Peggau: From Brazil With Skills
Ron Bailey, Publisher
May 4, 2007 - When people think of Brazil, they typically envision sunny skies, beautiful thong-clad women, or the internationally famous annual celebration, Carnival.
From a sports focus, the country of approximately 170 million people has long generated what many label the best soccer players on earth: The sport, dubbed “The Beautiful Game” is almost a religion in Brazil, which has produced such single-named luminaries as Pele, Ronaldo, and Ronaldhino.
Though not as publicized as the country’s soccer obsession, hoops is widely played in the world’s fifth most populous country : One of the planet’s all time greats, international professional and Olympic hero Oscar Schmidt, along with present NBA players Nene (Denver) and Leandro Barbosa (Phoenix) stand as prime examples of Brazilian roundball products.
Last year, a new hardwood import from Brazil hit America’s shores. While it is unfair to put him, or any young person in the class of the standouts presented above, it is time the hoops world become familiar with Rodrigo Peggau.
Standing around 6’8” and weighing 230 lbs, Peggau entered America last year as a fourth-year high school athlete with a limited command of English, according to his coach at The Calverton School (Huntington, MD), Franklin Chaney. Through hard work and intelligence, Peggau was able to overcome that, as Chaney shared “Our school is a high education school, and he’s doing real well now”.
On the hardwood, Rodrigo excelled as soon as he hit American shores, last year averaging around 23 points a game for Calverton. Though he specialized in playing forward, at points in the season Rodrigo manned all five positions.
Chaney was fairly strong in his assessment of Peggau’s potential. “This is what I’ve been saying” relayed Calverton’s coach. “He has no limitations. He can do everything, he just needs to fine tune things”.
Peggau is here, showing his foul shooting touch during the Weber Easter Hoop Fest.
For instance, Chaney recounted a hurdle Rodrigo faced soon after arrival. “He was traveling a lot at first, not having worked on his footwork” much in Brazil recounted Chaney. “We started out slow, and now it’s not a problem”.
Presently, Peggau is acclimating to the style and pace of AAU/travel team ball, and based upon his play for Triple Threat in the DC Metro Showcase and Charlie Weber’s Easter Hoop Fest, he is well along in the process: Rodrigo shot the three ball, drove, handled the rock, played in the low post, and defended small and power forwards along with centers – the latter in a physical, intense manner.
That last aspect of hoops – competing around the hoop - is something Chaney indicated Peggau “never really did before” but given his breadth of skills is important, as when they are coupled with a solid post game, match up problems will abound for defenders.
Colleges definitely took notice this April, revealed by Chaney’s statement “I’ve received many, many calls” about Peggau, including “Duke, Syracuse, Maryland” and others, but they presently lag tremendously in recruitment of the young man.
The leader by far? Texas A&M.
“He’s very hot on Texas A&M” revealed Chaney. That interest first started during the start of this past season, when the current Aggie staff in fact coached at Wichita State.
“From the beginning of the year, those coaches were looking at him” he continued. “They followed him through the season. He really liked the coaching staff”.
Once that staff, including head coach Marc Turgeon and associate head coach Scott Spinelli, moved on to College Station from Wichita, they continued the interest in Rodrigo, who reciprocated those feelings.
So much so, it looks like Peggau will be an Aggie soon. “It appears he will commit soon” possibly even this week, shared Chaney.
Expect the Rodrigo that matriculates to college to be a refined version of the young man who competes with Triple Threat today, including broadening his face up game and dribble drive skills.
Peggau, in warm up lines at the DC Metro Showcase. According to Chaney, he's multi-talented as "All the art teachers at Calverton say he's a great artist".
To that end, the organization’s director and head coach, Keith Stevens, has a development plan for Peggau. “First off, we are going to put him in positions to succeed” said the widely recognized talent developer. Additionally, he plans to continue Rodrigo’s acclimation “to the American game” allowing the Brazilian to “handle the ball in the open court”, as well as constantly “encourage him to broaden his skills”.
That process will continue in prep school this upcoming season, probably the Patterson School in Lenoir, NC, which will allow as Peggau to not only improve his game, but consistently experience a challenging level of play.
As his present high school coach Chaney said, Rodrigo “has no limitations”: In many ways his continued development is based on him.
And all current indications point to a heckuva upward curve for Peggau.