2009 Best Buy Summer Classic Day 1

Thoughts from a day of blowouts at the 2009 Best Buy Summer Classic.

Session 1: A talented Old Gold Dream Team defeated MN Static 65-56 in 15U action. Riley Dearring with a very quiet 2nd half. Deonte Blakemore (Washburn) is the other talented player to watch for the Static that stuck out for me in this one.

Session 2: WI Playmakers took MSB out behind the woodshed in 16U. 64-29 the final. Madison Spartans destroyed Wizard's Den 98-51. Pump N Run 16s snuck by MN Heat Black 50-47. Bryan Sprang huge for the Heat with 25 or 27 pts. He hit a big 3 late to cut the PNR lead to 2. Kyle Noreen leads the way with 13 points.

Session 3: Fury Elite takes out Comets-Seevers by 20 again. 68-48 Fury Elite wins. Illinois Warriors 67-39 over MN Heat Elite.

Session 4: TNL takes out TC Elite again. Jay Sewer with 5 in a row to push a 7 point lead to 12 and TNL wins 71-64.

Session 5: Grassroots MN vs Big Game Sports. Rodney Williams, Jordair Jett and a whole boat load of 2009 kids on display here. Many observers stunned that Rodney was playing. Matt Sellers playing here with BGS and not in Milwaukee with Magic Black in a minor surprise. 78-61 Grassroots wins.

Session 6: Heat Elite 16s blowout Big Game Sports 74-43. Comets Elite 15s hold off MN Static 64-49. Comets Elite 16s also win big. Comets 15s hold off Static 64-59.

Session 7: A cobbled together Comets Blue squad (Phil Nowak and Mike Lindsay from Triple Threat, Jordan Reibling from Xplosion as examples) against TNL. 61 all with 4:15 left. Reibling makes 4 clutch FTs down the stretch, including 2 after a 4 pt play cut the lead to 3. Comets Blue wins 75-70. With a forfeit over Illinois Heat, they lead the pool at 2-0 with a chance to sweep with a win tomorrow over TC Elite.

Session 8: Heat Elite took on the Redhawks in 17U action. Great ending to this one. 53 all with 30 seconds left when the Redhawks get called for 5 seconds closely guarded. Billy Chapman steals the inbounds and gets fouled. He makes both FTs with 9.5 seconds left. The Redhawks give 2 fouls as the ball comes up court. Heat ball on the side in the frontcourt with 3 seconds left. Inside to Ryan Duxbury and right back out to a kid I don't know (I know now that it was Tyler Pauley from Osceola, WI) and down the hatch with a left wing triple at the horn for a 56-55 Heat win.

Session 9: We get the out of town teams in. Pump N Run Elite 16s (California) in and they defeated Big Game Sports 76-65 in a game where they were up big. Grassroots Canada big over Comets-Seevers big.

After the games, Magic Johnson spoke to the kids about work ethic and answered questions from the players. The charisma you see on TV really comes through in person.