Whew, what a long day. 15 hours in the gym and 12 sets of games. I had a chance to take in a good chunk (if not a full game) of all 11 Super Pool teams in 17U and the Atlanta Celtics in 16s. Here's what caught my attention.
Gotta start with 12oz pop for $1. The people have spoken and the tournament director has listened. Outside of the games, that's gotta be the best part of this tournament. (I'm a fair guy, if I'm going to complain about $2, then I have to praise bringing the price back down).
Best game I saw was the Dallas Showtyme vs Grassroots Canada game late in the day. Back and forth and Jarion Henry wins it 67-65 with a driving layup with 5 seconds left. No Myck Kabongo for Grassroots Canada.
I called about 3/4 of the Memphis Magic vs St. Louis GameFace game right after that (that Henry game winner kept me late). GameFace had a 14 point lead late in the 1st half and ended up losing by 8. I also called the Indiana Elite vs Arkansas Wings game. Disappointing loss by Indiana Elite, 52-44, in that one. Links to my call of those games (and all other games I do during the tournament, including the championship games in 16U and 17U will be posted when available.
Now the players.
Best Player I Saw All Day: Adonis Thomas - Memphis Magic. #18 in the country is for real. When Magic got the lead late, he had enough ball skills to be trusted handling to close the game out. Can finish and shoot the 3.
Can't Touch Them
Ky Madden (Arkansas Wings) and BJ Young (St. Louis GameFace). Very similar big scoring guards who are better slashers than shooters. Both were able to generate offense whenever they wanted.
Matchups of the Day: Andre Hollins defense vs BJ Young. Hollins did a pretty good job against Young and showed that he can be a defensive stopper.
Aaron Ross (Arkansas Wings) vs Cody Zeller (Indiana Elite). Ross is an athletic wing who often had Zeller guarding him on the perimeter. Zeller did a fine job defending away from the basket.
Bigs
Cody Zeller - Indiana Elite. As advertised. Runs the floor, is a rebounding machine and showed he has some handles and shooting range.
Marshall Plumlee - Indiana Elite. Very disappointing day. Only 3 points, all on free throws, in the game I called vs Arkansas. Thought he would be more dominant.
Hunter Mickelson - Arkansas Wings. Made me think of Kevin Noreen as he's a thin face up 4 who can shoot it.
Utah Pump N Run doesn't have the name value of the Arkansas Wings or Indiana Elite in their pool, but they were really scrappy and finished 1-1 like everybody else in the pool. Via tiebreaker they finish ahead of Indiana Elite. Who would have seen that coming?
Minnesota Pump N Run got great balance (as usual) as they pulled away for an easy win over Memphis Select. Octavious Ellis only 1 breakaway dunk in that game for Select. 21 points for Cedric McAfee and a hot start. Roosevelt Scott and Kyle Noreen did nice work slowing him down after that start.
Good to see Quinn Cook play again. Nice to see a point guard with a true point guard mentality. DC Assault didn't play well against Memphis Select and only won by 7 but took out MN PNR to win the pool.
In non pool play, gotta like Jaleel Williams for the Texas D1 Ambassadors. This big athletic wing is going to make somebody very happy at the D1 level and he had a bunch of coaches watching tonight.
Pool play is complete, here are your brackets.
17U Platinum
California PNR vs MN Fury Gold
Utah PNR vs winner of Memphis Select and Mean Streets Blue
Memphis Magic vs winner of Indiana Elite and Texas D1 Ambassadors (WOW in round of 16)
WOTN vs MN PNR
Wrath vs DC Assault
Grassroots MN vs winner of Fury Blue vs Grassroots Canada (upset alert since Fury Blue seems to upset every other big name they play?)
Dallas Showtyme vs winner of St. Louis GameFace and All Iowa Attack
WI Starz vs Arkansas Wings
Grassroots with Louis Cox, Jordan Hughes, Kevin Thompson and Seantrel Henderson makes me interested to see them play DC Assault. But they'll have to play a full 36 minutes in that game. Grassroots is notorious for just showing up and then trying to flip the switch. They'll also give away games late (see last Saturday when Kevin Thompson hits 3 straight 3s but they blow a late 9 point lead and lose to Joe Hanstad and ECI in OT).
Quarterfinals are on the 2 show courts at 8:10 and 9:20.
16U Gold
MN PNR vs Indiana Elite
PrymeTyme vs tNBA
IA Barnstormers vs MN Heat Red
WOTN vs WI Starz
MN Heat Elite vs CS Bulldogs
Old Gold vs Team Eleate
Atlanta Celtics vs California PNR
SW MN Stars vs Team Detroit
How about a tough opener for the Celtics and then a possible game with Team Detroit in the quarters.
Round of 16 games are 2:20-5:50 with 1 quarterfinal at 8:10 and the rest at 9:20 in the activity center.
15U Gold
I don't have full brackets since many of the pool games were at Kennedy, but a couple of things stickout.
A possible quarterfinal with tNBA and MN PNR Maroon would be very good.
Another possible quarterfinal is Dakota Pride vs All Iowa Attack-Moore which would be a nice battle.
Kudo's to the $1 pop. But the $20 admission fee for my wife and I to watch the lad play left nothing in our wallets to replenish what the 100 degree Jefferson activity center had taken out of us.
ReplyDelete$10 a head to watch a full day of that (or just 2 games of a child) is a common price and considering that 1 game locally costs $5-$7, its a real bargain.
ReplyDeleteAs to the heat, yeah, unbearable.