Former Lake Clifton shooting guard Will Barton had a few simple words of advice for Nick Faust before this summer.
"He told me just to keep my head up and play well, keep my composure and just take the game easy," said Faust, a rising senior shooting guard at City and a cousin of Barton's. "I kind of followed his footsteps. He taught me a lot and I'm learning from it and putting it in my game."
It was just one year ago that Barton tore up the AAU scene with Nike Baltimore Elite, impressed at the National Basketball Players Association Top 100 Camp, and parlayed his summer play into a high national ranking.
This summer, it's Faust's turn to try and duplicate Barton's success. He's off to a good start so far, emerging as Nike Baltimore Elite's top player and turning heads in Charlottesville, Va., last Thursday through Saturday at the NBPA Top 100 Camp.Faust, the seventh-leading scorer at 12.7 points per game, led his Pistons squad to an 81-73 win over the Hawks for the camp championship. For his efforts, Faust was named the Surprise Player of the camp.
"He's just one of those guys that, as the summer evolves, he keeps getting better," said Dave Telep, Scout.com's national recruiting director. "He shot the ball exceptionally well this weekend. When you have a guy who's as intelligent as he is, and someone who was already a good player but a late bloomer, it's a pretty exciting combination. ... We kind of slipped him in to the Top 100, but he's probably going to end up in the 75 range. That's a really good summer for him when you think about the beginning of the spring, he wasn't on too many folks' radars. Now he's walking out of the John Paul Jones Arena as the Surprise Player at the Top 100 Camp. That's pretty cool."
The 6-foot-5½ , 170-pound Faust came out strong from the start, scoring 17 points in the opener. Playing against the best competition in the country in front of current and former NBA players, scouts and media didn't seem to faze Faust at all.
"I wasn't nervous or feeling pressure," Faust said. "I just went out and played my game. I just took my shots and stuff like that."
Faust said he received one-on-one instruction from New York Knicks point guard Chris Duhon, who also coached the Pistons throughout the Top 100 Camp. While Faust was entirely focused on his game in Charlottesville, it's hard not to pay attention to his ever-expanding recruiting picture.
"Penn State, UMass, Maryland, UNLV, FSU, Drexel [have offered]," Faust said. "I'm getting looked at by Duke, Kentucky. I'm taking a visit to Marquette next weekend and also Maryland. [I'm also hearing] from Virginia Tech, Clemson, Virginia, Xavier, George Mason."
Faust said there's a good possibility he waits until the end of the summer to make a decision so as many coaches as possible have a chance to see him on the AAU circuit. New scholarships continue to come in, including the offer from Maryland, which was tendered about two weeks ago.
"It was a great thing," Faust said. "It's the hometown school and they see a lot of potential in me. So that would be a good look."
Baltimore Sun photo of Nick Faust by Gene Sweeney Jr. / March 16, 2010