COLORADO SPRINGS, Col.– Allonzo Trier has always been a wanderer, constantly in search of the perfect high school and travel team experience that can challenge him and maximize his enormous skills.
The 6-5 McDonald’s All America guard, who will play for the U.S. team in the FIBA U19 World championships in Crete, has already played for USA Basketball’s U18 gold medalist team and also participated in Nike Hoop Summit and the Jordan Brand Classic, where he scored 28 points and was voted West team MVP.
Trier first appeared on the national scouting radar when he was listed as the top sixth grader prospect in the country in Seattle, shot a commercial with Carmelo Anthony and was featured in a New York Times’ magazine piece when he was just 13. He has since moved with his single mother Marcie, a 37-year old social worker, to Dallas, Oklahoma City where he was home schooled before attending schools in Tulsa, suburban Washington, D.C. and Henderson, Nev., Trier has played for four different high schools, two of them home school teams that dominated public school competition in Oklahoma..
In many ways, he is the poster child for the nomadic grade school prodigy who is constantly on the move, making the transfer from home school to regular high school in 10th grade and built a national reputation as the best pure scorer in high school basketball in 11th and 12th grade at two nationally known power house private basketball programs– Montrose, Md. Christian and Findlay, Nev. Prep– developing his game under various influential coaches who acted as male role models before signing to play Sean Miller at Arizona.
But the change of scenery hasn’t hurt his game.
Trier has been devoted to his pursuit of the American dream. He has never attended a high school prom or homecoming, preferring to spend all his team working on his game and traveling cross country to challenge himself in the spring and the summer. Unlike other prodigies like Lenny Cook, Demetrius Walker and Renaldo Sidney, who were supposed to be the next big thing at one point in their careers and then faded into the background, Trier has continued to become better with age. He averaged 25.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.1 steals as a junior at Montrose, then averaged 26.6 points and.59 rebounds for Findlay.
“They were all great places and they pretty much led to the success I’ve had today,” Trier said. “I don’t regret any of the decisions I’ve made. My mother made a lot of sacrifices to me get to where I wanted to be in basketball. The stops I’ve made allowed me to continue play at a high level and prove I could play with anybody throughout the country.”
Trier, a second team USA Today All American, should compete against 6-6 high school senior Terrance Ferguson from Flower Mound, Tex. for a starting spot off guard spot on US U19s, which will be coached by his future college coach, Miller.
It is just another step along the way for this uniquely focused gym rat who has participated in a shooting regiment since he was eight years old in which he attempts to make 500 shots and 100 free throws as quickly as possible under the tutelage of trainer Matt Clark .
Tier was one of 12 players who made the final roster for the U19s. The others are Ferguson, 6-10 senior forward Harry Giles, a senior at Wesleyan Christian of Winston-Salem, N.C. point guard Isaiah Briscoe from Roselle. N.J Catholic who will be a freshman at Kentucky, 6-2 point guard Jaylen Brunson, an incoming freshman at Villanova from Lincolnshire, Ill. Stevenson; 6-0 point guard Jawun Evans of Dallas Kimball, who will a freshman at Oklahoma State; 6-7 senior forward Josh Jackson of Prolific, Ca. Prep; 6-10 forward Chinanu Onauku, a sophomore at Louisville, 6-5 guard L.J. Peak, a sophomore at Georgetown; 6-8 senior wing Jayson Tatum of Chaminade College Prep in St. Louis, 6-9 center Caleb Swanigan, an incoming freshman at Purdue; and 7-0 center Thomas Welsh, a sophomore at UCLA.
There were no real surprises other than the selection committee selecting three point guards to fuel the press. This U.S. youth development team may lack experience, but there is length and athleticism at every position.
Trier began his odyssey when he and his mother moved from Dallas to Oklahoma City in sixth grade after he was recruited to play for Athletes First, a high profile travel team. Trier was diagnosed with dyslexia that year and was held back a year, which contributed to the decision to home school him at the start of his high school career. “I couldn’t get into the middle school right next door because they were full up and there was a waiting list,” he recalled. “So I got into home schooling.” Trier found his way onto a home school varsity team — the Oklahoma Storm– as an eight grader and when his presence helped the Storm beat some for the top public schools in the metro area, the Oklahoma Secondary School Association coaches and officials that the team had an unfair advantage by using an eight grader. Trier was banned for the rest of the year. The next year, he became the first freshman to score more than 1,000 points for the team. As a sophomore, the family moved to Tulsa where Trier began taking home school classes at Cornerstone Tutorial Center. A few days before Christmas, Trier went off for 64 points in an overtime win against Bartlesville, proof positive he had gotten too good for the local competition.
Trier has since become a star while playing against the highest level of competition.
But he always managed to stay grounded, volunteering on behalf of Special Olympics, a homeless shelter for abused women and as a pre-school assistant.
“My mom was very conscious of keeping me level headed,” Trier said. “Growing up my mom went to the homeless shelters and I would tag around in sixth, seventh grade,” Trier said. “My mom is back on giving back and helping the less fortunate. That was a big part of my life at a young age and it really helped get a perspective in life. I never thought of myself as a superstar. It was just something that was going on and I was having success with.”
