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Poderis Continues To Make Strides

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By CRISTINA LEDRA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2008

PORT RICHEY - When Lukas Poderis cracked the starting five of Ridgewood's boys basketball team as a freshman, he was striking at 6-foot-7 - yet clearly a work in progress even for the high school level.

Cut to two years later and Poderis, although still with some ways to go to reach the top of his upside, became the player that started to catch eyes outside Pasco County.

His story now is one you have heard many times before. He dominates locally, is selected for an elite travel team and now the calls and letters are coming in from colleges from all over because they heard about or have seen all that he can bring to their team. And he's the Tribune's Pasco County Boys Basketball Athlete of the Year.

"His all-around game and his consistency started to improve quite a bit," Ridgewood coach Gary Anders said.

As a junior this season, Poderis, now 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds, averaged 18.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots per game. Of his 249 rebounds, 154 were defensive.

He set a new mark at Ridgewood for most points in a game against Central on Jan. 11 with 38. He also had 35 against Pasco on Nov. 28, 2007.

On a deeply talented team, Poderis could always be counted on to have an impact offensively and defensively and he often showed his best stuff against the toughest opponents.

That became apparent during Ridgewood's appearance at the Tampa Hoops Classic at the University of South Florida over the winter break and continued down the closing stretch of the season.

"We played four games down there at USF; he had three pretty darn good games," Anders said. "After that he had a lot of good games. He had a great game against Land O' Lakes in the district finals, against Wharton in the region quarterfinals, he had a real strong game against Brandon's Evan Ravenel, who is going to Boston College. I felt like he kept getting better and now the phone's starting to ring off the hook."

Anders said among those that have shown interest in Poderis are Kent State, East Tennessee, North Florida, Florida Gulf Coast and Princeton.

A lot depends on his performance in the summer with his travel team that is about halfway through its rigorous travel schedule but there is hardly a doubt that no one has seen the best of Poderis yet.

"I think he's just getting warmed up," Anders said. "He's made such big strides."

BOYS BASKETBALL FIRST TEAM

Lukas Poderis, Ridgewood

Demetrious Larry, Pasco

Mike Lawrence, Ridgewood

Jarrod Branco, Hudson

Greg Jenkins, Wesley Chapel

Coach of the Year: Gary Anders, Ridgewood

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