Its the 2nd annual Best Buy Summer Classic at Bloomington Jefferson July 13-15th. All pool games are on Tuesday with bracket play on Wednesday and Semifinals/Championships on Thursday.
Here's what to watch for. All player rankings are from the pre-July 2010 Rivals national rankings unless otherwise noted. We'll start in 17U with the 11 teams in the 4 Super Pools.
Super Pool A (Dallas Showtyme, Grassroots Canada, California Pump N Run)
Dallas Showtyme features one of the top players in Texas in 6'8 small forward Jarion Henry. He's ranked #83. #127 ranked 6'6 F Jalen Jones has an offer from UTEP.
Grassroots Canada is arguably the top program in Canada. They feature #11 ranked Myck Kabongo. He's a 6'2 PG from powerhouse Findley Prep. He'll attend Texas next year.
California Pump N Run (AKA Pump N Run Elite) is the top team in the Double Pump organization. 6'5 forward Amir Garrett is ranked #65 and has an Arizona offer. 6'5 2012 wing Jordan Tebbutt is out of Oregon and is ranked #41 in that class.
Super Pool B (Indiana Elite, Arkansas Wings, Utah Pump N Run)
Indiana Elite is absolutely stacked and my pick to win the tournament. Top player is #35 ranked Cody Zeller. The 6'10 forward blew up at the Adidas Invite last week and picked up a UNC offer this weekend which makes sense since he has a brother playing there. Speaking of brothers, #99 ranked Marshall Plumlee joined his brothers Mason and Myles by committing to Duke this weekend. Plumlee is a 6'11 Center. 5'10" Kevin "Yogi" Ferrill runs the point. He's the #22 ranked player in the 2012 class. #118 ranked Jeremiah Davis is a 6'3 SG who has Indiana hot on his trail. Why? Partly 6'6 Austin Etherington plays on this team too and he'll play at Indiana next year. Just for icing on the cake, we'll throw in 6'9 F Vinny Zollo who once committed to Kentucky before a coaching change. He has Notre Dame and Cincinnati after him.
The Arkansas Wings are a Nike program. They finished 6-8 and in 8th place in brutal Division D of the Nike EYBL. That means they missed out on qualifying for The Peach Jam (where Howard Pulley Blue is the #3 seed), Nike's premier event. We'll see if they come in to this tournament look for redemption. #19 ranked Ky Madden is a 6'4 G that leads the way. #97 Hunter Mickleson is a 6'10 center who has committed to Arkansas. 6'7 wing Aaron Ross is ranked #139 and he too has committed to the Razorbacks.
Utah Pump N Run is Utah's top program. They knocked off powerhouse Dream Vision at the end of April so don't sleep on this group. 6'5 Eli Robison was named the Utah 4A MVP. 6'1 Sam Orchard and 6'2 Mike Brown were named all state in their classes.
Super Pool C (Minnesota Pump N Run, Memphis Select, DC Assault)
Memphis Select feature 2 top 150 players. 6'3 Cedrick McAfee is ranked #56. 6'8 F Octavious Ellis is ranked #138.
DC Assault is one of the east coast's top programs. #23 ranked Quinn Cook is one of the nation's top point guards. He played in the 2008 Timberwolves Shootout with DeMatha. He'll attend Oak Hill Academy next year. He's currently playing in the u17 FIBA championships is Hamburg, Germany. His backup is #98 ranked 6'2 Jerome Seagears. He has offers from Florida and Cincinnati just to name 2.
Then the locals. 6'6 F Jonah Travis and 6'8 F Shelby Moats lead the way up front with Estan Tyler running the point. It would be very interesting to see PNR's physical style against Indiana Elite.
Super Pool D (St. Louis GameFace, Memphis Magic)
The Memphis Magic feature #18 ranked Adonis Thomas. He's with Quinn Cook at the FIBA championships and should just make the Tuesday night game. #150 Andre Hollins is a 6'2 G with Mississippi hot on his trail. He's a lockdown defender. Forwards Nino Johnson and Ryan Rhoomes are 2 more to watch. Not sure if #32 ranked 5'10 Chris Jones or #93 in 2012 6'1 Cameron Golden will join this group to fill the guard spots.
St. Louis GameFace features #33 BJ Young. He's a 6'4 G that has Indiana hot after him. He's really blown up this summer. Questions around whether he'll qualify or not, but if he does, expect his interest to skyrocket.
The other 27 17U Teams
27 other teams fill 9 3-team pools in the basic 17U bracket. Pool E features Heat Elite and the WI Starz. Fury Gold in a very balanced pool F with Old Gold (IL) and the 2nd Grassroots team. WOTN has a Belgium team in their Pool. Hard to know what to expect there. MN Wrath lead pool H with the top Select team. The top Grassroots team, Midwest Elite (Kansas City) and Team Eleate (CA) make up a very difficult pool I. I want to see if #44 ranked Demarques (Que) Johnson from 2012 plays for that Team Eleate group. Mean Streets Blue is the 2nd Mean Streets team but they may have a 7'2 guy in the middle. Heat (no) Sprang is also in that pool. Pool K has the Texas D1 Ambassadors with 2nd Comets and Select teams. 6'6 F Mark Nwakamma is coming off foot surgery. 6'6 W Jaleel Williams may make us think of Rodney Williams. 6'2 G Jake Kocher is a deadly shooter. Watch Levi Abercrombie for Select in this pool as well. Pool L has Team Game Point also from Texas. They were just in the same super pool as the Arkansas Wings in Tulsa. Derrick Fain and Charlie Alexander are 2 to watch. Fury Blue has them in their pool. The last pool has M33M also from Memphis with Team GetShook and All Iowa Attack. Looking for #106 6'4 G Bobby Parks Jr for M33M. He too has a UTEP offer.
My Pool Winners. Grassroots Canada, Indiana Elite, DC Assault, Memphis Magic to win the Super Pools. Heat Elite, Fury Gold, WOTN, Wrath, Mpls Gamblers (top Grassroots team), Mean Streets Blue, Texas D1 Ambassadors, Fury Blue, M33M to win the regular pools.
The Rest
In 16U, you have to take a look at the Atlanta Celtics. They won last year's Adidas Super 64, this year's Real Deal in the Rock, Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions and just won the Adidas Invite last week. Disgustingly good. They feature 2 more Oak Hill Academy players. #30 Jordan Adams is a 6'2 guard. #68 Damien Wilson is a 6'6 forward. #60 ranked Shaq Goodwin is a 6'8 forward. And they appear to have just picked up #7 ranked Jarnell Stokes, a 6'7 PF from the Memphis Select. He played with them in Indianapolis last week. They be a force in the 17U division (which they wanted to play in). No easier pick than to pick them to win the 16U tourney.
Team Indiana 16s might have a say in that. They feature #13 ranked Hanner Perea. Peter Jurkin is a big center ranked #37 by ESPN. #21 ranked D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera also is with this group but he'll miss July due to injury.
Look for #87 ranked Anthony January, a 6'6 F, to play with California Pump N Run.
6'6 F Andrew Wiggins should be playing up with the Grassroots Canada 15s. He's one of the top 14s in the nation and played here at the Augsburg Tournament over the holidays.
I'm also happy to announce that I'll be doing some webcasting of the games in association with Webcast America. I'll have more details as they become available. But you can check out some of the previous work here.
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