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dribbles right, executed a razor-sharp, step- back crossover and launched a three that softly swished through the net.
"When John Wall showed up to watch him play, he wasn't hyped-up, real excited or anything," says Allen. "When we talked about it, he was calm. He just looked at me and said, 'I must be doing good.'"
A few days later, Wall reached out, asking if Aquille would be interested in working out with his little brother.
"It's cool because I get to talk to John Wall and spend some time with him," says Carr. "He's just a regular dude, so it ain't that big a deal."
Carr is fortunate to have others in his ear, local role models of similar stature who've defied the odds.
"In speaking to Aquille, he says that he patterned his game after me and Shawnta Rogers," says Bogues. "And I guess we're good guys to look up to because we were successful small guards, guys who under- stood what it took to get to the next level and keep climbing."
"I've been around Aquille for a long time,"
adds Rogers, the 5-4 overseas pro and Bal- timore legend from Lake Clifton who was named the Atlantic 10's Player of the Year at George Washington University in 1999. "He was always a tough kid with a lot of heart and an advanced understanding of the game. And he can finish at the rim with the best of them."
I
evates, floats with the balance of a ninja, and lays the ball softly through the net. Hampered with early foul trouble, he con- centrates on his floor game, zipping passes at angles that only he can see.
t's February 24th on a frigid, wintry eve- ning, and the Hill Field House on the campus of Morgan State University is packed to the gizzards. There are 500
people braving the bitter temperatures who can't get in to the sold-out city champion- ship game.
During warm-ups, Aquille walks deli- cately on his tippy toes with his slightly bow-legged gate. He rolls his head, smiling, nodding and lip-synching the Jay-Z and Yo Gotti lyrics coming out of the overhead speakers. He swings and loosens up the slim-corded muscles in his arms like Floyd Mayweather during Michael Buffer's "Let's Get Ready to Rrrrumble!"
He grabs an early steal with the hand speed of a lizard's tongue, zooms down court, el-
After scoring seven first-half points, he takes over in the third quarter and finishes with 32. He strips the ball at will, flies through the air, contorting his body mid-flight to convert astonishing layups as well as drain- ing 25-foot jumpers. Dribbling and weaving through traffic like a human blur, he delivers implausible passes that force the crowd out of their seats.
"He lets the game come to him and he's te- nacious on defense," says Mike Daniel, the head coach at City College High School. "He's savvy, intelligent and has an unbelievable will to win at all costs. That kid's got a Sixth Sense, and only the great ones have that."
After Carr's scorching 43 points help deliver Patterson its first ever 4A regional cham- pionship, Urbana High School head coach John Cooper was at a loss.
"We tried to prepare for him, but we weren't prepared," said a red-faced Cooper. "You go zone and he hits threes, you play up on
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