This past June, Laurent Rivard took his talents back to his high school, Northfield Mount Hermon, for its alumni game. He lit up the scoreboard with an impressive display of 3 point shooting and…. Well, nothing else. No, really—his 14 threes accounted for 42 of his 44 points. Check it out here.
On a related note, Final Four hero Spike Albrecht also went to NMH, and here he plays the main point guard for Rivard, dishing out 19 assists. Yup, the same Spike Albrecht that tore up Louisville in the first half of this past year’s NCAA championship game.
The highlights of the alumni game prompted me to check out Rivard’s old days at NMH. The first thing that stands out, besides the fact that Rivard loves his long sleeve Under Armours, is that Rivard still has the same silky smooth three-point shot. The highlight reel features him not only shooting set threes, but also includes him coming off screens and hitting off balance threes, which we see far less of today (probably because they’re so much harder to make). Yet, the days of thinking that Rivard has always been a one-dimensional player are definitively over.
Another thing I noticed is Rivard’s unreal athleticism, as he was absolutely throwing it down in high school. The two most impressive to me are his posterizing dunk on #34 at 0:17 as well as his windmill alley-oop at 0:20, but the mixtape is littered with many more one-handed and two-handed dunks and alley-oops.
Rivard also clearly knew how to pass the ball. He was able to move the ball inside and get the ball to the centers and power forwards of the team so that they could finish from close range. I loved his funky two-handed pass at 1:08—it was a pretty sleek and innovative way to move the ball on the fast break, and I feel like I don’t see it often enough.
It was also good to watch Rivard drive to the hoop and finish with contact, such as at 0:22. I feel like I’ve never seen him take a shot inside of the three-point line, unless on a fast break. In fact, last year 199 of his 216 field goal attempts were from deep.
But this point brings me to my next and final point I’d like to make about the mixtape and Rivard’s game. I was extremely impressed to see his wide array of moves, such as his ball fakes (2:07) and dribbling (1:47), to get himself open for his mid-range game. Harvard probably took three mid-range shots, at most, in each of its games last year, and it’d be good to see Rivard complement his ridiculous three-point game with a nice mid-range, so that he can keep his defenders on their toes when he rises up. But then again, if you’re shooting 40% from three, why bother?
