The game was for the junior high school championship of San Bernardino, Calif., a town of 100,000 located 30 miles east, inland of Los Angeles.

The favorite, Arrowview Junior High, was led by an extremely tall, 6-8 eighth grader, who was already drawing the attention of basketball scouts and prominent, sponsored travel clubs and high school programs throughout Southern California.

Arrowview's opponent that day was Golden Valley Junior High, which matched a 5-11 seventh grader against Arrowview's star, the young giant who would eventually grow to 7-feet.

"I had to play him, though we went to the zone defense against him, collapsing on him when he got the ball and put it on the floor," recalled Antione Wright. "I was just 5-11 then, but I was quicker than Tyson. Tyson still scored 18 and blocked all kinds of shots, but we ended up winning the game and the championship. I had 19. Then we went our separate ways."

The Tyson that Wright referred to, is Tyson Chandler, the 7-footer who got picked No. 2 in the NBA Draft, straight out of high school. The Tyson Chandler who will play for the Chicago Bulls, getting traded after being selected by the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Tyson Chandler who moved from San Bernardino to the Los Angeles area after that eighth grade year, enrolling at basketball powerhouse Dominguez High School in Compton, a Los Angeles suburb. The Tyson Chandler who would go on to be featured on 60 Minutes after his freshman season. The Tyson Chandler whose fame rose to national prominence after his ninth grade year at the Compton school.

Wright was sitting in his living room last week, watching the NBA Draft, thrilled for his former rival's success. "I'm happy for him and his family and the position they're in," said Wright.

"I've seen Tyson around a few times since the junior high days and I'll say "Hi" to him. We've gone in different directions. He moved away from the Inland Empire to Los Angeles, where they get more media attention, and I went to the East Coast to attend boarding school."

Wright, who has played with Elvert Perry's Inland basketball club since the fifth grade, decided to take a different path than the rest of his classmates from Golden Valley, most of whom matriculated to nearby to Pacific High School, the local public high school. Having met older members of the Inland program who had gone to East Coast college preparatory boarding schools, Wright and his mother Wanda decided that going away to school might be the answer.

He was accepted to Lawrence Academy, a small (400-student) boarding school in Groton, Mass., which emphasized greater individualized teaching. In a classroom setting where the student-to-teacher ratio is often as low as 10 to 1, Wright has thrived academically, posting a 2.8 GPA and a qualifying SAT score of 890.

"My mom thought that (Lawrence) was a good idea, to get out of the area and go to a better environment academically," said Wright. "She didn't think that passing this opportunity up would be a good idea.

"Many of my friends who are attending the local high school here in San Bernardino, are struggling academically and having trouble with the SAT. I definitely see the advantage academically of making the sacrifice to attend a quality prep school.

"Going away to school has made me more motivated in basketball because, aside from studying, there isn't much for me to do in Groton, Massachusetts. There aren't that many distractions. I learned more about responsibility by leaving home early. You learn time management fast in prep school. And it's real competitive academically; we have a lot of smart kids who come to Lawrence from all over the country, from all over the world. It was hard adjusting, but I pretty much got the hang of it after the first year."

"The most underrated player in the country"

While many in the media don't know who Antione Wright is, that doesn't mean that's the case with the college coaches.

College recruiters, who have heard of Wright's growing reputation and seen him play, have learned to adjust well, making the trek to Lawrence, a relatively unknown stop for some of the nation's top collegiate basketball recruiters. In fact, Lawrence plays in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference's Class C, the least competitive of the three prep school divisions. But that hasn't deterred the recruiters from making him a priority. Especially after Wright was named to the adidas ABCD Camp underclassmen all-star game last summer.

"Oh, I've gotten lots of mail from schools," said Wright. "And in the last couple of weeks, the phone has been ringing a lot."

Virginia was the first school to offer Wright a scholarship. UConn is also giving him the rush. Tennessee, Texas A&M, Miami-Florida, and Maryland have also made scholarship offers. UMass, Southern Cal, Georgetown, Arizona State and Stanford are also showing lots of interest.

"He's the most underrated player in the country," said one Pac-Ten assistant coach (college coaches aren't allowed to be directly quoted talking about potential recruits). "Some of these experts don't even have him in the Top 100, but he's really, really good. He's definitely a Top 25 player without blinking an eye. I think he's a Top 10 talent.

"His skill level for his size is unbelievable," continued the anonymous Pac-Ten assistant. "He can play 2-3 positions, he plays hard, and he's a great kid. I think he's another Ray Allen. I liked him before when I saw him last summer, but he's gotten so much better. I love him."

The West Coast coaches aren't the only ones who have noticed Wright's improvement.

"He's in the gym all the time, how can you not like that?" said another anonymous college assistant, this one from the Big 12. "He shoots the lights out, he doesn't miss. Antione is really athletic, he's got major skills and he comes to play. He's really aggressive on the boards. He gets a lot of tip jams.

"Twan's special, he's one of the best players in the country. He's such a good kid too. I love recruiting a kid like him, he's got a great personality."

"He's a pro," said one ACC assistant. "I loved him last summer at ABCD Camp and it's like everyone forgot about him, forgot he made the underclass all-star game at camp. Lawrence is a pretty small place, but Wright's a big time talent."

Me and Kool-Aid

Since Lawrence Academy let out on June 8, Wright has been putting in roughly nine hours of workouts a day, preparing for the NCAA open-evaluation period, when college coaches decide who they're going to focus their recruiting on. For an upcoming high school senior ballplayer, the two weeks in July during the open-period can make or break your recruiting.

Since returning home to San Bernardino, Wright has spent nearly every morning from 7-11 a.m. at the Colton Recreation Center, working with his mentor, Coach Perry, getting in shots and working on his ballhandling. He spends over two hours at Riverside City College in the late afternoon, on his own, working on his conditioning and lifting weights. Then, Perry has the Inland team practicing daily during the week, from 8-10 p.m. And in between all that (he shoots at least 700 jumpers per day), Wright squeezes in some pick-up games. And for most of those hours, Perry, who is known by his nickname, "Kool-Aid," is right there beside the silky-smooth swingman, motivating him, correcting him and offering direction.

Perry is more than just a summer coach to Wright. "It's more like a father/son relationship," said Wright, who won't turn 17 until next January. "Kool-Aid pushes me a lot and I respond to him. We've grown real tight over the years, he can relate to me. We just have a really, really tight relationship. "He makes me work hard," Wright said. "Kool-Aid has been pushing me harder because of all the hype the other players are getting. That's my motivation. We just work hard every day."

First stop: adidas ABCD camp

Wright has the ability to come from media obscurity and become one of the hottest prospects in the country; much like Tracy McGrady did in 1996. Ranked the No. 5 rising senior in the ESPN.com Top 100 rankings, Wright will be playing in this week's adidas ABCD Camp, arguably the top camp of the summer, at Farleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck, N.J.).

McGrady, who was a virtual unknown from Auburndale, Florida, utilized the media-intensity of the adidas ABCD Camp in '96 to showcase his talents, outshining well-known players such as Lamar Odom, Dion Glover and Khalid El-Amin.

Much of the media focus at this year's adidas ABCD Camp will be on two extremely talented swingmen, both considered the best players in their respective classes, 6-7 rising senior Lenny Cooke (Northern Valley Regional H.S./Old Tappan, N.J.) and 6-7 wunderkind, rising junior LeBron James (St. Vincent-St. Mary H.S./Akron, Ohio).

"They're both great players," said Wright of Cooke and James. "They have Lenny Cooke down as No. 1 and I want to see how I do against him. I'm not really concerned about it. But, if he's No. 1, that's the guy you want to measure yourself against. It would be fun to play against both those guys. Have fun, play hard and see what happens from there."

"Oh, he's going to take ABCD Camp by storm, its no question," said Perry. "It ain't even an issue. That's my least worry. He's worked too hard and he's too talented. He can shoot the rock from anywhere, I mean deep range. But he can also handle the ball good enough to play point. And he's nearly 6-8!

"'Twan has big time athleticism, runs the floor, sees the floor, plays defense, passes the ball and can play over the rim. He's got no weaknesses."

Wright is equally confident going into what is likely one of the most important months of his very young existence.

"I worked a lot on my game, I feel the improvement," said Wright. "Lots of people have commented on my improvement. I feel so much more confident this year.

"Overall, I've gotten stronger, I jump higher, my handle is tighter, and my jumper is more consistent. I get a lot more lift on my jump shot, its falling from deep on a consistent basis and I'm dunking effortlessly. I can get my whole forearm inside the rim.

"The best thing I do is to create my own shot and play within the offense, to help my own teammates," Wright said. "I like to penetrate and dish or penetrate and finish. My defense has improved as well. I know I'm ready."

Running with the college crowd

Coach Perry took Wright and Richard Cobbs, a highly rated 6-5 rising junior along with him when he worked a couple of camps in the Southwest recently. This week-long road trip gave Wright an opportunity to play pickup ball with some college and professional stars.

"Playing against college guys out here, I see how much I've improved," said Wright. "I measure myself against them."

And just how did Wright do?

"Man, he was busting their butts down in Houston (Westside Rec Center) one weekend and he was running with Rashard Lewis and some of the Rockets," proclaimed Perry, laughing like a proud papa. "He nearly dunked on (Jules) Camara of Kentucky, lucky for Camara that he grabbed 'Twan's forearm.

"And before that, when we were down in Arizona, he dunked on Tommie Smith of Arizona State something horrible. And he went head-to-head against Bernard King of Texas A&M too, and 'Twan was right there with him and King's an All-Big 12 player.

"Man, I'm excited. I can't wait until my boy gets back down to ABCD Camp. He's gonna show them all something this July."

Besides being one of the select 200-plus campers at the invitation-only adidas ABCD Camp, Wright will be the star attraction on a talented Inland team that will be playing in the adidas 3 Stripes Tournament at Hofstra University (Hempstead, N.Y.) from July 12-14. Then, after a week off, the evaluation period begins anew on July 25 with the 344-team 7th Annual adidas Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas, the best tournament of the summer. Inland will finish up the summer at the Double Pump Best of the Summer Tournament (July 29-Aug. 2) in Los Angeles (Loyola-Marymount University).

Mark Mayemura and David Benezra are the editors of RecruitingUSA.com (www.recruitingusa.com), which offers daily information on the college basketball recruiting scene with information on the top high school and junior college prospects across the country. To subscribe, call RecruitingUSA.com at (818) 783-2244 or e-mail them at hoopsusa@mindspring.com.