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

2010 Sabes Invitational 17U Preview

After a complete overhaul of the teams and schedule, let's rearrange and revise and take another look at the 17U division.  I'll have live results on my twitter page throughout the weekend..  Read the schedule here.

Pool A (Howard Pulley Blue, KC Truth, Bound 4 Glory, Kingdom Hoops Black)
1st pool means we start with the home team Howard Pulley Blue.  The top Pulley squad features Joe Coleman, if healthy.  He sat out this past weekend in Kansas with a bad wheel (foot or ankle).  Marvin Singleton, Nick Latzke and a trio of sophs, Johnny Woodard, Isaiah Zierden and Siyani Chambers pick up the slack.  KC Truth is in the pool.  They lost to MN Comets Elite last week.  Bound 4 Glory returns to the metro from Iowa.  They lost to WOTN Gold in the round of 16 at the PNR tournament.  Kingdom Hoops Black rounds out the pool after going 0-3 in pool play at the Jayhawk including losses to WOTN Gold and Team GetShook.  High scoring guard Tim Olejniczak played here with the Iowa Mavs last year.

Pool B (WI Playmakers, SD Heat Black, WOTN Gold, Magic Elite)
The top Wisconsin Playmakers squad is here with sharpshooter Paul Jesperson.  He's ranked the #2 player in Wisconsin.  But also keep an eye on Wisconsin's #9 ranked player Phil Romback.  Shane Taylor from St. Bernard's also on this squad. South Dakota Heat's East squad is in this pool with Worthington's 6'7 center Jalen Voss and 6'5 forward Casey Schilling from Ellsworth.  WOTN Gold is in this pool.  Lucas Brown and Marcus Alipate lead the way for WOTN.  The drama in this pool is Magic Elite.  It could be Bruce Weston's Maroon squad with Marcus Nolen or Leon Garvis and his Elite squad with the much improved Robert Ndondo-Lay.  TBD as that's a mess right now.

The most balanced of the 4 pools, don't be surprised to see this come right down to the final pool game.

Pool C (Playground Elite, KC Keys, Dakota Schoolers, Kingdom Hoops Red)
WI Playground Elite bring Nimrod Hilliard back after his all tournament performance for NESYB 2 weeks ago.  #23 WI Wing Kevin Mays leads the way along with center Cinmeon Bowers.  Both played really well last weekend in Indiana.  Mays was also impressive at the East Metro Showcase in January.  #20 WI Tre Burnette who played with his old club the WI Starz 2 weeks ago is on this roster too.  Keep an eye on a couple of dirty work wings #25 WI lefty Iman Johnson and #21 WI Chris Hawkins.  Dakota Schoolers bring a big lineup of 5 kids 6'5 or taller.  Kingdom Hoops Red was 2-1 at the Jayhawk in pool play but lost to HP White by 20 in pool play. 

Pool D (Houston Hoops, KC Pump N Run, Kingdom Hoops 17s, Comets Elite-Hanson)
This pool features last year's runner up Houston Hoops.  Off to a rough start in EYBL play at 1-4.  Their dynamic guard duo is back and still only sophomores, frightening.  That's J-Mychal Reese and #6 nationally ranked by Scout.com, LJ Rose.  KC Pump N Run makes their annual trip.  Big forward Christian Kirk can play in or out.  The tradition of point guard from Releford and Releford and Mike Dixon continues this year with Corey Hilliard.  Kingdom Hoops 17s feature soph Wesley Staten, a former Iowa State verbal.  Another star soph Peter Jok will play 16s.  Rounding out the pool are the Comets Elite with Jayme Moten (hopefully his hair has grown back) at the point and the 4/5 duo of Blake Maslonkowski and Simon Krych.

Best game of all the pool play is Houston Hoops vs KC PNR at 2:50 PM Saturday.  A shame these teams are in the same pool as arguably they are the best 2 teams besides Howard Pulley Blue.

Pool E
Finally in pool E we have Howard Pulley White.  Clarence Thomas and Terrance Averyheart give this group guard firepower.  Grassroots is in the pool likely with Calvin Godfrey and who knows what else.  Rumor has it that they were limited to a small number of seniors.  RBS is a Chicago based squad.  WOTN Black is their 2nd team.  Shane McSparron leads that group but also keep an eye on Lake City forward Nick Bobb.

Pool Predictions: 
Pool A: HP Blue, Bound 4 Glory, KC Truth, Kingdom Hoops Black
Pool B: WOTN Gold, WI Playmakers, Magic Elite, SD Heat Black
Pool C: WI Playground Elite, KC Keys, Kingdom Hoops Red, Dakota Schoolers
Pool D:  KC PNR, Houston Hoops, Comets Elite Hanson, Kingdom Hoops 17s
Pool E: Grassroots, HP White, WOTN Black, RBS All-Stars


The 4 teams from Pool E will play the last play finishers from the other 4 pools in pigtail games at 6:40 on Saturday.  Those 4 winners then get the 4 pool winners in round of 16 games at 9 PM Saturday night.

Sunday features the quarterfinals at 9:20, semifinals at noon and then to the main gym for the championship at 2:40.