Augusta Prep junior only getting warmed up

In case you missed it in Friday's daily edition, Augusta Prep's Jim Hull was named the area's best independent school boys basketball player for a second consecutive year by The Augusta Chronicle .

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Hull is a junior, meaning he has the rest of the spring, the entire summer and well into the fall to work on his shot. His scoring average jumped six points from last year. What's next? Forty points a game?

It's possible, especially if Hull's extra work on his 3-point shot during the offseason pays off.

Hull doesn't want to be known as the best private-school player in the area; he wants to be the best in Columbia County.

While wrapping up his interview for Friday's story, Hull mentioned the selection of Cedric Boatner as Columbia County Player of the Year, a choice made by my colleague Ashley Brown

Hull asked me what I thought. I told him I started halfway through the basketball season, and that I hadn't seen everybody play.

"Will you see everybody play next year?" he asked.

Hull doesn't buy the knock that he's less able as a player because of the perceived inferior competition he faces. Neither does his Augusta Prep coach.

"The coaches that have played against Jim know that's not a factor," Mike Guthrie said. "Those guys play public schools -- they do OK against them. It's very difficult to stop."

Hull is a 6-foot-3-inch point guard. There aren't many of those in the Georgia Independent School Association.

If he only had to shoot over the other team's point guard, he might score 60 a game. But he often finds his midrange jumper challenged by the shooting guard and one or two of the team's big men who come up to help.

"The teams we've played have had three or four guys guarding him," Guthrie said. "He still scores 32 a game."

Hull dropped a school-record 47 on John Milledge this year during a first-round region tournament win. The previous high was 44.

He had come within a point three other times before breaking the barrier. He stuck with it, just as he stuck with his unorthodox shot.

Hull's shooting form might have at first appeared extreme. He shoots from above his head, but he has perfected it by shooting at every opportunity.

"When I got the ball in my hand, I could go all day," he said.