{"id":212095,"date":"2015-10-09T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T20:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=212095"},"modified":"2015-10-09T06:00:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T20:00:36","slug":"kobee-preps-up-for-college-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/kobee-preps-up-for-college-hoops\/","title":{"rendered":"Kobee preps up for college hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Marianas High School standout Kobee Mendoza is getting ready for college basketball as he attended a camp and signed up for a high school team in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"Kobee<\/a>
Kobee Mendoza, left, joins fellow CNMI player Chris Mizer for a photo during a break in The Hoop College Bound Showcase in Salem, Oregon last weekend.
(Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mendoza joined The Hoop College Bound Showcase in Salem, Oregon last Oct. 3 and 4, keeping pace with his fellow high school players and trying to impress college scouts and coaches who attended the skills camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players run games in front of college coaches, basically for exposure purposes. There were about 80 guys there. Playing in this showcase gave me an idea of what I\u2019ll be going up against in the future,\u201d said Mendoza.<\/p>\n

The camp had live streaming and also drew coverage from media outlets across the U.S. It produced several NBA players from its previous editions and the program\u2019s alumni include Devin Harris, Jamal Crawford, Jason Terry, Nate Robinson, Trey Burke, and Kevin Martin, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these guys (camp participants) have different playing styles and that was what is cool about playing here. I got to pick up a few things from different people. Most importantly, I learned new ways to attack the defense,\u201d said Mendoza, who led the MHS Dolphins to back-to-back championships in the Marianas Interscholastic Sports Organization Basketball League.<\/p>\n

He also won a handful of individual awards in both adult and youth leagues on Saipan and represented the CNMI in a couple of regional tournaments before moving to Seattle, Washington this year.<\/p>\n

He is now a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn, Washington and plays point guard for the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball out here is definitely a whole new level. But honestly, Saipan has a lot of talent. I think about the guys I play with back home like (Chris Mizer, Karlo De Leon, Michael Espinosa, Jack Aranda, Prince Factor, and Jesse Santos) and they could definitely do some work out here. Basketball out here is a lot faster, more technical, and a lot more physical. The biggest obstacle for athletes from the islands is exposure. There is so much talent on Saipan that\u2019s been unrecognized,\u201d the 6\u20191 guard added.<\/p>\n

With his stint at The Hoop College Bound Showcase and upcoming high school season this winter, Mendoza vowed to become a better player every day to get ready for the collegiate level.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for college, I\u2019m being opened-minded about everything right now. I\u2019d want to go somewhere in the West Coast. I think the most realistic approach is to get into a junior college or a Division II school and go on from there. My ultimate goal is to play college ball,\u201d said Mendoza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Marianas High School standout Kobee Mendoza is getting ready for college basketball as he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":212099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7485,26,7486,5188],"class_list":["post-212095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-chris-mizer","tag-cnmi","tag-devin-harris","tag-kobee-mendoza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}