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Putnam Science Academy boys’ varsity basketball coach Dana Valentine pulled one of his players aside early in the season and gave him a little lefthanded compliment.
“I told Amir that if the game was one-on-one, he would be great because he has so many moves,” Valentine recalled telling Amir Sanders. “He can finish at the rim, he can really shoot it. He can score in a lot of different ways.”
The game of course, is not one-on-one, so Sanders has had to work on developing his all-around game in order to play more. And as that has happened, he has gotten the chance to show off his scoring abilities.
“I’m playing a lot better defense,” said Sanders, a senior guard from Queens, N.Y. “(Coach) gets on us a lot during practice about playing defense so I know I have to show that during the games to get more playing time.
“I ask him a lot of questions. I want to make sure I am where I should be, I’m working on being in gaps, helpside, one-on-one. I think I’ve gotten a lot better since the start.”
Sanders can wreak havoc defensively. He is athletic and quick enough to keep ballhandlers in front of him, and at 6-foot, 2-inch with long arms; he can harass plenty of shots. He had one of the biggest blocks of the season for the Mustangs on Jan. 9 against St. Thomas More, when he contested a shot while playing help defense under the basket. That block, in the final minutes, helped propel PSA to an 85-83 win.
And it came in which he wasn’t scoring much, finishing the game with eight points.
“He’s really gotten a lot better about understanding the game with five players on the court,” Valentine said. “He’s learning how to do other things, like rebounding and defending.”
While he continues to grow the other parts of his game, Sanders knows he can always fill up the scoring column.
“That’s just going to come,” he said. “I know I’m a good scorer, so that’s just going to happen. I don’t worry about how much I score.”
In PSA’s six games since returning from holiday break, Sanders is averaging 20.8 points per game, including the Jan. 17 game at Commonwealth when he poured in a season-high 33 points. That topped the 29 he had just two games earlier.
“He’s talented as hell,” Valentine said. “He’s come a long way already. He’s just starting to get his confidence and understand the game. He’s come such a long way in just the past five or six weeks, imagine where he’ll be two or three years from now.
“I think he can have an impact at the college level next year. Division III’s should definitely be taking a look at him. I think he’ll be a steal for a Division III team. “
Sanders, who won’t turn 18 until September, is still considering his future. He said he will probably do a postgrad year to make sure he makes the right decisions.
“I think I might need the extra time,” he said. “It’ll let me know what I want to do, what I want to major in. I have some stuff in mind but not exact. And I don’t want to rush into it and then get there and not like what I’m doing and where I am. I’m not thinking Division II, Division III, that’s not my main focus. I want to figure out what’s going to be right for me for my education.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy