If summer is indeed the season for basketball players to whip their skills into shape, things are going very well for several Rhode Island natives.

From current college players to high school hot shots, local players are earning headlines in camps and leagues around the country.

The player who may have elevated his stock the most could be Joe Mazzulla, the former Hendricken star who played sparingly as a freshman at West Virginia last season. Mazzulla just finished competing in the Pittsburgh Basketball Club’s summer league in the Steel City in games dominated by collegiate players from WVU, Pittsburgh and other area schools. Playing point guard, Mazzulla won the league’s MVP award over the likes of teammates Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler and Pitt starters Mike Cook, Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin.

“It was a good league, real good competition,” Mazzulla said yesterday from Morgantown where he’s taking summer classes. “I excel best in the open court and that’s what the league was all about.”

Mazzulla played in 31 games for the eventual NIT champions, but averaged just three points and 8.7 minutes a game while backing up senior-to-be Darris Nichols. Soon after the Mountaineers’ season ended, coach John Beilein left to take the job at Michigan. The new WVU coach is Bob Huggins, the former Cincinnati mentor who played at West Virginia back in the 1970s. Mazzulla sees the coaching change as a potential boon to his career.

“I couldn’t stand last year. I felt it was basically a waste of a year,” Mazzulla said. “I was disappointed in how things went individually. Now that Huggins is here, I have a fresh start. He and I want the same thing.”

Mazzulla says that Huggins’ up tempo, physical style suits his skills much better than Beilein’s patterned, guard-oriented approach. It was the faster-paced style Mazzulla enjoyed in the summer league.

“It’s a blessing in disguise,” Mazzulla said. “In this league, I was able to go up and down the court and take the ball to the basket. Our whole team, we’re a lot more athletic, Huggins-type players than people think.”

Mazzulla isn’t the only Rhode Islander already in college faring well. URI’s Jimmy Baron, who is set to begin his junior year playing for his father in Kingston, is expected to be one of the top players in the Atlantic 10 this year. Jeff Xavier of Pawtucket will debut at Providence College after sitting out a year as a transfer from Manhattan.

The next wave of Rhode Islanders slated for big-time college basketball is rounding into shape as well. Scouts say that at least three prep stars are certain major Division I recruits, and some may be so good that URI and PC will have a hard time keeping them in state.

The two drawing the most interest are South Kingstown’s Erik Murphy and Smithfield’s Mike Marra.

Murphy, a 6-foot-8 forward who’ll be a junior at St. Mark’s School in Southboro, Mass., is nursing a sprained knee. But that hasn’t stopped coaches from BC, Marquette, Virginia, Syracuse and other high-level schools from expressing their interest.

Marra, a deep-shooting 6-3 guard, is leaving Smithfield High and is slated to spend two years at Northfield-Mt. Hermon School in the Berkshires. Marra has been the leader of a local AAU program, the Rhode Island Hawks, who’ve been one of the stories of the spring and summer in the East.

“Mike had nine 3-pointers and 40 points against the New York Panthers in New Jersey last month,” Hawks coach Jason Elliott said. “Before that he had eight threes in a game and we won a big tournament in Pittsburgh. PC and URI like Mike a lot, but Ohio State, Syracuse, Louisville and a lot of schools have seen him and like him.”

Elliott is leading a Hawks team at the Main Event Tournament in Las Vegas this week that’s led by Marra, junior center Ben Crenca of West Greenwich and Worcester Academy, former Hendricken star David Rufful, and Saint Andrew’s forward Brian Hanuschak of Cumberland.

Elliott says the 6-9, 280-pound Crenca has been offered a scholarship by URI and is also hearing from West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia, among others. Rufful will join Marra at Northfield and may end up in the Ivy League. Hanuschak is hearing from Loyola, Sacred Heart and several America East schools.

Some other younger Rhode Islanders faring well this summer include Nyheem Sanders (Saint Andrew’s), Matt Brown (Northfield-Mt. Hermon), Jerrel Gomes (Feinstein), Corey Wright Jr., (St. Raphael’s) and Billy Baron (Hendricken).

kmcnamar@projo.com