Miguel Ayesa wasn’t missing. His shots weren’t even hitting the rim. That pure form, the quick release, and the surefire confidence which emanates every time the ball leaves his finger tips wasn’t wavering.
This was back during the Scotland Campus Invitational in February, when the 6-foot-6, 195-pound NTSI Orlando guard put together a veritable shooting clinic as NTSI Orlando stayed eyeball to eyeball with national prep power Massanutten Military Academy of Virginia.
NTSI stayed within six points of Chad Myers team–featuring a radiant triumvirate of Dereon Seabron (NC State), Jarren McCallister (VCU), and Brandon Suggs (East Carolina)–during a valiant fought first half, but faltered in the second.
Still, even in the case of a loss, the carnage which Ayesa’s sniping tends to inflict on a defense was evident.
Originally a product of Doral High (FL), few knew of Ayesa or his shooting prowess heading into his post graduate season.
He took advantage of the round-the-clock prep schedule by gaining 15 pounds of muscle, improving his lateral quickness and finding innovative moves to supplement his shooting and free up space.
A piecemeal team which entered the season with nary the slightest slither of expectation at all, NTSI wound up registering a 12-4 record under Marlon Brown, a theatrical and emotional sideline coach who knows how to get blood from a stone with unsung talent.
Brown, who was named GAC Coach of the Year while at Scotland Campus in 2018, was instrumental in pushing the evolution of Ayesa, who averaged 21 PPG and lit up DME Academy for 36 points in a sheer shooting onslaught.
He finished the 2018-19 campaign with a team-best 110 3-pointers.
“Skills that I’ve developed under Coach Brown and during my experience at NTSI have been mainly my defensive skills and a few added on aspects of my offensive game,” Ayesa said.
“I’ve incorporated a post fadeaway and I’m attacking the basket much more aggressively, and honestly the postgrad experience has prepared me immensely for the college experience with being away from home and having to merge with guys you’ve never met before and play a winning brand of basketball.”
Those winning ways emerged and heightened during the second semester, when the team ripped off eight of nine games during one wild sequence.
“I think my game took off after winter break, as we became more comfortable on the court and realized that I had to take full advantage of the time I had left with the team and really stand out to coaches,” the South Florida native explained.
“The team also started to gel together after the break, we came back with a different attitude and approach to our games. Our style of play made us that much better.”
Ayesa has accumulated interest from a barrage of Division-I programs, including UNC-Greensboro and Tulane.
He would be an ideal late get, especially with the current coaching carousal and new staffs scouring the country for deadeye shooters of Ayesa’s quick-release style and fabric.
With a 3.8 GPA and a 1200 SAT score, Ayesa should be appealing to high academic institutions across the Division-I level.
The work ethic, discipline, and toughness evidenced in Ayesa’s game was berthed during his time growing up in Miami. The one-time Doral High star said he improved his game incrementally by the time he got to high school.
He also took the game more seriously and devoted a furious focus to it, realizing this was the path he wanted to pursue in potentially landing himself a college athletic scholarship.
“The basketball culture I played in Miami was mainly influenced by my head coach, Jorge Fernandez,” he said.
“He was old school and pushed us to the limit every day in practice, but that only made us better and the high school experience that much more enjoyable.”
A key figure in Ayesa’s corner has been Conrad Foss, the President of Florida Elite basketball.
“Playing for Conrad Foss was one of the best experiences I’ve had basketball-wise,” Ayesa said. “It was a first class program and it had class players, we always did things the right way and Conrad always vouched for his players. I’m very grateful for everything that Conrad has done for me over the years.”
