a bridge back to the Dons on Monday.

"He wrote a nice letter of apology and read it to the team today," said Lavender. "He wrote letters of apology to the officials. We don't have anything down in writing but, basically, the situation is that, if he does anything like this again, he's off the team for good."

Ingerson's talent has never been in question. He has NBA-style moves, including a jump-stop jumper where he fades back as he shoots. He has major hops and is strong enough to muscle inside for rebounds or to play defense. Moreover, he is not by nature a selfish player. He is averaging 30 points. . .   "He's such a talent," said Lavender. "But what's really great about him is he's also good at getting other guys involved. He's going to be the No. 1 option for us but he's so good at creating things that he sets up a lot of shots for other guys."

* * * *

Ingerson, who grew up in inner-city Oakland, has had a difficult past, and it appears now that it could be threatening his future.  He transferred to Santa Barbara from Oakland last year after running into trouble with his coach. He became eligible for the Dons when an aunt who lives in town agreed to become his legal guardian. Since then, however, his living situation has changed a few times. He temporarily is staying with Lavender while his mother attempts to find a place to live in Santa Barbara. "The thing about Dom is that he has been getting better," said Lavender. "His grades had slipped but he had brought them back up. Friday night was aberration. He was not himself at all. It was disappointing because we'd seen a lot of improvement." Moreover, said Lavender, Ingerson's sometimes flamboyant mannerisms in games, which some interpret as a bad attitude, do not reflect his personality off the court. "He's intelligent, smart, he has lot of personality," said Lavender. "He's fun. My kids love him."

Ingerson's ability to mesh with his teammates will be critical for the Dons, who graduated most of the other players from last year's 26-3 team, including 3-point whiz Brent Williams. Fortunately for Santa Barbara, the Dons' No. 2 option is an accomplished player in his own right, 6-7 senior Trey Putnam. Putnam has the shot and ballhandling skills to be a shooting guard or wing player, so he's slightly out of position with Ingerson filling those roles. Still, his play in the summer (20-point average) and on a traveling all-star team has drawn the attention of college scouts. He reportedly has deferred on offers from Air Force and Cal State Fullerton and will wait until the spring to sign. "I think we have the best 1-2 punch I can remember here in quite a while," said Lavender. "I think it compares to what I had at San Marcos when we had Rob Ramaker and Zak DeMatteo." Ramaker earned All-America honors and went on to sign with UCSB while DeMatteo became a 3-point shooting star for Westmont.

Unfortunately for Santa Barbara, the learning curve will be steep. The Dons are scheduled to compete against some of the top teams in the country at the Long Beach Rim Rattler Tournament Dec. 18-21 and will also face several ranked teams at their own tournament and the Ocean View Tournament. "We're not going to have as good a record as we did last year," cautioned Lavender.  And that is assuming Ingerson will play.

Arroyo Grande’s Zimmerman takes his game up a notch

Senior forward averaging 17.5 points in first four games
Dan Ruthemeyer
The Tribune

Ryan Zimmerman is showing what he can do. The Arroyo Grande High basketball player has picked up his game for his senior season. “He played a ton of basketball this summer,” said Arroyo Grande coach Jeff Byars. “He wanted to continue to improve. His knowledge and feel of the game has improved.” Zimmerman, a 6-10 forward, averaged 4.6 points during his junior season.

But through the first four games of 2000-2001, he is averaging 17.5 points. For helping Arroyo Grande to a 4-0 start, Zimmerman is The Tribune’s Prep Athlete of the Week. Zimmerman played his best basketball last week against Cabrillo, scoring 15 first-half points. “He just dominated,” said Byars. “He had 15 points and two or three steals. He was all over the place. We’ve talked about his tendency to stand around and watch, but he was very active the entire first half.”

Zimmerman is a valuable player for the Eagles. He can go to the basket, with long arms he’s ideal to play at the top of Arroyo Grande’s trapping defense, and he’s a good defender. “Defensively, he can guard just about anyone with exception of a big guy in the post,” said Byars. “He can guard a point guard, a shooting guard or a three (small forward) or four (power forward). There are different places we can put him.” Zimmerman’s biggest scoring game last season was 15 points. He did it twice — both times after teammate Phillip Johnson was lost with a broken foot.

Zimmerman opened this season by scoring 17 points against Dos Pueblos. “Last year, he scored for us at the end of the year. When Phil went down he had to,” said Byars. “This year, we have so many different people who can score, but he can be pretty consistent taking the ball to the basket.” Though Zimmerman has already shown improvement, there is more work to be done. Byars would like to see more rebounds and continued aggressiveness. “He needs to be aggresive every possession, defensively and offensively,” said Byars. “He can really be tough to defend and tough to score on.”

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