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Gayman excels on AAU summer hoops tour
From Indy to Vegas, Clay Gayman recently crisscrossed the map with his Adidas sponsored AAU Gateway Basketball Club out of St. Louis.
Gayman, who will be entering his junior year at Nevada High School, spent the month of July squaring off against some of the top high school competition in America, and appears to be locked and loaded for the 2016-17 high school basketball season.
"The competition was stiff," the 6-foot-6, 205 pound combo forward told the Daily Mail.
At the Adidas Summer Championships (formerly Adidas Super 64 Tournament) July 20-24 in Las Vegas, Gayman guided Gateway to a perfect 3-0 record in pool play.
After advancing to the championship bracket, Gayman led his squad to a 64-52 victory over the Northwest Panthers (Wash.) finishing with a team-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. Northwest is sponsored by Boston Celtics point guard Avery Bradley.
In Gateway's 67-44 quarterfinal loss to the Compton (Calif.) Magic, the NHS product again led his team in scoring, tallying 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting while pulling down 13 rebounds.
"Compton was awesome," Gayman said, adding, that he doesn't get caught up in the hype of other blue-chip high school prospects.
"I don't look at rankings, I don't look at names," he said. "I just look at the number of the guy I'm guarding. If I pump my head full of ideas, I start thinking instead of just playing."
In addition to the tournaments in Las Vegas and Indianapolis, Gayman also traveled with Gateway to Dallas, Texas, Atlanta, Ga., and Louisville, Ky. The AAU circuit also included regional stops in St. Louis and Kansas City.
"Vegas was the only tournament I flew to," he said. "It was my first time flying and it was awful."
While traveling to the various locales, Gayman said he crossed paths with some of the top coaches in the college game.
Those coaches included Bill Self of the University of Kansas, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams, Louisville's Rick Pitino, and Bobby Hurley of Arizona State.
While Gayman said it was an eye-opening experience seeing several of the upper-echelon coaches of D-I men's college basketball present for his tournaments, it didn't change the way he played on the court.
"I go into every game with a cool, level-head," he said. "Just telling myself to 'go out there and play my game.' I have the same mentality on the summer circuit as I do playing for the (NHS) Tigers and in pick-up games."
Gayman noted that the summer circuit differs quite a bit in terms of style of play than what he is accustomed to in the West Central Conference.
"Everyone likes to run and everyone likes to make the flashy pass in transition," he said of AAU basketball.
"They want to make that Magic Johnson pass. I wasn't like that. But if you didn't have your hands up, you would either get hit in the face or the ball would go flying 10-feet over your head. You definitely had to be in good shape, because it was up-tempo. Everyone wants to run in these tournaments."
Despite a 36 point tournament-game effort, Gayman said his top performance of the summer came against the Arkansas Hawks, the nation's No. 3 ranked AAU team. Against Arkansas, Gayman's all-around skills were on full display, as he scored 21 points while chipping in with nine rebounds, four assists, and two blocks."
I would take 10 points and 10 assists over 30 points and no assists," Gayman said. "I like getting my teammates involved."
Unofficial visits
Prior to his whirlwind month of July, Gayman made unofficial visits to D-I schools Wichita State University and Kansas State University. While at WSU, Gayman spent time as a camp counselor while also showcasing his skills in front of assistant coaches from the school.
Gayman said his trip to Manhattan, Kan., was an experience he won't soon forget, as he was able to scrimmage against K-State starters and other rotation players. The highlight of the trip for Gayman was the opportunity he was afforded to matchup against Dean Wade, a 6-10 forward entering his sophomore season at KSU.
Wade's accolades include 2015 Gatorade Kansas Player of the Year and 2015 PARADE boys' basketball All-American.
"He's one of the best players I've ever played against," Gayman said. "At 6-10, can shoot, dribble, pass, and dunk it over the top of anybody.
"Over the course of the three games we played, I probably scored 15 points on him. He wasn't making a concerted effort to stop me, but he was playing solid defense."
Gayman said KSU head coach Bruce Weber did "a lot of yelling," while coaches from both KSU and WSU "coach their players hard."
"The scrimmages were tough," he said, adding that he felt "small" matching up against D-I caliber competition.
"It's kind of like going from freshman to JV and then JV to varsity," he said. "Everybody is a step faster, a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, and that much quicker."
Gayman said he has a vigorous workout routine as he continues to prepare for the upcoming Nevada Tiger basketball season.
"I take 500 to 600 jump shots a day, and shoot 100 free throws," he said. "I've added 15 pounds of muscle since the end of the high school basketball season. And
"I've been getting out and running, making sure my endurance stays up. Just trying to keep getting better every day."