2010 Sabes Invitational Wrap

46 teams are done and 21 sessions of basketball are in the books after the 2010 Sabes Invitational.  Here's what caught my eye in stream of unconsciousness fashion
  • Bill Self going with the professor look and came away from the tournament very unnoticed.  He was watching his son play for the KC Pump N Run 16s who were eliminated Saturday night.  We hope GopherHole's GopherLady gets over not seeing him soon.  (For the record, GopherLady did manage to get away and make a cameo appearance to get a couple of interviews but that was while 17s were playing)
  • Danny Manning's son also played with the KC PNR 17s.
  • Nice to see Quincy Lewis and Trevor Mbakwe in the building.
  • Solid hot dog but $3?  Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler just said "Really?!".  At least the 12 oz can was only $1.  Get the $3 hot dog and $2 can of soda and you've got a meal deal.  $250-$300 college coaches packet not included.  Remember folks no smuggling food and you have to pay the entry fee, but you don't have to buy the concessions.  
  • Disappointing that LJ Rose (broken foot/ankle) and Casey Kasperbauer (Shoulder) didn't play as those were 2 of the names to watch. 
  • Grassroots slept walked through to the quarterfinals and I don't mean easy wins.  Rarely do you see a team with that much of a "we'll turn it on when we need to" mentality.  Calvin Godfrey put up some big numbers (like 25, 9 and 4 blks vs Comets Elite in pigtail game) but he also was the most guilty.
  • Get well Jordan Reibling of Grassroots.  He took an elbow to the nose on Saturday and ended up in the emergency room.
  • 2 of the best true centers in the Minnesota 2012 class were on display.  I'm a big fan of what Kyle Bauman is doing for WOTN Gold.  He played well again this weekend.  Zach Huisken played up for the Dakota Schoolers 17s this weekend as well.
  • Also liked what the Schoolers starting center Cedric Lang did.
  • Paul Jesperson beats up on lesser teams here, but our top teams continue to hold him down with physical play.  But he can flat out shoot it.  He had a stretch of 3 3s in a row vs Bound 4 Glory and then he topped off by pulling up from 25-30 feet for more nylon.
  • Tyler Kalonoski of KC Pump N Run with one of the other shooting gallery performances with a big run of 3s against Houston Hoops in a pool play blowout.  Houston Hoops came back and to my surprise totally controlled the rematch in the semifinals.
  • Speaking of flammable, how about Zach Lofton scoring 18 of 21 points for Howard Pulley Blue including all 6 Pulley field goals in a 10 minute span of the championship game.  
  • Who would have thunk that Joe Coleman would play minimal 2nd half minutes and only finish with 3 points and Pulley would win easily 61-53 over Houston Hoops in that title game?
  • Former Iowa State commit Wesley Staten with a clutch 27 point performance for Kingdom Hoops Red vs the St. Louis Eagles in the 16U quarters.  The Eagles were up 15 inside of 10 minutes left before Kingdom Hoops entered the shooting gallery.  Eagles hung on 87-85 in OT.  Rare to see a quarterfinal game played that well.  Couldn't help but have a quick thought of Wesley Person when I saw 1st saw Staten.
  • Wing Cameron Biedschied for the St. Louis Eagles 16s is the real deal.  They really took it to the Comets Elite 16s on Friday night.
  • Tyus Jones outstanding but length and athletes can bother him.  In the 16U championship game, the usual long outlets and great looks on the break weren't there so that kept his assist total down.  But he made the crazy good clutch play at the end.  Up 1, he makes 2 free throws and then Houston is rolling the ball in.  He times a dive perfectly to get the steal to seal the championship win 78-73 in double OT.
  • Zach Stahl came up huge for Pulley in that game too.
  • Love the DLS secondary break that Pulley runs for Jones to get him a pick and roll.
  • Best finish was the 16U semi where Houston Hoops stole an inbounds pass with 5.6 seconds left and went the distance for the layup at the buzzer.  That knocked out the St. Louis Eagles 72-70.
  • Despite having no Joe Carpenter (ankle injury), Magic Elite were very competitive.  Yes they were only 2-3 but those losses were by 7 points.  That included 2 heartbreakers to WOTN Gold.  Disturbing trend though as they have to find a player and a way to close out games.
  • Cinmeon Bowers was what we expected.  I'm still a huge fan of Iman Johnson though.
For more thoughts from the weekend, here are articles from NY2LA Sports and ESPN.

ESPN Article on 2010 Sabes Invitational
NY2LASports Article on 2010 Sabes Invitational

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