Week Long Series: Oak Hill Academy (Part IV) Oak Hill Becomes “NBA High” For Carmelo, Others

After the power teams of the early 90s featuring Jerry Stackhouse, Jeff McInnis and Curtis Staples, Oak Hill fell off (by their standards), dropping as low as 22nd in the country in 1997. But a national championship during the 1998-99 season was just a precursor to what became the most successful decade in the program’s history. The 2000s have seen Oak Hill become a factory for college one-and-dones, and for the first time in the program’s history, players were jumping straight from the academy to the Association. The Warriors entered the 21st century national champions and the 2000-01 team became the fifth in the school’s history to go undefeated (33-0) for the school’s fourth national title. A major part of that championship team was DeSagana Diop, who after winning the championship, became the first Oak Hill player ever to jump directly to the NBA. He was selected No. 8 overall in the 2001 NBA Draft by Cleveland. After Diop was the arrival of a Baltimore player by the name ...