MOUNT LAUREL: Players to Watch + Rookie Spotlight

By Kevin Kolodziej | Mount Laurel Media Associate

All Buckets: Dame Gross

The reigning MVP helped his team win the Summer 2018 championship in his first full Ultimate Hoops season, and one can only thing it’s the beginning of something special. He’s one of the tallest, strongest and best all-around players in the league and clearly knows what it takes to win a title. He’s the type of player that makes his teammates better and is a top-two rebounder in the league. He’s going to terrorize the teams without true big-men all season long and will be the main reason that All Buckets should compete for a second-straight title this season.

Kobe’s Rebounders: Mike Kouser

Maybe the most dominant offensive player in the league, Kobe’s Rebounders captain Mike Kouser is back again for another season. He’s just about as impossible to stop in the post as anyone in the league, and when his 3-point shot is falling, he’s the most unguardable player in the league period. He’s a vocal leader who yells at his team a lot, which makes for excellent entertainment, and often disagrees with the referees, as well. Bottom line: he’s dominant with the ball in his hands and is probably the most entertaining player to watch in the league for non-basketball reasons. Giddy up.

South Jersey Dynasty: Justin DeJoseph

Justin DeJoseph just captured his fifth banner last season, the most in UHoops Philadelphia Mount Laurel league history - and that’s not by mistake. While DeJoseph won’t score 35 points a night like some of his teammates, he’s a true glue-guy, which is one of the most important roles to have in this league. He’s a top defender in the league and often matches up with the opposition’s top scorer, has a deadly midrange jumper and is as athletic as anyone else in the league. With five championships to his name, it’ll be fun to watch and see if he can turn that into six this season.

Jesus Disciples: Tory Whiting

Tory Whiting is one of the top overall players in the league and has the capability to single-handedly win games in this league. His strengths include: shooting, ball-handling, passing, athleticism and defense (quite literally everything you need to be a good basketball player). He’s one of the fastest players in the league with the ball in his hands and has a very high basketball-IQ on top of that. He’ll be atop the PPR leaders this season, and expect big stat-lines from him once again.

Rookie Spotlight

While Mustafa El-Amin isn’t technically a rookie, he’s still one of the newest players to the league. He signed up in the Spring 2018 season, the same season that the gym caught fire and cut the year short. With that being said, El-Amin only played three games before the season was cancelled. Over those three games, El-Amin made quite the name for himself and was the first overall pick in the Fall 2018 draft.

He’s a big guard at 6-3 and is a dominant scorer. He’s going to be among the league leaders in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, shooting percentage and blocks. He’s just as, if not more athletic, than just about anyone else in the league. 

While there’s still a bit of unknown with him (again, only three games) he’s proven in pickup games at the gym that he is a bonafide baller.

We’ll see if he can live up to the first-overall pick status - something tells me he’ll have no problem doing just that.