As soon as Anthony Dorsey took over as the Pikesville boys basketball coach before the season, he started hearing about senior Devohn Gilmore.
"When I first got the job, that's the first thing they told me," said Dorsey, who came to Pikesville from Potomac High in Oxon Hill. "They told me I probably had one of the best guards in the county and the entire Baltimore area. And I got that not just from people at Pikesville, but from other coaches in the county."
Gilmore, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound combo guard, averages 25.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals per game for the Panthers (18-3). Pikesville enters the state playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Class 1A North region.
Gilmore, who scored 44 points in an overtime win against Lansdowne last week, has scored in double figures every game this season. He has scored 20 points or more in 18 of Pikesville's 21 games and 35 points or more "five or six times," Dorsey said. You name it, Gilmore has done it."He can score with the ball in his hands, he can shoot the ball off the screen and he can create his own shot," Dorsey said. "He just makes other players better. He can dish the ball and he's a very good defensive player. I can't even think of a weakness. ... I would like for him to rebound a little more just because of the makeup of our team, but for his position, he rebounds very well. I kind of lean on him to do a lot for us."
Gilmore is still waiting on his first scholarship offer, but a few Division I programs have expressed interest.
"He's receiving some DI interest," Dorsey said. "Texas Southern has shown a little interest, [along with] Norfolk State, Loyola of Chicago and a couple of DIIs. But he's definitely a Division I player. I think he's definitely an All-Met player and I think most of the coaches in the county would probably agree."
Dorsey said he's in the process of circulating Gilmore's highlight tape among college coaches. He is fully qualified academically and has no plans to do a post-grad year. Dorsey hopes Pikesville's postseason run drums up more college interest for Gilmore.
"I think right now, because we're a small school, he's not really on the radar," Dorsey said. "So I'm hoping with the playoffs, we can go pretty far and maybe make it to Comcast, then he'll get a lot more interest."
Baltimore Sun photo of Devohn Gilmore by Algerina Perna / Jan 26, 2010