A pair of Minnesota's best take to the road this weekend. Howard Pulley finishes division play at session 3 of the EYBL. This week, the Nike teams are in Los Angeles. A favorable draw for the Panthers but they have a tough one against 2nd place (1 game back) Louisiana Select at 7 PM Saturday night.
Pump N Run and Minnesota Heat Elite are in Chicago. Pump N Run gets put in the 1st superpool with Terry Porter Elite and Grassroots Canada. Expect Grassroots Canada to be here in July at the PNR tourney. Director Ro Russell also had his high school club here at the Augsburg Tourney. Super 8th grader Andrew Wiggins figures to move up and play with the 17s this season. Terry Porter Elite rolled to the championship of the Heat tournament on the same weekend as the Pulley tournament.
If Pump N Run finishes 2nd in that super pool and Heat wins their pool, the teams could meet in the quarterfinals. Pump N Run's 16s and both 15s are both in Chicago as well. Top teams in those levels also stuck with Grassroots Canada in the 1st super pool.
Locally, MYAS is in St. Paul and at Robbinsdale Cooper. At Cooper, a pair of Magic 19U teams are playing along with the Wisconsin Terror. They have a couple of NW Wisconsin kids worth watching in 6'5" shooting forward Tyler Forsythe and guard Eric Effertz. Minnesota teams will get a look at them at the Dakota Showcase in Sioux Falls at the end of June.
Finally, with this being Memorial Day weekend, remember all of the veterans out there who have sacrificed so much for the freedoms we all enjoy.
Moving on from the State Qualifier
A fun weekend at the state qualifier as we have Dominos Pizza. But best of all, its the annual appearance of the world famous "hat lady". Longtime readers will remember this fan as the one who dress as if she's attending the Kentucky Derby. Enormous hat included. This weekend was all purple on Saturday and all blue on Sunday.
In the 17U bracket, here are your qualifiers.
Fury Blue and Comets-Seevers from pool A, Fury Gold takes the top spot in pool B along with the winner of Old Skool and SW MN Heat. Wrath and Glory go from Pool C with Wrath stealing the 3 seed thanks to their 80-68 win over Glory. WOTN Gold and Magic Elite go from pool F. Comets-Hanson played Magic Westside for the 2nd spot in pool E. Heat Sprang takes the other spot and moves up to the 5 seed. Howard Pulley White takes pool D (I assume they won their Sunday game) and Heat Elite took on Comets North for the other spot in that pool. Pulley steals the 4 seed.
In 16U, great ending as Comets Elite nails a buzzer beater against Heat Black to keep the top overall seed and win pool A. Both teams move on. Fury Gold and Suns move on from pool B as the seeds hold. Fighting Irish win pool D, no surprise there, and it looks like tNBA wins the 3 way breaker for the 2nd seed. WOTN Gold and Magic Elite Tillman move on from pool C. Pool E was up in the air. In pool F, Glory knocked off Heat Elite to force a 3 way tie. Looks like Heat Elite and Sauk Rapids will move on with Glory being knocked out based on point differential.
In 15U, Fury Blue and WOTN Gold move on as seeds hold. Looks like Old Skool United jumped up to take the 3rd spot. Glory wins pool B and River City jumps up to win the 2nd spot in the pool. 3rd spot unknown. In pool C, tNBA def MN Select-Focke 61-60 as the 4th/5th teams in that pool move up (2nd team dropped out). Heat Red also moves on. Triple Threat , Heat Black and Comets Elite go from Pool D.
In the 17U bracket, here are your qualifiers.
Fury Blue and Comets-Seevers from pool A, Fury Gold takes the top spot in pool B along with the winner of Old Skool and SW MN Heat. Wrath and Glory go from Pool C with Wrath stealing the 3 seed thanks to their 80-68 win over Glory. WOTN Gold and Magic Elite go from pool F. Comets-Hanson played Magic Westside for the 2nd spot in pool E. Heat Sprang takes the other spot and moves up to the 5 seed. Howard Pulley White takes pool D (I assume they won their Sunday game) and Heat Elite took on Comets North for the other spot in that pool. Pulley steals the 4 seed.
In 16U, great ending as Comets Elite nails a buzzer beater against Heat Black to keep the top overall seed and win pool A. Both teams move on. Fury Gold and Suns move on from pool B as the seeds hold. Fighting Irish win pool D, no surprise there, and it looks like tNBA wins the 3 way breaker for the 2nd seed. WOTN Gold and Magic Elite Tillman move on from pool C. Pool E was up in the air. In pool F, Glory knocked off Heat Elite to force a 3 way tie. Looks like Heat Elite and Sauk Rapids will move on with Glory being knocked out based on point differential.
In 15U, Fury Blue and WOTN Gold move on as seeds hold. Looks like Old Skool United jumped up to take the 3rd spot. Glory wins pool B and River City jumps up to win the 2nd spot in the pool. 3rd spot unknown. In pool C, tNBA def MN Select-Focke 61-60 as the 4th/5th teams in that pool move up (2nd team dropped out). Heat Red also moves on. Triple Threat , Heat Black and Comets Elite go from Pool D.
2010 State AAU Qualifier Pre-Thoughts
For the most part, seedings hold at the state qualifier but with the seeding process often being somewhat laughable, there are plenty of chances for lower seed teams to play up to their real seed. Read the full schedule for this weekend at Champlin Park here.
17U
Top 2 seeds in each of the 6 pools move on to the championship round. The top seed is Fury Blue as there is no Pump N Run, 43 Hoops or Howard Pulley Black so the best of the best aren't playing but just about everybody else (sans SW MN Stars) is included. I like Fury Blue and Comets-Seevers to hold serve in pool A. Fury Gold should win pool B. Triple Threat without James Fort has the element of danger vs Old Skool or SW MN Heat (not to be confused with Stars who are in KC this weekend). Wide open race for the 2nd bid from that pool. Pool C with Glory showing up at the seeding meeting to earn the 3 seed has one of the more interesting pool games against MN Wrath at 10:15 on Sunday morning. The matchup of Bronson Scheff and Ben Kortuem defending Glory sharpshooter Andres Broman is one to watch there.
Heat Elite and Howard Pulley White head up pool D. Bretson McNeal, Terrance Averyheart and Clarence Thomas make for a high-scoring trio in the backcourt for Howard Pulley. Heat Elite will have their hands full to hold serve in that pool. Magic Elite and WOTN Gold head up Pool F and they played 2 nailbiters at the Sabes Invite 2 weeks ago. 3:15 Sunday is the last pool game and expect it to determine the winner. Finally in Pool E, we have Magic Westside showing up for the seeding meeting to earn the 5 seed. If they don't beat WOTN Black on Friday night, they may not win all weekend. Comets-Hanson (biggest shaft in the seeding in the 17s and Heat Sprang are my picks to move on. Those 2 meet at 2 PM on Sunday.
16U
Also top 2 seeds in these pools move on. Comets Elite and Heat Black are a quality matchup in Pool A (10:15 AM Sunday). MN Suns appear locally and have the top Fury team in their pool. But without Marcus Tyus, that's a different Fury team. I still see Fury out of pool B though. Pool D has another Fighting Irish sweep on my list. Pool E, I'll take Howard Pulley White with guys like Ben Glover and Tommy McDermott leading the way. Heat Elite def Glory to steal the top seed in Pool F at 11:30 AM Sunday. Pool C has quality balance with WOTN Gold, Magic Elite Gold and Comets Stock. The St. Paul Warriors round out out the pool. I think that's a topsy turvy pool with 3 top teams even and the Warriors despite being 0-4 last weekend did have a chance to win 3 of those games, including 1 against Comets Stock.
15U
Top 3 seeds in the 4 pools move on in the 15s. The biggest shaft in all the seeding goes to tNBA who somehow got stuck as the 4th team in pool C despite a 22-4 (or so) record to this point against quality competition (they played PNR Maroon to the wire in Iowa last week). I think they win pool C but if the MN Select top 15s are there then its interesting but I don't think its them. Heat Red will have something to say in that pool as well. Fury Blue a big favorite in pool A. WOTN Gold advances from there as well. Mack Johnson can really shoot it for WOTN. Pool B looks down so if Kayshiva Shaw is still with River City, I wonder if they make a run. Comets Elite and Heat Black top Pool D.
17U
Top 2 seeds in each of the 6 pools move on to the championship round. The top seed is Fury Blue as there is no Pump N Run, 43 Hoops or Howard Pulley Black so the best of the best aren't playing but just about everybody else (sans SW MN Stars) is included. I like Fury Blue and Comets-Seevers to hold serve in pool A. Fury Gold should win pool B. Triple Threat without James Fort has the element of danger vs Old Skool or SW MN Heat (not to be confused with Stars who are in KC this weekend). Wide open race for the 2nd bid from that pool. Pool C with Glory showing up at the seeding meeting to earn the 3 seed has one of the more interesting pool games against MN Wrath at 10:15 on Sunday morning. The matchup of Bronson Scheff and Ben Kortuem defending Glory sharpshooter Andres Broman is one to watch there.
Heat Elite and Howard Pulley White head up pool D. Bretson McNeal, Terrance Averyheart and Clarence Thomas make for a high-scoring trio in the backcourt for Howard Pulley. Heat Elite will have their hands full to hold serve in that pool. Magic Elite and WOTN Gold head up Pool F and they played 2 nailbiters at the Sabes Invite 2 weeks ago. 3:15 Sunday is the last pool game and expect it to determine the winner. Finally in Pool E, we have Magic Westside showing up for the seeding meeting to earn the 5 seed. If they don't beat WOTN Black on Friday night, they may not win all weekend. Comets-Hanson (biggest shaft in the seeding in the 17s and Heat Sprang are my picks to move on. Those 2 meet at 2 PM on Sunday.
16U
Also top 2 seeds in these pools move on. Comets Elite and Heat Black are a quality matchup in Pool A (10:15 AM Sunday). MN Suns appear locally and have the top Fury team in their pool. But without Marcus Tyus, that's a different Fury team. I still see Fury out of pool B though. Pool D has another Fighting Irish sweep on my list. Pool E, I'll take Howard Pulley White with guys like Ben Glover and Tommy McDermott leading the way. Heat Elite def Glory to steal the top seed in Pool F at 11:30 AM Sunday. Pool C has quality balance with WOTN Gold, Magic Elite Gold and Comets Stock. The St. Paul Warriors round out out the pool. I think that's a topsy turvy pool with 3 top teams even and the Warriors despite being 0-4 last weekend did have a chance to win 3 of those games, including 1 against Comets Stock.
15U
Top 3 seeds in the 4 pools move on in the 15s. The biggest shaft in all the seeding goes to tNBA who somehow got stuck as the 4th team in pool C despite a 22-4 (or so) record to this point against quality competition (they played PNR Maroon to the wire in Iowa last week). I think they win pool C but if the MN Select top 15s are there then its interesting but I don't think its them. Heat Red will have something to say in that pool as well. Fury Blue a big favorite in pool A. WOTN Gold advances from there as well. Mack Johnson can really shoot it for WOTN. Pool B looks down so if Kayshiva Shaw is still with River City, I wonder if they make a run. Comets Elite and Heat Black top Pool D.
Minnesota Swap in new Rivals 2011 Top 150
Labels:
2011 Recruiting,
Joe Coleman,
Rivals Recruiting,
Ross Travis
Rivals released their spring 2010 top 100 for the class of 2011. A swap of Minnesota players is notable as Ross Travis drops out from #133 and Joe Coleman jumps in at #104. That's despite missing a big chunk of time with an injured ankle/foot.
Here are others who have appeared locally.
#5 Brad Beal (up from #7, Florida)
#14 Myck Kabongo (up from #24, Texas)
#20 Quinn Cook (no change)
#30 Branden Dawson (down from #16)
#132 Paul Jesperson (new)
Read the entire rankings here.
Here are others who have appeared locally.
#5 Brad Beal (up from #7, Florida)
#14 Myck Kabongo (up from #24, Texas)
#20 Quinn Cook (no change)
#30 Branden Dawson (down from #16)
#132 Paul Jesperson (new)
Read the entire rankings here.
The Non-Qualifiers
This weekend is the AAU State Qualifying tournament. I'll take a look at that tomorrow, but for now a look at some of the teams that won't be playing.
Howard Pulley Blue 17s won 3 games in Houston and were awarded another forfeit. The Panthers are 8-1 in EYBL play and lead Division A. Pulley is the only team with 1 loss with only 2 undefeated teams out of 42 in the league. They have this week off before EYBL session 3 in Los Angeles next weekend.
Pump N Run has the week off as they'll play in Chicago next weekend and then in the MYAS state tournament in 2 weeks.
Minnesota Select has both of their 17s in Milwaukee. Select-George has won a couple of tournaments in a row (Sioux Falls and their tourney last weekend). They have the 2nd Wisconsin Playmakers team that played here in the PNR tourney in their pool. The top Playmakers team with Paul Jesperson has the Iowa Barnstormers and new UNI commit Seth Tuttle in their pool. Team GetShook is also in Milwaukee.
Finally, Minnesota Southside and the SW MN Stars make the trip to Kansas City for the KC Classic. The Stars have both a 16U and 17U team down there. The Stars 16s have a team called The Arachnids in their bracket. From wikipedia, most arachnids are meat eaters. Fear the spider!
Howard Pulley Blue 17s won 3 games in Houston and were awarded another forfeit. The Panthers are 8-1 in EYBL play and lead Division A. Pulley is the only team with 1 loss with only 2 undefeated teams out of 42 in the league. They have this week off before EYBL session 3 in Los Angeles next weekend.
Pump N Run has the week off as they'll play in Chicago next weekend and then in the MYAS state tournament in 2 weeks.
Minnesota Select has both of their 17s in Milwaukee. Select-George has won a couple of tournaments in a row (Sioux Falls and their tourney last weekend). They have the 2nd Wisconsin Playmakers team that played here in the PNR tourney in their pool. The top Playmakers team with Paul Jesperson has the Iowa Barnstormers and new UNI commit Seth Tuttle in their pool. Team GetShook is also in Milwaukee.
Finally, Minnesota Southside and the SW MN Stars make the trip to Kansas City for the KC Classic. The Stars have both a 16U and 17U team down there. The Stars 16s have a team called The Arachnids in their bracket. From wikipedia, most arachnids are meat eaters. Fear the spider!
2010 MN Select Classic Thoughts
Labels:
2010 MN Select Classic
Here's what caught my eye at the 2010 Minnesota Select Classic
Saturday (Pool Play)
A nice start to the weekend with Triple Threat taking on Magic Westside. No James Fort inside for Triple Threat as he tweaked a knee and may miss the rest of Triple Threat's season. But that's more a precaution than a serious injury. Westside was up 4 with 2:15 but couldn't hold the lead. Mitch Wurm comes off a downscreen and nails a foul line jumper with 2.5 left to give Triple Threat a 70-68 win. Major size advantage for Westside in that game and they didn't take advantage.
In game 2, Rosemount took on the St. Paul Warriors. 36-29 Warriors lead with 10 minutes left after an offensive rebound of a free throw for 2. Rosemount coach not happy and he wants a timeout. His crew responds with a 16-4 run over the next 6 minutes and the Irish win 50-44.
Westside rebounded from their loss thanks to a pair of David Anderson free throws with 11 seconds left. That put Westside over the top 64-62 against the Select top team.
No Sanjay Lumpkin on Saturday for the Pump N Run 16s so you need a replacement. Hmm, Reed Travis is playing with the PNR 15 Black club in the tourney and the PNR 17s have the weekend off. And the 16s are playing the in 17U division, so that makes Jonah Travis a logical replacement. 55-30 vs Select II at the half as PNR shoots the lights out. Nick Jorgenson with 7 for 7 3s in the game. PNR 84-45, ouch. Danon Briggs with a halfcourt lob to Jonah Travis for the explanation point. But remember this one.
A ridiculous ending in Select II's next game against Old Skool United. 52-46 Select with 4:30 left after a 7-0 run. Then RJ Dean for 3 and an assist. 55-52 Skool with 1:32 left. Big Lake center Anthony Saavedra for 2 more on the post with 40 seconds left. 11-0 Skool run and this one should be over. Hold my calls please. Jake Goldberg puts back a miss and then Alex Koch with a steal for the old fashioned 3 point play with 18.1 seconds left. Chad Howard (nice weekend for him) then takes an Old Skool turnover for 2 free throws. The ball comes back to half court and Select decides to intentionally foul, interesting choice. Old Skool gets it to Saavedra on the post and he scores at the regulation buzzer to send us to OT.
In the 1st overtime, Saavedra with a quick miss and then Select holds for 1:40 vs 2-3 zone but turns the ball over with 10 seconds left. But Select survives the turnover and we'll play a 2nd OT of 1 minute. Koch misses the front end of the bonus with 20 seconds left which is a major shock for a shooter like him. Saavedra then is fouled inside but he misses both freebies with 5.7 left. Select rebounds and takes timeout. A great play call gets Levi Abercrombie on the run and he's fouled (tick tack call) at the buzzer. He makes the 1st free throw and Select II wins a crazy one 60-59.
Pump N Run 16s defeated Old Skool 59-44 in the last game of Saturday but don't let that score fool you. PNR was cold for most of the game and this was a 50-44 PNR lead with 2:10 left before Nick Jorgenson nailed a big 3 to ice the game away.
Bracket Play (Sunday)
Westside lost another close game as Comets Gold took them out 62-58 in the quarters. Westside was up big in the consolation game vs Select I and held on to win a close one. In the semis, Comets Gold stuck with PNR until halftime. Carnell Sheppard for 3 at the halftime buzzer for a 7 point lead and PNR rolled from there 69-47. Select II defeated Old Skool 72-61 in the other semi.
Comets Stock needed a 3 point play from Levi Johnson with 2.5 seconds left in double OT to defeat Triple Threat in the 16U semis. Rosemount handled them in the championship game though. 6'7 Matt Nelson from Rosemount with 2 quick blocks, a behind the back dribble on a bust out and then they run a down screen for him for 3. Very thin now, but there's most definitely an upside there with bigs hard to come by in the 2012 class.
Sanjay Lumpkin back in time for the 17U title game against Select II (see above). What a difference a day makes. Again, shots not falling for PNR and they hung on to a 36-35 halftime lead. Alex Koch with 3 from the deep beyond to keep Select close. 50-44 Select with 10:44 left as they weren't going to go away. 50 all with 7:40 left and this one was going right to the buzzer. Abercrombie with a tough hoop in the lane and 2 free throws sandwiched around a Jack Harrison putback for PNR. 62-61 Select with 1:33 left. Lumpkin down the lane and blocked with 1:24 left, huge play. Select holds before Koch drives and finds Jake Goldberg for a layup with 40 seconds left and the Select lead is 3. Brady Wohler drives for a layup with 22 seconds and PNR forces a turnover with 16.1 left. Danon Briggs drives for 2 with 8 seconds left. Back we come the other way and Abercrombie gets loose for 3. The way he played this weekend, no way that wasn't going in. Select II wins the 17U title 67-65 while Select I was 0-4. Irony there. I like what Kevin Jensen did in both the semis and finals for PNR. Jensen and Lumpkin with 14 points each to lead PNR in the loss.
MN Elite is a 14U west metro team and they took out a very good Select-Focke team in the 15U semis. Their reward was to play Pump N Run 15U Black in the championship game. Strike while the iron is hot and the 3 ball was there for Elite. 4 of them put Elite up 20-13 at the 6:45 mark of the 1st half. PNR not keeping the ball in front of them either. Dion Bradley with a pair of triples for PNR as they start to find the range. 24 all at 3:30. 28-24 Elite with about a minute left in the half when PNR goes 2-3 zone and Elite holds for 1 shot. Elite can't take care of it against the quick PNR guards and 2 steals are easy layups to send us to halftime tied at 28.
The second half was all about home gym guy (i.e St. Louis Park frosh) Kashif Hayes. PNR found a matchup and ran right wing pick and roll to death with him. 37-32 PNR withi 11 minutes left and it looks like they'll run away. Not quite. Kolby Seiffert with his 3rd triple of the day and Elite is within 47-42 with 6:15 left. Then 52-48 PNR with 2:25 left. Elite fans not at all happy with 2 or 3 calls that didn't go their way (and they weren't necessarily wrong). Then a quick T on an Elite player while PNR was ready to shoot free throws. 2 of the 4 freebies are good. Elite doesn't go away though. Kyle Kalivoda makes 2 free throws with 1:21 left to cut the PNR lead to 56-54. But Elite can't get over the top and PNR wins the 15U title 62-56.
Kashif Hayes topped all scorers with 19 points. 16 of those were in the 2nd half and most off the right side PNR to Hayes left hand. Elite didn't make sufficient adjustments to address that as well as settling for 3s early in the 2nd half against the zone. Kolby Seiffert leads Elite with 15 points. Matt Juneau played well inside for Elite with 14 points. They play well together and shoot the ball very well.
Really disgusted to see the MN Elite fans attempt to confront the officials after the game was over. No place for that at all. Once the final horn blows, its over move on. Looked like the Elite coach apologied to both Tom Krosschell and Sean Kruger afterwards. If so, that's a class move on his part. On a lighter note, best part of the weekend was free soda courtesy of winning a regular season bet with Sibley coach Tom Dasovich. It's definitely true that the drinks are better when free.
Saturday (Pool Play)
A nice start to the weekend with Triple Threat taking on Magic Westside. No James Fort inside for Triple Threat as he tweaked a knee and may miss the rest of Triple Threat's season. But that's more a precaution than a serious injury. Westside was up 4 with 2:15 but couldn't hold the lead. Mitch Wurm comes off a downscreen and nails a foul line jumper with 2.5 left to give Triple Threat a 70-68 win. Major size advantage for Westside in that game and they didn't take advantage.
In game 2, Rosemount took on the St. Paul Warriors. 36-29 Warriors lead with 10 minutes left after an offensive rebound of a free throw for 2. Rosemount coach not happy and he wants a timeout. His crew responds with a 16-4 run over the next 6 minutes and the Irish win 50-44.
Westside rebounded from their loss thanks to a pair of David Anderson free throws with 11 seconds left. That put Westside over the top 64-62 against the Select top team.
No Sanjay Lumpkin on Saturday for the Pump N Run 16s so you need a replacement. Hmm, Reed Travis is playing with the PNR 15 Black club in the tourney and the PNR 17s have the weekend off. And the 16s are playing the in 17U division, so that makes Jonah Travis a logical replacement. 55-30 vs Select II at the half as PNR shoots the lights out. Nick Jorgenson with 7 for 7 3s in the game. PNR 84-45, ouch. Danon Briggs with a halfcourt lob to Jonah Travis for the explanation point. But remember this one.
A ridiculous ending in Select II's next game against Old Skool United. 52-46 Select with 4:30 left after a 7-0 run. Then RJ Dean for 3 and an assist. 55-52 Skool with 1:32 left. Big Lake center Anthony Saavedra for 2 more on the post with 40 seconds left. 11-0 Skool run and this one should be over. Hold my calls please. Jake Goldberg puts back a miss and then Alex Koch with a steal for the old fashioned 3 point play with 18.1 seconds left. Chad Howard (nice weekend for him) then takes an Old Skool turnover for 2 free throws. The ball comes back to half court and Select decides to intentionally foul, interesting choice. Old Skool gets it to Saavedra on the post and he scores at the regulation buzzer to send us to OT.
In the 1st overtime, Saavedra with a quick miss and then Select holds for 1:40 vs 2-3 zone but turns the ball over with 10 seconds left. But Select survives the turnover and we'll play a 2nd OT of 1 minute. Koch misses the front end of the bonus with 20 seconds left which is a major shock for a shooter like him. Saavedra then is fouled inside but he misses both freebies with 5.7 left. Select rebounds and takes timeout. A great play call gets Levi Abercrombie on the run and he's fouled (tick tack call) at the buzzer. He makes the 1st free throw and Select II wins a crazy one 60-59.
Pump N Run 16s defeated Old Skool 59-44 in the last game of Saturday but don't let that score fool you. PNR was cold for most of the game and this was a 50-44 PNR lead with 2:10 left before Nick Jorgenson nailed a big 3 to ice the game away.
Bracket Play (Sunday)
Westside lost another close game as Comets Gold took them out 62-58 in the quarters. Westside was up big in the consolation game vs Select I and held on to win a close one. In the semis, Comets Gold stuck with PNR until halftime. Carnell Sheppard for 3 at the halftime buzzer for a 7 point lead and PNR rolled from there 69-47. Select II defeated Old Skool 72-61 in the other semi.
Comets Stock needed a 3 point play from Levi Johnson with 2.5 seconds left in double OT to defeat Triple Threat in the 16U semis. Rosemount handled them in the championship game though. 6'7 Matt Nelson from Rosemount with 2 quick blocks, a behind the back dribble on a bust out and then they run a down screen for him for 3. Very thin now, but there's most definitely an upside there with bigs hard to come by in the 2012 class.
Sanjay Lumpkin back in time for the 17U title game against Select II (see above). What a difference a day makes. Again, shots not falling for PNR and they hung on to a 36-35 halftime lead. Alex Koch with 3 from the deep beyond to keep Select close. 50-44 Select with 10:44 left as they weren't going to go away. 50 all with 7:40 left and this one was going right to the buzzer. Abercrombie with a tough hoop in the lane and 2 free throws sandwiched around a Jack Harrison putback for PNR. 62-61 Select with 1:33 left. Lumpkin down the lane and blocked with 1:24 left, huge play. Select holds before Koch drives and finds Jake Goldberg for a layup with 40 seconds left and the Select lead is 3. Brady Wohler drives for a layup with 22 seconds and PNR forces a turnover with 16.1 left. Danon Briggs drives for 2 with 8 seconds left. Back we come the other way and Abercrombie gets loose for 3. The way he played this weekend, no way that wasn't going in. Select II wins the 17U title 67-65 while Select I was 0-4. Irony there. I like what Kevin Jensen did in both the semis and finals for PNR. Jensen and Lumpkin with 14 points each to lead PNR in the loss.
MN Elite is a 14U west metro team and they took out a very good Select-Focke team in the 15U semis. Their reward was to play Pump N Run 15U Black in the championship game. Strike while the iron is hot and the 3 ball was there for Elite. 4 of them put Elite up 20-13 at the 6:45 mark of the 1st half. PNR not keeping the ball in front of them either. Dion Bradley with a pair of triples for PNR as they start to find the range. 24 all at 3:30. 28-24 Elite with about a minute left in the half when PNR goes 2-3 zone and Elite holds for 1 shot. Elite can't take care of it against the quick PNR guards and 2 steals are easy layups to send us to halftime tied at 28.
The second half was all about home gym guy (i.e St. Louis Park frosh) Kashif Hayes. PNR found a matchup and ran right wing pick and roll to death with him. 37-32 PNR withi 11 minutes left and it looks like they'll run away. Not quite. Kolby Seiffert with his 3rd triple of the day and Elite is within 47-42 with 6:15 left. Then 52-48 PNR with 2:25 left. Elite fans not at all happy with 2 or 3 calls that didn't go their way (and they weren't necessarily wrong). Then a quick T on an Elite player while PNR was ready to shoot free throws. 2 of the 4 freebies are good. Elite doesn't go away though. Kyle Kalivoda makes 2 free throws with 1:21 left to cut the PNR lead to 56-54. But Elite can't get over the top and PNR wins the 15U title 62-56.
Kashif Hayes topped all scorers with 19 points. 16 of those were in the 2nd half and most off the right side PNR to Hayes left hand. Elite didn't make sufficient adjustments to address that as well as settling for 3s early in the 2nd half against the zone. Kolby Seiffert leads Elite with 15 points. Matt Juneau played well inside for Elite with 14 points. They play well together and shoot the ball very well.
Really disgusted to see the MN Elite fans attempt to confront the officials after the game was over. No place for that at all. Once the final horn blows, its over move on. Looked like the Elite coach apologied to both Tom Krosschell and Sean Kruger afterwards. If so, that's a class move on his part. On a lighter note, best part of the weekend was free soda courtesy of winning a regular season bet with Sibley coach Tom Dasovich. It's definitely true that the drinks are better when free.
2010 MN Select Classic Preview
Labels:
2010 MN Select Classic
Minnesota Select moves their tournament back 2 weeks this year and runs in to the group of teams in Iowa as I previewed yesterday. But all in all it should still be an interesting weekend at St. Louis Park.
17U (schedule here)
Pool A is the loaded pool with the top Minnesota Select team, Triple Threat and Magic Westside. James Fort in the middle in an interesting matchup vs David Andersen of Magic Westside. Joey Sonnefeld and Jeremy Borg also lead Westside. Brian Reeves and Andy Jones in this group for Select. I'm also looking to see if seniors Tim Lubke and Joey Cuperus play before the D2 schools have to shut down recruiting for a month.
Pool B features the MN PNR 16s deciding to play and play up. They have to be the favorite in that pool with the 2nd MN Select squad (presumably without Alex Koch who's now signed with SW MN St) and Old Skool. Pool C is down with Prior Lake, Comets Gold and MN Premiere. Premiere does have size and I'm looking to see Luke Marks of St. Thomas Academy.
16U (schedule here)
2 pools of 4 in what is a relatively weak group. The Fighting Irish from Rosemount have made nice showings at the Comets and Pump N Run tournaments. Triple Threat and Old Skool in the pool. The St. Paul Warriors make their 1st appearance of the season. The Warriors return to play after taking last year off. MN Select's metro squad along with Prior Lake and Sauk Rapids are in the other pool with the Comets second team.
15U (schedule here)
The biggest group is 4 3-team pools in 15U. Comets Elite and the 3rd MN Select team in the 1st pool. The top Select team with Kebu Johnson and a pair of Sibley freshmen, shooter Adam Huessner and Nick Goldberg highlight pool B. Rosemount also places a 15U team in pool C with the 2nd Select team. Pump N Run's 2nd 15s with Kashif Hayes playing on home turf and Reggie Lynch looks to win that pool.
17U (schedule here)
Pool A is the loaded pool with the top Minnesota Select team, Triple Threat and Magic Westside. James Fort in the middle in an interesting matchup vs David Andersen of Magic Westside. Joey Sonnefeld and Jeremy Borg also lead Westside. Brian Reeves and Andy Jones in this group for Select. I'm also looking to see if seniors Tim Lubke and Joey Cuperus play before the D2 schools have to shut down recruiting for a month.
Pool B features the MN PNR 16s deciding to play and play up. They have to be the favorite in that pool with the 2nd MN Select squad (presumably without Alex Koch who's now signed with SW MN St) and Old Skool. Pool C is down with Prior Lake, Comets Gold and MN Premiere. Premiere does have size and I'm looking to see Luke Marks of St. Thomas Academy.
16U (schedule here)
2 pools of 4 in what is a relatively weak group. The Fighting Irish from Rosemount have made nice showings at the Comets and Pump N Run tournaments. Triple Threat and Old Skool in the pool. The St. Paul Warriors make their 1st appearance of the season. The Warriors return to play after taking last year off. MN Select's metro squad along with Prior Lake and Sauk Rapids are in the other pool with the Comets second team.
15U (schedule here)
The biggest group is 4 3-team pools in 15U. Comets Elite and the 3rd MN Select team in the 1st pool. The top Select team with Kebu Johnson and a pair of Sibley freshmen, shooter Adam Huessner and Nick Goldberg highlight pool B. Rosemount also places a 15U team in pool C with the 2nd Select team. Pump N Run's 2nd 15s with Kashif Hayes playing on home turf and Reggie Lynch looks to win that pool.
2010 Kings of the Court preview
Its another Minnesota roadshow this week as 37 teams trek south for the Kings of the Court classic in metro Des Moines, IA. This is the former Midwest Festival of Teams (though that event still goes on and Southside and the PNR 15s both attended it on Comets weekend).
In the 17U division, 11 of the 35 teams come from Minnesota. Howard Pulley's 2nd team is here (top team is at session 2 of the EYBL in Houston). Both Fury teams, Magic Elite, Heat Sprang, WOTN Black and Wrath are all in the pools just to name a few. Heat Elite were planning on attending but most of their roster has prom this weekend so they'll take the weekend off. Magic Elite also lose out to prom as their point guard Daron Garvis won't be playing this weekend. But they hope to have Joe Carpenter back from injury. TNL Express/MN Xplosion is also attending with a group of Champlin Park seniors. That will include Josh Pella who comes over from Fury Blue for the weekend. I look for Wrath, TNL, Pulley White and Fury Blue to all win their pools. Magic Elite vs ECI Prospects and Joe Hanstad at 12:40 PM on Saturday is a highlight game. Heat Sprang has the 8:50 PM opener against Kingdom Hoops for the pool title on Friday night. Nick Carroll's Fury Gold squad has a tough draw with defending champs Spiece MOKAN Elite. They play at 1:50 on Saturday. Heat Sprang could see Magic Elite in the 1st round of bracket play.
In 16U, 13 of the 42 teams are from north of the border, Iowa/Minnesota border that is. Both Howard Pulley teams are here and with pool wins could meet in the quarters. But Howard Pulley Blue could meet Wes Staten and the Kingdom Hoops 16 Red club in the round of 16. No cakewalk there. Minnesota Suns get a tough draw against Bound 4 Glory's top 16s in pool H. Minnesota Southside also in attendance. Not out of the question for them to get a semifinal rematch with the loaded Martin Brothers 16s. Martin Brothers has a good chance to play the Heat Elite before that game. Winner would get a bye to the semis. A Howard Pulley Blue vs Martin Brothers title game would be dynamite. But defending champ Spiece MOKAN is in the Martin Brothers half of the bracket too. Very interesting matchup possibly in the 1st round with Southside vs Heat Black who's currently on a roll.
13 15U teams make the trip. The top MN Pump N Run team is at the top of the pools. An interesting matchup with tNBA could await in the quarters. The next section of the bracket could see Fury Blue make it all the way to the semis to play the winner of that tNBA/PNR game. Bottom section of the draw has both Howard Pulley teams. I think super frosh Peter Jok is with Kingdom Hoops Red and that would put him in Pulley Black's pool
In the 17U division, 11 of the 35 teams come from Minnesota. Howard Pulley's 2nd team is here (top team is at session 2 of the EYBL in Houston). Both Fury teams, Magic Elite, Heat Sprang, WOTN Black and Wrath are all in the pools just to name a few. Heat Elite were planning on attending but most of their roster has prom this weekend so they'll take the weekend off. Magic Elite also lose out to prom as their point guard Daron Garvis won't be playing this weekend. But they hope to have Joe Carpenter back from injury. TNL Express/MN Xplosion is also attending with a group of Champlin Park seniors. That will include Josh Pella who comes over from Fury Blue for the weekend. I look for Wrath, TNL, Pulley White and Fury Blue to all win their pools. Magic Elite vs ECI Prospects and Joe Hanstad at 12:40 PM on Saturday is a highlight game. Heat Sprang has the 8:50 PM opener against Kingdom Hoops for the pool title on Friday night. Nick Carroll's Fury Gold squad has a tough draw with defending champs Spiece MOKAN Elite. They play at 1:50 on Saturday. Heat Sprang could see Magic Elite in the 1st round of bracket play.
In 16U, 13 of the 42 teams are from north of the border, Iowa/Minnesota border that is. Both Howard Pulley teams are here and with pool wins could meet in the quarters. But Howard Pulley Blue could meet Wes Staten and the Kingdom Hoops 16 Red club in the round of 16. No cakewalk there. Minnesota Suns get a tough draw against Bound 4 Glory's top 16s in pool H. Minnesota Southside also in attendance. Not out of the question for them to get a semifinal rematch with the loaded Martin Brothers 16s. Martin Brothers has a good chance to play the Heat Elite before that game. Winner would get a bye to the semis. A Howard Pulley Blue vs Martin Brothers title game would be dynamite. But defending champ Spiece MOKAN is in the Martin Brothers half of the bracket too. Very interesting matchup possibly in the 1st round with Southside vs Heat Black who's currently on a roll.
13 15U teams make the trip. The top MN Pump N Run team is at the top of the pools. An interesting matchup with tNBA could await in the quarters. The next section of the bracket could see Fury Blue make it all the way to the semis to play the winner of that tNBA/PNR game. Bottom section of the draw has both Howard Pulley teams. I think super frosh Peter Jok is with Kingdom Hoops Red and that would put him in Pulley Black's pool
2010 Sabes Invitational Wrap
Labels:
2010 Sabes Invitational,
Calvin Godfrey,
Tyus Jones
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
ESPN Article on 2010 Sabes Invitational
NY2LASports Article on 2010 Sabes Invitational
- 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.
ESPN Article on 2010 Sabes Invitational
NY2LASports Article on 2010 Sabes Invitational
2010 Sabes Invitational 17U Preview
Labels:
2010 Sabes Invitational
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.
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.
Noreen makes Scout's final top 100
Labels:
Kevin Noreen,
Scout Recruiting
Kevin Noreen made the final Scout.com top 100 for 2010. He came in at #91 after not making the last list (somewhere between 101 and 107). Here are the other players who have appeared locally and a comparison of where they were in the September 2009 rankings.
Harrison Barnes #1 (no change) - North Carolina
Josh Selby #5 (up from #10) - Kansas
Joe Jackson #23 (down from #17) - Memphis
Vander Blue #34 (down from #27) - Marquette
Dwight Powell #42 (up from #45) - Stanford
Trevor Releford #50 (no change) - Alabama
Alex Kirk #76 (up from #80) - New Mexico
Tobi Oyedeji #93 (down from #68) - Texas A&M
Evan Anderson drops out after being #90. - Wisconsin
Harrison Barnes #1 (no change) - North Carolina
Josh Selby #5 (up from #10) - Kansas
Joe Jackson #23 (down from #17) - Memphis
Vander Blue #34 (down from #27) - Marquette
Dwight Powell #42 (up from #45) - Stanford
Trevor Releford #50 (no change) - Alabama
Alex Kirk #76 (up from #80) - New Mexico
Tobi Oyedeji #93 (down from #68) - Texas A&M
Evan Anderson drops out after being #90. - Wisconsin
MN Results at the 2010 Jayhawk Invite
Here's how the slew of Minnesota teams did on their trip to Kansas (assuming the online results are correct)
17U
17U
- Howard Pulley Black, 2-1 Pool, def MN Heat Sprang in round of 16, lost in quarterfinals to eventual champion St. Louis Eagles
- SW MN Stars, 0-3 pool, includes 73-54 loss to Howard Pulley Black. Lost consolation game.
- MN Fury Blue, 3-0 pool including major upsets of Dream Vision and Pray and Play Players. Def MN Heat Elite in bracket opener. Lost to Compton Magic in semifinals.
- WOTN Black 1-2 in pool, includes 67-39 loss to MN Heat Sprang
- MN Heat Sprang, 3-0 in pool, with win over WOTN Black, lost to Howard Pulley Black in round of 16.
- HP White, went 3-0 in pool, lost bracket playin to Dream Vision
- Team GetShook, 1-2 in pool, including 80-47 loss to WOTN Gold. Lost consolation game.
- WOTN Gold, 3-0 in pool includes win over Team GetShook, lost bracket playin game.
- Comets-Seevers, 0-3 in pool
- Comets-Hanson, 2-1 in pool
- MN Wrath, 1-2 in pool with 52-41 loss to Heat Elite, won consolation game over a MN Fury team 52-48
- MN Heat Elite, 3-0 in pool with win over Wrath, won bracket play-in game before loss to MN Fury Blue
- Fury Blue 2, 0-3 in pool
- Fury Gold, 1-2 in pool
- MN Suns, 0-3 in pool, includes 49-36 loss to WOTN Gold. Lost consolation game.
- WOTN Gold, 3-0 in pool, won 1st bracket game, lost in quarterfinals to eventual runner up Kingdom Hoops.
- Howard Pulley White, 1-2 in pool. Won consolation game.
- Net Gain, 2-1 in pool, beat MN Magic in bracket playin game before losing in quarterfinals.
- Howard Pulley Black, 3-0 in pool, lost to in semifinals to eventual runner up Kingdom Hoops.
- Comets Stack, 0-3 in pool, includes 55-27 loss to 43 Hoops
- 43 Hoops, 2-1 in pool, won bracket playin game before losing to Indiana Elite One in round of 16.
- MN Southside, 2-1 in pool, lost to MN Comets Elite in bracket playin game.
- Comets Elite, 3-0 in pool def MN Southside in bracket playin game before losing to eventual runner up Kingdom Hoops in round of 16.
- MN Magic, 2-1 in pool, lost to Net Gain in bracket playin game.
- tNBA, 2-1 in pool, lost 64-56 to MN Magic.
- MN Fury, 0-3 in pool, won consolation game.
- MN Fury Blue, 2-1 in pool, includes win over Howard Pulley White. Won 1st bracket game. Lost in quarters to eventual champion KC 76ers.
- Howard Pulley White, 1-2 in pool, lost 65-30 to MN Fury Blue. Lost consolation game.
- tNBA, 2-1 in pool, won 2 bracket games before losing in semis to runner up KC Pump & Run
- Howard Pulley Black, 1-2 in pool. Def Team GetShook 56-21 in consolation game.
- Team GetShook, 0-2 in pool. Lost to Howard Pulley Black in consolation game.
- WOTN Gold, 1-2 in pool. Def MN Comets Elite 74-67 in consolation game.
- MN Fury Gold, 1-2 in pool, includes win over Comets Elite. Won consolation game.
- Comets Elite, 0-3 in pool, including 70-54 loss to MN Fury Gold. Lost consolation to WOTN Gold.
MN shutout in final Rivals 2010 Top 150
Labels:
Jacob Thomas,
Kevin Noreen,
Rivals Recruiting
Rivals released their final 2010 rankings today. Kevin Noreen and Jacob Thomas both miss out on that final ranking.
Here are the players from the list who made a local appearance.
#1 Josh Selby
#2 Harrison Barnes
#18 Joe Jackson
#24 Vander Blue
#25 Dwight Powell
#84 Crandall Head
#85 Tobi Oyedeji
#90 Trevor Releford
#101 Anthony Johnson
#116 Alex Kirk
#129 Brandon Peters
#139 Brandon Spearman
#143 Ahmad Starks
Here are the players from the list who made a local appearance.
#1 Josh Selby
#2 Harrison Barnes
#18 Joe Jackson
#24 Vander Blue
#25 Dwight Powell
#84 Crandall Head
#85 Tobi Oyedeji
#90 Trevor Releford
#101 Anthony Johnson
#116 Alex Kirk
#129 Brandon Peters
#139 Brandon Spearman
#143 Ahmad Starks
Dorothy, we are in Kansas
Its the beginning of May and that means the annual Jayhawk, or should I say Traveling Minnesota Road Show, Invitational. 13 teams from 17U (25% of the field), 12 from 16U (25%) and 8 15U teams from Minnesota all make the 8 hour trip south. Or should I just mention who isn't there. Pump N Run, Glory and Select all have the week off.
But just because it seems like a Minnesota tournament, don't be fooled by the quality. Its a loaded national field too at the 17U level with Doublepump Spring Classic champ KC Pump N Run (Christian Kirk), St. Louis Eagles (#7 ranked Brad Beal and Ben McLemore), SYF Players (#16 ranked Branden Dawson), Dallas Mustangs (#5 ranked LeBryan Nash), Compton Magic (#99 Jahii Carson and #2 2012 Isaiah Austin from Texas joins them for this weekend), Dream Vision (#19 Angelo Chol and #8 2012 player Shabazz Muhammed), NE Players, D1E (AKA Derrick Rose All-Stars), Pray and Play Players (Perry Ellis, ESPN's sophomore of the year). Note that all rankings are from Rivals.com
In 17U (schedule here), the SW MN Stars have Zach Huisken from the Dakota Schoolers for the weekend to replace one of the Holt twins (Lee). Welcome to Kansas guys as Pump N Run Elite and SYF Players reside in this pool. Both of those games are Saturday. Fury Blue gets the absolute most criminal draw possible as they get Pray and Play Players and Dream Vision in their pool. YIKES! It doesn't get much tougher than that. Fury gets both on Saturday.
WOTN Black and Howard Pulley Black join Dallas Mustangs in their pool. HP Black vs the Mustangs 9:10 Saturday morning. Mustangs won the tough Real Deal In The Rock title 2 weeks ago. Comets Hanson is in with KC Truth who qualified for the 16U title game at the Sabes Invite last year. They play at 6:10 Friday night. Pool K has a very interest battle of the MN Wrath and the MN Heat Elite at 8 AM Saturday morning. Also at 8 AM is Team GetShook vs WOTN Gold in Pool H.
In 16U (schedule here), tough draws across the board for MN teams. MN Suns get KC Pump N Run in their pool. KC PNR was the 16s division runner up in Denver (Czar's Note 4/28/10 corrected result). Howard Pulley White gets the stacked and huge Indiana Elite One squad that won the title in Denver 2 weeks ago. Who was one of the other semifinalist? Net Gain and they're in pool E. Howard Pulley Black gets the SYF Players in their pool. 43 Hoops coming off their PNR tourney win last weekend sees the 2nd Comets team in their pool. Southside and Comets Elite head up 2 more pools. Magic somehow has a team here (own tourney this week) and has tNBA in their pool. Fury and WOTN Gold round out the final pool.
In 15U (schedule here), a tough draw for Minnesota Fury Blue. They're off to a great start but Kansas City Pump N Run resides in their pool. SYF Players and Dallas Mustangs are with WOTN Gold in their pool.
But just because it seems like a Minnesota tournament, don't be fooled by the quality. Its a loaded national field too at the 17U level with Doublepump Spring Classic champ KC Pump N Run (Christian Kirk), St. Louis Eagles (#7 ranked Brad Beal and Ben McLemore), SYF Players (#16 ranked Branden Dawson), Dallas Mustangs (#5 ranked LeBryan Nash), Compton Magic (#99 Jahii Carson and #2 2012 Isaiah Austin from Texas joins them for this weekend), Dream Vision (#19 Angelo Chol and #8 2012 player Shabazz Muhammed), NE Players, D1E (AKA Derrick Rose All-Stars), Pray and Play Players (Perry Ellis, ESPN's sophomore of the year). Note that all rankings are from Rivals.com
In 17U (schedule here), the SW MN Stars have Zach Huisken from the Dakota Schoolers for the weekend to replace one of the Holt twins (Lee). Welcome to Kansas guys as Pump N Run Elite and SYF Players reside in this pool. Both of those games are Saturday. Fury Blue gets the absolute most criminal draw possible as they get Pray and Play Players and Dream Vision in their pool. YIKES! It doesn't get much tougher than that. Fury gets both on Saturday.
WOTN Black and Howard Pulley Black join Dallas Mustangs in their pool. HP Black vs the Mustangs 9:10 Saturday morning. Mustangs won the tough Real Deal In The Rock title 2 weeks ago. Comets Hanson is in with KC Truth who qualified for the 16U title game at the Sabes Invite last year. They play at 6:10 Friday night. Pool K has a very interest battle of the MN Wrath and the MN Heat Elite at 8 AM Saturday morning. Also at 8 AM is Team GetShook vs WOTN Gold in Pool H.
In 16U (schedule here), tough draws across the board for MN teams. MN Suns get KC Pump N Run in their pool. KC PNR was the 16s division runner up in Denver (Czar's Note 4/28/10 corrected result). Howard Pulley White gets the stacked and huge Indiana Elite One squad that won the title in Denver 2 weeks ago. Who was one of the other semifinalist? Net Gain and they're in pool E. Howard Pulley Black gets the SYF Players in their pool. 43 Hoops coming off their PNR tourney win last weekend sees the 2nd Comets team in their pool. Southside and Comets Elite head up 2 more pools. Magic somehow has a team here (own tourney this week) and has tNBA in their pool. Fury and WOTN Gold round out the final pool.
In 15U (schedule here), a tough draw for Minnesota Fury Blue. They're off to a great start but Kansas City Pump N Run resides in their pool. SYF Players and Dallas Mustangs are with WOTN Gold in their pool.
2010 Pump N Run Spring Classic Weekend
Labels:
2010 PNR Spring Tourney,
Jonah Travis
To the weekend at the 2010 Pump N Run Spring Classic. Pool play and bracket play were 2 totally different items.
Saturday Pool Play
The end of pool play Saturday morning and early afternoon was nothing but blowouts. Pump N Run big in their 2 games in pool A. Heat Black rolled to the pool B title. Heat Elite no problems in pool C. WOTN Gold won pool D. MN Wrath with an easy Saturday win to take pool E. Iowa Barnstormers routed pool F. Fury Blue took pool G. The only interesting pool was pool H. Southside had a 1 point win under their belt but fell by 1 to RK Elite in morning play. RK Elite played Mpls GATOR for the pool title to end 17U pool play. RK Elite would win the pool outright with a win. A Mpls GATOR win by 2 would give them the 3 way tiebreaker. 47 all with 5 seconds left. GATOR ball, they push to halfcourt and get pushed out with 2 seconds left for free throws. The 1st is good and the 2nd is off. GATOR rebounds but holds and wins 48-47. Now we have a complete mess. All 3 teams are tied. We go to the 1 published tiebreaker, point differential. But all 3 teams have a point differential of 0. Now what. Tournament director decision (and you know this will be published next year) takes us to points allowed to determine head-head breakers. RK Elite wins the points allowed and has head-head on Southside to win the pool. Southside takes 2nd via their head-head win over GATOR. 1 free throws takes GATOR from 1st to the Silver bracket.
Round of 16
In the round of 16, Pump N Run took out the WI Blizzard. WI Starz won a Wisconsin battle with RK Elite. WOTN Gold took out Bound 4 Glory. Nimrod Hilliard (who actually was there with his high school club since Playground Elite had the week off) nails a buzzer beater for NESYB to beat MN Wrath. In the bottom half, Heat Sprang took out EOTO. Then the end of the night was wild. Iowa Barnstormers got up 20 on WI Swing but had to hold on for 75-73 win. Fury Gold controlled their game with Heat Elite for a 56-51 win that's hard to call an upset the way Nick Carroll's team has played. Finally MN Southside took out Fury Blue in an ugly 46-45 game. Neither team able to generate offense in that one.
In 16U round of 16 play, 43 Hoops came from 5 down at the half against Heat Elite to win easily. Dave Simmet effective inside for the Heat in the 1st half, but the Heat got locked down on D only scoring 10 points in the 1st 15 minutes of the half. Josh Turnquist hit 3s picking and popping against Simmet and there wasn't an answer for that.
Sunday
To the 16U quarters where 43 Hoops took on 1 of the tourney favorites, WI Swing-Litscher. 43 Hoops dominates the 1st half for a 39-24 lead but gives up a 21-2 run to start the 2nd half. Coach Harris' club locks down again as they don't allow a point in the last 4 minutes of a tie game and win 59-50. Barnstormers won their game in that half. Bound 4 Glory came from 7 down at half vs a game Rosemount squad to advance 57-46. Pump N Run held off Fury 60-52 to complete the bottom half.
In the 17U quarters. Pump N Run rolled over WI Starz. Lucas Brown with a layup with 5 seconds left to beat NESYB and complete the 1st semifinal. Heat Sprang had no problems with Southside. Barnstormers got up big on Fury Gold before Fury cut it to 3 late. Barnstormers win by 7 to setup the other semi.
In the 16U semis, PNR defeats Bound 4 Glory 59-45. 43 Hoops vs Barnstormers was another case of 43 Hoops giving up a big run. This time it was 13-2 early to fall behind by double digits. No panic from coach Harris as once again he chooses to let his kids play through it with no time out. They claw back to within 7 at the half and take a 4 point lead with 4:45 left. 56 all and 43 Hoops has the ball. Its all Marcus Marshall as he goes step back with 6 seconds left for the 3. 59-56 43 Hoops wins.
In the 17U semis, no problems again for the Barnstormers as they steamroll Heat Sprang 80-49. Wear Out the Net Gold gave Pump N Run all they wanted. A 10-0 run ends the 1st half and gives WOTN a 34-28 halftime lead. Then Marcus Alipate with a second 3 in a big stretch and WOTN leads 51-38 with 10:45 left. Kyle Noreen draws 2 quick fouls on Alipate posting him on the left block and to me that turned the tide and set the physical tone for the rest of the game. Roosevelt Scott with a steal and fouled on a dunk. He grabs the miss of the 2nd FT and puts it back. Then he nails a 3 with 7:40 left and PNR is back on top 55-54. That's a 17-3 run. 59 all with 4 minutes left. Marcus Alipate with 2 freebies at 1:27 for a 1 point WOTN lead and then Alex Richter spins into a turnover. Kyle Bauman with 1 of 2 FTs with 54.2 left. To Richter at the high post and he kicks it right out to Joel Lindberg for a right wing 3. Bauman with his own redemption as he scores on the post with 18 seconds left. 66-65 WOTN leads. Timeout PNR as they bring it to the halfcourt line with 11 seconds left. The call is a high pick and roll with Roosevelt Scott and Jonah Travis. Travis catches at the right block and scores the tough finish with 5 seconds left for a 67-66 win.
16U Championship
This was going on at the same time as the 17U final and actually started and finished afterwards. Close game the entire way. Carnell Sheppard with a 3 with 2 minutes left and PNR leads 59-56. But Duke Anywanu (Blaine) puts back a miss with 5 seconds left to give 43 Hoops the title 62-61. Sanjay Lumpkin is really blowing up right now for the PNR 16s. But the story of this tournament, maybe at any level, was Marcus Marshall of 43 Hoops. His offense and ability to cross you over and step back for 3s is flat out dominating. Between him and Isaiah Gray, most of their offense is high screen and roll and for very good reason. Josh Turnquist made a living off of that as both guys are quick enough to get in the lane and cause trouble. Turnquist hit a bunch of 3s this weekend popping off of that high screen and it wasn't a fluke. Interesting chess match with that vs Heat Elite with big Dave Simmet who couldn't get out to Turnquist. Same problem for Pump N Run as they'd start Sanjay Lumpkin on Marshall, but on the high screen/roll they'd switch which would negate that intended matchup.
17U Championship
We get the expected matchup here and Seth Tuttle is back from prom for the Barnstormers after missing time on Saturday. But the big 3 (Josh Oglesby, Seth Tuttle and Jarrod Uthoff) do nothing in the 1st half and PNR controls the half for a 35-23 lead. Barnstormers are too good to get beat by double-digits in this one and we're tied at 40 with 8:35 left. Oglesby for 3 at 5:54 to tie the game at 45 and then 2 technical free throws for the lead. Tuttle then with a kickout from the post and that's a 3 to tie the game at 50 with 2:05 left. Uthoff on the post, 52 all at 1:30. Teams trade misses and Shelby Moats has a 25 footer at the horn that's no good.
In the overtime, Moats around Uthoff for 2 and the foul with 40.4 left for a 3 point PNR lead. The Barnstormers nail a pair of 3s, including 1 with 5.2 left. 57 all. PNR timeout and they turn it over on the inbounds. Barnstormers don't get a good look and we'll play double overtime. WOW. Tuttle with an easy weakside putback with 56 seconds left in the 2nd OT after Uthoff misses on the post. Jonah Travis makes 1 of 2 FTs with 31.2 left. Oglesby has to be fouled and his 2 freebies are all net with 27.4 remaining. Kyle Noreen misses a 3 and a runout dunk finishes it. 65-60 Barnstormers win the title in double overtime. Jonah Travis 24 points in the loss. 100% all the time and relentless inside.
Pump N Run Spring Classic 17U All Tournament Team (as selected by the media members in attendance)
Jarrod Uthoff- Iowa Barnstormers (MVP)
Josh Oglesby - Iowa Barnstormers
Jonah Travis - MN Pump N Run
Roosevelt Scott - MN Pump N Run
Bryan Sprang - MN Heat Black
Marcus Alipate - Wear Out the Net Gold
Nimrod Hilliard - NESYB
Marquealis Edwards - MN Fury Gold
Honorable mentions. I liked what Kyle Bauman did for WOTN Gold this weekend. Eric Robertson of Pump N Run making shots. Congrats to the WI Blizzard 14s who took out and the Iowa Barnstormers 15s for winning titles. Finally, how about some love for Apple Valley assistant Duez Henderson and his Bound 4 Glory program. Great weekend across the board for them after getting some bulletin board material from my preview (i.e lack of any mention). Their 15s took out the top PNR Maroon 15s in the quarters before losing to the Barnstormers and their 16 Black squad made the 16U semis.
Saturday Pool Play
The end of pool play Saturday morning and early afternoon was nothing but blowouts. Pump N Run big in their 2 games in pool A. Heat Black rolled to the pool B title. Heat Elite no problems in pool C. WOTN Gold won pool D. MN Wrath with an easy Saturday win to take pool E. Iowa Barnstormers routed pool F. Fury Blue took pool G. The only interesting pool was pool H. Southside had a 1 point win under their belt but fell by 1 to RK Elite in morning play. RK Elite played Mpls GATOR for the pool title to end 17U pool play. RK Elite would win the pool outright with a win. A Mpls GATOR win by 2 would give them the 3 way tiebreaker. 47 all with 5 seconds left. GATOR ball, they push to halfcourt and get pushed out with 2 seconds left for free throws. The 1st is good and the 2nd is off. GATOR rebounds but holds and wins 48-47. Now we have a complete mess. All 3 teams are tied. We go to the 1 published tiebreaker, point differential. But all 3 teams have a point differential of 0. Now what. Tournament director decision (and you know this will be published next year) takes us to points allowed to determine head-head breakers. RK Elite wins the points allowed and has head-head on Southside to win the pool. Southside takes 2nd via their head-head win over GATOR. 1 free throws takes GATOR from 1st to the Silver bracket.
Round of 16
In the round of 16, Pump N Run took out the WI Blizzard. WI Starz won a Wisconsin battle with RK Elite. WOTN Gold took out Bound 4 Glory. Nimrod Hilliard (who actually was there with his high school club since Playground Elite had the week off) nails a buzzer beater for NESYB to beat MN Wrath. In the bottom half, Heat Sprang took out EOTO. Then the end of the night was wild. Iowa Barnstormers got up 20 on WI Swing but had to hold on for 75-73 win. Fury Gold controlled their game with Heat Elite for a 56-51 win that's hard to call an upset the way Nick Carroll's team has played. Finally MN Southside took out Fury Blue in an ugly 46-45 game. Neither team able to generate offense in that one.
In 16U round of 16 play, 43 Hoops came from 5 down at the half against Heat Elite to win easily. Dave Simmet effective inside for the Heat in the 1st half, but the Heat got locked down on D only scoring 10 points in the 1st 15 minutes of the half. Josh Turnquist hit 3s picking and popping against Simmet and there wasn't an answer for that.
Sunday
To the 16U quarters where 43 Hoops took on 1 of the tourney favorites, WI Swing-Litscher. 43 Hoops dominates the 1st half for a 39-24 lead but gives up a 21-2 run to start the 2nd half. Coach Harris' club locks down again as they don't allow a point in the last 4 minutes of a tie game and win 59-50. Barnstormers won their game in that half. Bound 4 Glory came from 7 down at half vs a game Rosemount squad to advance 57-46. Pump N Run held off Fury 60-52 to complete the bottom half.
In the 17U quarters. Pump N Run rolled over WI Starz. Lucas Brown with a layup with 5 seconds left to beat NESYB and complete the 1st semifinal. Heat Sprang had no problems with Southside. Barnstormers got up big on Fury Gold before Fury cut it to 3 late. Barnstormers win by 7 to setup the other semi.
In the 16U semis, PNR defeats Bound 4 Glory 59-45. 43 Hoops vs Barnstormers was another case of 43 Hoops giving up a big run. This time it was 13-2 early to fall behind by double digits. No panic from coach Harris as once again he chooses to let his kids play through it with no time out. They claw back to within 7 at the half and take a 4 point lead with 4:45 left. 56 all and 43 Hoops has the ball. Its all Marcus Marshall as he goes step back with 6 seconds left for the 3. 59-56 43 Hoops wins.
In the 17U semis, no problems again for the Barnstormers as they steamroll Heat Sprang 80-49. Wear Out the Net Gold gave Pump N Run all they wanted. A 10-0 run ends the 1st half and gives WOTN a 34-28 halftime lead. Then Marcus Alipate with a second 3 in a big stretch and WOTN leads 51-38 with 10:45 left. Kyle Noreen draws 2 quick fouls on Alipate posting him on the left block and to me that turned the tide and set the physical tone for the rest of the game. Roosevelt Scott with a steal and fouled on a dunk. He grabs the miss of the 2nd FT and puts it back. Then he nails a 3 with 7:40 left and PNR is back on top 55-54. That's a 17-3 run. 59 all with 4 minutes left. Marcus Alipate with 2 freebies at 1:27 for a 1 point WOTN lead and then Alex Richter spins into a turnover. Kyle Bauman with 1 of 2 FTs with 54.2 left. To Richter at the high post and he kicks it right out to Joel Lindberg for a right wing 3. Bauman with his own redemption as he scores on the post with 18 seconds left. 66-65 WOTN leads. Timeout PNR as they bring it to the halfcourt line with 11 seconds left. The call is a high pick and roll with Roosevelt Scott and Jonah Travis. Travis catches at the right block and scores the tough finish with 5 seconds left for a 67-66 win.
16U Championship
This was going on at the same time as the 17U final and actually started and finished afterwards. Close game the entire way. Carnell Sheppard with a 3 with 2 minutes left and PNR leads 59-56. But Duke Anywanu (Blaine) puts back a miss with 5 seconds left to give 43 Hoops the title 62-61. Sanjay Lumpkin is really blowing up right now for the PNR 16s. But the story of this tournament, maybe at any level, was Marcus Marshall of 43 Hoops. His offense and ability to cross you over and step back for 3s is flat out dominating. Between him and Isaiah Gray, most of their offense is high screen and roll and for very good reason. Josh Turnquist made a living off of that as both guys are quick enough to get in the lane and cause trouble. Turnquist hit a bunch of 3s this weekend popping off of that high screen and it wasn't a fluke. Interesting chess match with that vs Heat Elite with big Dave Simmet who couldn't get out to Turnquist. Same problem for Pump N Run as they'd start Sanjay Lumpkin on Marshall, but on the high screen/roll they'd switch which would negate that intended matchup.
17U Championship
We get the expected matchup here and Seth Tuttle is back from prom for the Barnstormers after missing time on Saturday. But the big 3 (Josh Oglesby, Seth Tuttle and Jarrod Uthoff) do nothing in the 1st half and PNR controls the half for a 35-23 lead. Barnstormers are too good to get beat by double-digits in this one and we're tied at 40 with 8:35 left. Oglesby for 3 at 5:54 to tie the game at 45 and then 2 technical free throws for the lead. Tuttle then with a kickout from the post and that's a 3 to tie the game at 50 with 2:05 left. Uthoff on the post, 52 all at 1:30. Teams trade misses and Shelby Moats has a 25 footer at the horn that's no good.
In the overtime, Moats around Uthoff for 2 and the foul with 40.4 left for a 3 point PNR lead. The Barnstormers nail a pair of 3s, including 1 with 5.2 left. 57 all. PNR timeout and they turn it over on the inbounds. Barnstormers don't get a good look and we'll play double overtime. WOW. Tuttle with an easy weakside putback with 56 seconds left in the 2nd OT after Uthoff misses on the post. Jonah Travis makes 1 of 2 FTs with 31.2 left. Oglesby has to be fouled and his 2 freebies are all net with 27.4 remaining. Kyle Noreen misses a 3 and a runout dunk finishes it. 65-60 Barnstormers win the title in double overtime. Jonah Travis 24 points in the loss. 100% all the time and relentless inside.
Pump N Run Spring Classic 17U All Tournament Team (as selected by the media members in attendance)
Jarrod Uthoff- Iowa Barnstormers (MVP)
Josh Oglesby - Iowa Barnstormers
Jonah Travis - MN Pump N Run
Roosevelt Scott - MN Pump N Run
Bryan Sprang - MN Heat Black
Marcus Alipate - Wear Out the Net Gold
Nimrod Hilliard - NESYB
Marquealis Edwards - MN Fury Gold
Honorable mentions. I liked what Kyle Bauman did for WOTN Gold this weekend. Eric Robertson of Pump N Run making shots. Congrats to the WI Blizzard 14s who took out and the Iowa Barnstormers 15s for winning titles. Finally, how about some love for Apple Valley assistant Duez Henderson and his Bound 4 Glory program. Great weekend across the board for them after getting some bulletin board material from my preview (i.e lack of any mention). Their 15s took out the top PNR Maroon 15s in the quarters before losing to the Barnstormers and their 16 Black squad made the 16U semis.
Day 1 of 2010 Pump N Run Spring Classic
Labels:
2010 PNR Spring Tourney
Friday night at the Pump N Run Spring Classic at Jefferson. Once again $2 for the 12 oz Pepsi. Note to self, I'm bringing as many 24 packs as I can carry and I'm selling them outside the activity center for a buck between 7:30 and 7:45 AM. (That's a joke, don't expect me to be there at that hideous hour of the day, support the cause and buy the concessions)
Very early 5:30 PM opener this year. Mostly 15U games between metro teams. Fury Blue 15U coming off their championship at the Comets Tourney took out the Midtown Kings in a big way 62-42.
6:40 gets it started for the 17U games. Call the Gold Guys has its WOTN Gold vs Fury Gold. WOTN without David Stanley or Lucas Brown from Roseville. College coaches all over the place for this one. U of Mary and SW MN State, Augustana, St. Cloud State, St. Olaf just some of the schools looking on. Tight game throughout the first half with the teams actually playing defense, a rarity in summer ball. 34-32 WOTN at the break. Then a 7-0 WOTN run to start the half as Fury goes cold. They do cut the lead to 54-52 on a Justin Casey putback. But Marcus Alipate gets an assist and then scores on Aaron Ziman in the post to push the lead to 7. WOTN wins 64-59.
Court 7 for my next game was held up due to a faulty clock so we get bonus hoops over on court 1. MN Southside taking on Minneapolis GATOR (who?). 56 all with 1:45 to go and Southside turns it over. Gator turns it over on their end for 1 of 2 free throws from Jalen Albritton. Gator turns it over again and Joey King converts a layup and then blocks a shot coming back. Albritton makes 2 freebies and this should be over. Not quite. Southside gives up a 2 and then turns it over. 10.9 to go, Gator ball down 3. They put back a miss for 2 with 2 seconds left and time runs out. Southside hangs on 61-60 and plays at 10:20 vs RK Elite for the pool crown. Joey King 25 points in the win.
Back to the main gym for Wrath vs Wisconsin Swing. Monroe's Brian Tordoff with a respectable game but this one took forever for Wrath to win 69-59. Wrath up 10 in the first half before Swing cut it to 4 at the 5 minute mark. 12-4 Wrath run to end the half pushes the lead back to double-digits and they weren't threatened. Heat Elite pull away from Comets Gold 61-41
In the night cap, Fury Blue vs Wisconsin Starz. We miss Nimrod Hilliard (tiny goggled guard from last year). After all, without sports who would root for the Nimrods. Josh Pella, off a visit to Minnesota-Moorhead, joins the shorthanded Fury for this one. Big city kid but he did enjoy the visit. Interesting situation there with no coach in place yet after they fired Stu Engen. Fury start the game on an 11-0 run and it looks like a blowout but the Starz pull to 26-18 at the half. The second half is a total disaster for the Starz as Fury builds the lead all the way to 53-28 with 6+ left on their way to a blowout win. Liked a spurt from Starz big Joe Sokovich in the second half. Starz tried their 1-2-2 trapping zone and just had no success with much of anything they tried in the second half.
Very early 5:30 PM opener this year. Mostly 15U games between metro teams. Fury Blue 15U coming off their championship at the Comets Tourney took out the Midtown Kings in a big way 62-42.
6:40 gets it started for the 17U games. Call the Gold Guys has its WOTN Gold vs Fury Gold. WOTN without David Stanley or Lucas Brown from Roseville. College coaches all over the place for this one. U of Mary and SW MN State, Augustana, St. Cloud State, St. Olaf just some of the schools looking on. Tight game throughout the first half with the teams actually playing defense, a rarity in summer ball. 34-32 WOTN at the break. Then a 7-0 WOTN run to start the half as Fury goes cold. They do cut the lead to 54-52 on a Justin Casey putback. But Marcus Alipate gets an assist and then scores on Aaron Ziman in the post to push the lead to 7. WOTN wins 64-59.
Court 7 for my next game was held up due to a faulty clock so we get bonus hoops over on court 1. MN Southside taking on Minneapolis GATOR (who?). 56 all with 1:45 to go and Southside turns it over. Gator turns it over on their end for 1 of 2 free throws from Jalen Albritton. Gator turns it over again and Joey King converts a layup and then blocks a shot coming back. Albritton makes 2 freebies and this should be over. Not quite. Southside gives up a 2 and then turns it over. 10.9 to go, Gator ball down 3. They put back a miss for 2 with 2 seconds left and time runs out. Southside hangs on 61-60 and plays at 10:20 vs RK Elite for the pool crown. Joey King 25 points in the win.
Back to the main gym for Wrath vs Wisconsin Swing. Monroe's Brian Tordoff with a respectable game but this one took forever for Wrath to win 69-59. Wrath up 10 in the first half before Swing cut it to 4 at the 5 minute mark. 12-4 Wrath run to end the half pushes the lead back to double-digits and they weren't threatened. Heat Elite pull away from Comets Gold 61-41
In the night cap, Fury Blue vs Wisconsin Starz. We miss Nimrod Hilliard (tiny goggled guard from last year). After all, without sports who would root for the Nimrods. Josh Pella, off a visit to Minnesota-Moorhead, joins the shorthanded Fury for this one. Big city kid but he did enjoy the visit. Interesting situation there with no coach in place yet after they fired Stu Engen. Fury start the game on an 11-0 run and it looks like a blowout but the Starz pull to 26-18 at the half. The second half is a total disaster for the Starz as Fury builds the lead all the way to 53-28 with 6+ left on their way to a blowout win. Liked a spurt from Starz big Joe Sokovich in the second half. Starz tried their 1-2-2 trapping zone and just had no success with much of anything they tried in the second half.
2010 Pump N Run Spring Tournament Preview
Labels:
2010 PNR Spring Tourney
Its time once again for the Pump N Run Spring Classic. Here's my look at the 2010 edition. I'll have live results on my Twitter page throughout the tournament. If you weren't following along last weekend, you missed game updates and plenty of feedback from the recruiting analysts in attendance.
17U (Schedule Here)
In Pool A, expect Pump N Run to roll. Comets North is the Comets squad in the pool. Top 2 Comets teams have the weekend off as last year prom decimated those squads. Jonah Travis got rave reviews from all the recruiting folks watching in Denver last week. Joel Lindberg just picked up a Toledo offer from former UWGB coach Tod Kowalczyk. Roosevelt Scott also jumping on the scene for PNR.
In Pool B, yuck. Team GetShook and the 3rd teams from the MN Heat and Wisconsin Blizzard. Richfield's lefty point guard Shawn Bear has been lighting it up for GetShook. Anoka's Eli Guptil on the wing is the other primary scorer. I'll take them by default to win the pool. (Czar's Note 4/22/10: Its actually Heat Sprang in the pool, not Heat Red. With Sprang and Jordan Van Eps, I'll take them to win the pool)
In Pool C, Bound 4 Glory makes the trip from Iowa but Heat Elite is the easy pick in this pool. Comets Gold is another secondary Comets squad in the bracket.
Pool D has very nice balance. This is the 2nd WI Playmakers squad so no Paul Jesperson or Phil Romback (politics potentially there as they will be at the Pulley Invite in 2 weeks). But 6'8 Kyle Stankowski was impressive a couple of weeks ago. Mahtomedi's Dane Schmid of Fury Gold is a good matchup for him. And we haven't mentioned the top Wear Out The Net squad yet with Lucas Brown, David Stanley, Vaughn Thada, Ben Sicoli and Matt Hentges. Fury vs WOTN at 6:40 Friday night likely decides the pool.
Pool E, not a fan. MN Wrath are here with MN Premiere. WI Swing is an unknown item. Good program, but 16s weren't special last year (unlike the 15s and 17s).
Pool F, WOTN 2nd team is here. Shane McSparron played well for them last weekend but this pool is all about the 3 headed monster of the Iowa Barnstormers. They rolled through the Badger City Classic 2 weeks ago and won their own tourney defeating the Milwaukee Spartans last weekend. Josh Oglesby is a 6'5" sharpshooting guard. He has offers from Creighton and Arizona State just to name 2. His Cedar Rapids rival 6'8" Jarrod Uthoff has been blowing up with offers from Indiana, Arizona State and Iowa State at the big level. Northern Colorado (coach now at Colorado), Northern Iowa, Indiana State and Creighton all on board as well. Wishoops named him the Badger City Classic MVP. Finally 6'8" Seth Tuttle who just got an offer from Colorado State. They have to be the major contender to the throne in the tournament. PNR knocked off the Barnstormers for the 16U title last year 62-54.
Pool G, this is the other very balanced pool. Triple Threat and James Fort are in. Fury Blue and Wisconsin Starz (former Madison Spartans group) round out the pool. Starz lost the title game at the Badger City Classic to the Barnstormers. A pair of Madison Memorial wings, Tre Burnette and Miles Chamberlain lead that squad. Starz vs Fury at 9 PM Friday night may decide the pool.
Finally in Pool H, this is MN Southside's pool to win as they play up a level. Joey King leads the way. De La Salle's Sam Burt is a good fit with him up front to hammer the glass. Eden Prairie's Sander Mohn is a shooter and Matt Larson is a bruising 6'1 forward. RK Elite comes up from southeast Wisconsin with Chris Souter at a guard and 6'7 big body Brian Quinn inside.
Bracket Prediction
Pump N Run over Southside (tough round of 16 game for Southside)
Wear Out The Net Gold over MN Wrath
Wisconsin Starz over Heat Sprang (Czar's Note 4/22/10: updated to reflect change to pool B)
Barnstormers over Heat Elite (rough draw)
PNR over WOTN Gold
Barnstormers over Starz (again)
PNR over Barnstormers in a very good game like PNR vs Swing last year.
16U (Schedule Here)
WI Swing Litscher returns to defend their 15U title from last year. Assuming they kept Zak Showalter and David Neis, that's a quality guard duo to win pool A. I'll take the Wisconsin Playmakers in pool B. A retooled Pump N Run squad coming off a final 4 finish in Denver to roll in pool C. Sanjay Lumpkin impressed some of the onlookers there. Barnstormers 16s have been rolling too, they should win pool D. If the Wisconsin Starz roster that shows freshman stars Ian Taylor and Cody Riseeuw is correct I think they win pool E. But Heat Black may give them a run after their title at the Mpls Spring Jam last week. Totino-Grace's Sam Meyer playing well for that crew. Pool F has the Fury 16s in it against a 2nd or 3rd Swing team and Bound 4 Glory. Give me Fury. I'll take Heat Elite in pool G and 43 Hoops in Pool H. 43 Hoops with a rough championship loss last week in Menomonie. Expect coach Al Harris to have his guys ready for this week.
Bracket Prediction
Swing-Litscher over 43 Hoops
Barnstormers over Starz
Heat Elite over WI Playmakers
PNR over Fury
Barnstormers over Swing (both tough wins to get here)
PNR over Heat Elite
PNR over Barnstormers (I can see any of Swing Litscher, Barnstormers or PNR winning it)
15U (Schedule Here)
The story here has to be the 2 Pump N Run teams. Especially the loaded Maroon team with Darrion Strong and Carson Shanks who both drew attention in Denver. Maroon wins pool A, Black wins Pool C but watchout for the Wisconsin Playmakers. The Onalaska duo of Clint Rihn and Matt Thomas are both players of note. Those teams play at 11:30 Saturday morning in one of the top 15U pool games. Barnstormers win pool E. Can't ignore Fury Blue in Pool F after they won the Comets tourney. Midtown Kings athletes in that pool can be disruptive. In Pool G, don't be surprised in the #4 Frosh in WI, Nick Fuller shows up with the WI Swing team. I'll take Swing in that pool. Comets Elite wins pool H.
Pump N Run Maroon stays undefeated and wins the tourney
17U (Schedule Here)
In Pool A, expect Pump N Run to roll. Comets North is the Comets squad in the pool. Top 2 Comets teams have the weekend off as last year prom decimated those squads. Jonah Travis got rave reviews from all the recruiting folks watching in Denver last week. Joel Lindberg just picked up a Toledo offer from former UWGB coach Tod Kowalczyk. Roosevelt Scott also jumping on the scene for PNR.
In Pool B, yuck. Team GetShook and the 3rd teams from the MN Heat and Wisconsin Blizzard. Richfield's lefty point guard Shawn Bear has been lighting it up for GetShook. Anoka's Eli Guptil on the wing is the other primary scorer. I'll take them by default to win the pool. (Czar's Note 4/22/10: Its actually Heat Sprang in the pool, not Heat Red. With Sprang and Jordan Van Eps, I'll take them to win the pool)
In Pool C, Bound 4 Glory makes the trip from Iowa but Heat Elite is the easy pick in this pool. Comets Gold is another secondary Comets squad in the bracket.
Pool D has very nice balance. This is the 2nd WI Playmakers squad so no Paul Jesperson or Phil Romback (politics potentially there as they will be at the Pulley Invite in 2 weeks). But 6'8 Kyle Stankowski was impressive a couple of weeks ago. Mahtomedi's Dane Schmid of Fury Gold is a good matchup for him. And we haven't mentioned the top Wear Out The Net squad yet with Lucas Brown, David Stanley, Vaughn Thada, Ben Sicoli and Matt Hentges. Fury vs WOTN at 6:40 Friday night likely decides the pool.
Pool E, not a fan. MN Wrath are here with MN Premiere. WI Swing is an unknown item. Good program, but 16s weren't special last year (unlike the 15s and 17s).
Pool F, WOTN 2nd team is here. Shane McSparron played well for them last weekend but this pool is all about the 3 headed monster of the Iowa Barnstormers. They rolled through the Badger City Classic 2 weeks ago and won their own tourney defeating the Milwaukee Spartans last weekend. Josh Oglesby is a 6'5" sharpshooting guard. He has offers from Creighton and Arizona State just to name 2. His Cedar Rapids rival 6'8" Jarrod Uthoff has been blowing up with offers from Indiana, Arizona State and Iowa State at the big level. Northern Colorado (coach now at Colorado), Northern Iowa, Indiana State and Creighton all on board as well. Wishoops named him the Badger City Classic MVP. Finally 6'8" Seth Tuttle who just got an offer from Colorado State. They have to be the major contender to the throne in the tournament. PNR knocked off the Barnstormers for the 16U title last year 62-54.
Pool G, this is the other very balanced pool. Triple Threat and James Fort are in. Fury Blue and Wisconsin Starz (former Madison Spartans group) round out the pool. Starz lost the title game at the Badger City Classic to the Barnstormers. A pair of Madison Memorial wings, Tre Burnette and Miles Chamberlain lead that squad. Starz vs Fury at 9 PM Friday night may decide the pool.
Finally in Pool H, this is MN Southside's pool to win as they play up a level. Joey King leads the way. De La Salle's Sam Burt is a good fit with him up front to hammer the glass. Eden Prairie's Sander Mohn is a shooter and Matt Larson is a bruising 6'1 forward. RK Elite comes up from southeast Wisconsin with Chris Souter at a guard and 6'7 big body Brian Quinn inside.
Bracket Prediction
Pump N Run over Southside (tough round of 16 game for Southside)
Wear Out The Net Gold over MN Wrath
Wisconsin Starz over Heat Sprang (Czar's Note 4/22/10: updated to reflect change to pool B)
Barnstormers over Heat Elite (rough draw)
PNR over WOTN Gold
Barnstormers over Starz (again)
PNR over Barnstormers in a very good game like PNR vs Swing last year.
16U (Schedule Here)
WI Swing Litscher returns to defend their 15U title from last year. Assuming they kept Zak Showalter and David Neis, that's a quality guard duo to win pool A. I'll take the Wisconsin Playmakers in pool B. A retooled Pump N Run squad coming off a final 4 finish in Denver to roll in pool C. Sanjay Lumpkin impressed some of the onlookers there. Barnstormers 16s have been rolling too, they should win pool D. If the Wisconsin Starz roster that shows freshman stars Ian Taylor and Cody Riseeuw is correct I think they win pool E. But Heat Black may give them a run after their title at the Mpls Spring Jam last week. Totino-Grace's Sam Meyer playing well for that crew. Pool F has the Fury 16s in it against a 2nd or 3rd Swing team and Bound 4 Glory. Give me Fury. I'll take Heat Elite in pool G and 43 Hoops in Pool H. 43 Hoops with a rough championship loss last week in Menomonie. Expect coach Al Harris to have his guys ready for this week.
Bracket Prediction
Swing-Litscher over 43 Hoops
Barnstormers over Starz
Heat Elite over WI Playmakers
PNR over Fury
Barnstormers over Swing (both tough wins to get here)
PNR over Heat Elite
PNR over Barnstormers (I can see any of Swing Litscher, Barnstormers or PNR winning it)
15U (Schedule Here)
The story here has to be the 2 Pump N Run teams. Especially the loaded Maroon team with Darrion Strong and Carson Shanks who both drew attention in Denver. Maroon wins pool A, Black wins Pool C but watchout for the Wisconsin Playmakers. The Onalaska duo of Clint Rihn and Matt Thomas are both players of note. Those teams play at 11:30 Saturday morning in one of the top 15U pool games. Barnstormers win pool E. Can't ignore Fury Blue in Pool F after they won the Comets tourney. Midtown Kings athletes in that pool can be disruptive. In Pool G, don't be surprised in the #4 Frosh in WI, Nick Fuller shows up with the WI Swing team. I'll take Swing in that pool. Comets Elite wins pool H.
Pump N Run Maroon stays undefeated and wins the tourney
2010 Howard Pulley Jamboree Schedule
In addition to the Pump N Run Spring Classic this weekend, Howard Pulley has their Jamboree this Saturday at Columbia Heights. Here's the schedule.
9 AM - 15 White vs Mpls Polars
10 AM - 16 White vs Gators/Juice Stars
11 AM - 15 Blue vs Mpls Polars
Noon - 16 Blue vs Gators/Juice Stars
1 PM - 15 White vs Valley City, ND
2 PM - 16 White vs EOTO
3 PM - 17 White vs 2009 Pulley Alumni
4 PM - 15 Blue vs Valley City, ND
5 PM - 17 Blue vs MN Magic
6 PM - 16 Blue vs EOTO
7 PM - 17 White vs MN Magic
8 PM - 17 Blue vs 2009 Pulley Alumni
9 AM - 15 White vs Mpls Polars
10 AM - 16 White vs Gators/Juice Stars
11 AM - 15 Blue vs Mpls Polars
Noon - 16 Blue vs Gators/Juice Stars
1 PM - 15 White vs Valley City, ND
2 PM - 16 White vs EOTO
3 PM - 17 White vs 2009 Pulley Alumni
4 PM - 15 Blue vs Valley City, ND
5 PM - 17 Blue vs MN Magic
6 PM - 16 Blue vs EOTO
7 PM - 17 White vs MN Magic
8 PM - 17 Blue vs 2009 Pulley Alumni
Highland Park selects a new coach
Central lead assistant Jon DePerry takes over at Highland Park for longtime coach Charles Portis. Portis won a state title in 1999 and pulled a major home upset over #1 Tartan back in January 2004 if I remember correctly. More on the coaching change from the Pioneer Press (read it here)
2010 Mpls Spring Jam Championships
Labels:
2010 Minneapolis Spring Jam
Sunday was Championship Day at the Colin Powell Center but plenty to be decided before that in the end of pool play.
Triple Threat vs Magic Elite. Zach Lofton joined Magic who was without Joe Carpenter all weekend. 21-19 Triple Threat at the half and then they open it up to 31-23 on a circus finish by Dan Krutzig with 9:18 left. It looks like they'll coast to a win but Magic applies pressure to go on an 11-2 run as Lofton tries to take over. 42-41 Triple Threat when they get a shot blocked but get the possession arrow with 1:19 left. Daron Garvis misses a 3 with 45 seconds left that was for the lead. James Fort gets a dunk against the pressure and Lofton has a 3 go in and out and Triple Threat wins 49-46.
That loss being close means Magic can still win the pool. Triple Threat was playing their final pool game at same times. Wins by both would force a 3 way pool tie and we'd go to points. Magic would win that with a 7 point win over Wear Out The Net. Initially it looked like nobody would score 7 points in the entire game. WOTN only scores 1 field goal in the 1st 12 minutes but Magic can't take advantage. 17-11 Magic at half. Lofton with 9 points early in the 2nd half and Garvis buries a pair of 3s. 35-18 with 8:38 left and Magic coasts to a surprisingly easy 46-29 win. That gives Magic Elite the 3 way tie breaker to play in the title game.
Magic Purple took on Fury Blue 2 in a pool A game late in the afternoon. Elijah Sabah of Spring Lake Park on the Purple squad. Interesting to see Hamline and St. Olaf looking on (St. Mary's was here the last 2 days). 27-23 Fury at half. Sabah with a sick move from the left wing. He goes left to right behind the back and then goes back to the left hand for the finish through contact and 1. 44-41 Purple with 6 minutes left. Then this game became a clinic in how not to close a game out. Fury with the late lead but bad shot after bad shot in the last 2 minutes result in 3 threes finished off by a 25 foot bomb from Washburn's Jamaal Rolenc with 10 seconds left sends us to OT tied at 60. Columbia Heights Emrah Kadric goes Ali Farokmanesh to put Purple up 67-63 with 45 seconds left in OT. Purple gets a T for 6 guys on the court with 16.5 left in a 3 point game. Fury makes both and gets the ball back but they can't convert 4 chances and Purple hangs on 69-68. Rolenc finishes with 28 points.
In the 15U Title game, SW Slam Green almost gave up a late 8 point lead. Up 1 with 20 seconds, they miss 2 free throws but a horrendous charging call on the other end with 9.8 left bails them out. 47-44 SW Slam Green wins. In the 16U Title game, Urban Stars shot about 2 for 50 from behind the arc. They missed 4 chances from 3 on 1 possession with 2:30 left when they were down 5. Heat Black wins the 16U title 57-49.
To the 17U title game between Magic Maroon and Magic Elite. Elite finishes the 1st half on an 8-0 run to take a 28-24 lead to the break. They take on another start of the second half run of 9-2. 37-26 Elite with 12:06 left. But Maroon was all over the offensive glass and they get a 3 point play off a miss to regain the lead 40-39 with 7:32 left. 44 all before Magic Elite puts this one out of reach with a 10-0 run. Lofton with the 2nd of back to back 3s in the run and Garvis with a dagger from deep as well. 67-57 Magic Elite wins the 17U title.
Players that caught my eye. Shane McSparron with a nice couple of days for WOTN 2. Nick Bobb from Lake City for WOTN 2 is a nice pickup for them too. I like what Trevor Berkley brings to Fury Blue 2. Zach Lofton brings playmaking but he also needs the ball in his hands for Magic Elite. The guy of note was Robert Ndondo-Lay. Impressive weekend. Was sore today from the nasty fall yesterday, but he had another quality day inside. Sam Meyer for the Heat Black 16s. Solid defense and he'll knock down open shots. Guards for Triple Threat. Mitch Wurm wasn't available all weekend and the names don't wow you but the Buffalo and STMA kids are hard-nosed defenders and they knock down open shots. Add in James Fort inside and that squad is a headache to play.
Triple Threat vs Magic Elite. Zach Lofton joined Magic who was without Joe Carpenter all weekend. 21-19 Triple Threat at the half and then they open it up to 31-23 on a circus finish by Dan Krutzig with 9:18 left. It looks like they'll coast to a win but Magic applies pressure to go on an 11-2 run as Lofton tries to take over. 42-41 Triple Threat when they get a shot blocked but get the possession arrow with 1:19 left. Daron Garvis misses a 3 with 45 seconds left that was for the lead. James Fort gets a dunk against the pressure and Lofton has a 3 go in and out and Triple Threat wins 49-46.
That loss being close means Magic can still win the pool. Triple Threat was playing their final pool game at same times. Wins by both would force a 3 way pool tie and we'd go to points. Magic would win that with a 7 point win over Wear Out The Net. Initially it looked like nobody would score 7 points in the entire game. WOTN only scores 1 field goal in the 1st 12 minutes but Magic can't take advantage. 17-11 Magic at half. Lofton with 9 points early in the 2nd half and Garvis buries a pair of 3s. 35-18 with 8:38 left and Magic coasts to a surprisingly easy 46-29 win. That gives Magic Elite the 3 way tie breaker to play in the title game.
Magic Purple took on Fury Blue 2 in a pool A game late in the afternoon. Elijah Sabah of Spring Lake Park on the Purple squad. Interesting to see Hamline and St. Olaf looking on (St. Mary's was here the last 2 days). 27-23 Fury at half. Sabah with a sick move from the left wing. He goes left to right behind the back and then goes back to the left hand for the finish through contact and 1. 44-41 Purple with 6 minutes left. Then this game became a clinic in how not to close a game out. Fury with the late lead but bad shot after bad shot in the last 2 minutes result in 3 threes finished off by a 25 foot bomb from Washburn's Jamaal Rolenc with 10 seconds left sends us to OT tied at 60. Columbia Heights Emrah Kadric goes Ali Farokmanesh to put Purple up 67-63 with 45 seconds left in OT. Purple gets a T for 6 guys on the court with 16.5 left in a 3 point game. Fury makes both and gets the ball back but they can't convert 4 chances and Purple hangs on 69-68. Rolenc finishes with 28 points.
In the 15U Title game, SW Slam Green almost gave up a late 8 point lead. Up 1 with 20 seconds, they miss 2 free throws but a horrendous charging call on the other end with 9.8 left bails them out. 47-44 SW Slam Green wins. In the 16U Title game, Urban Stars shot about 2 for 50 from behind the arc. They missed 4 chances from 3 on 1 possession with 2:30 left when they were down 5. Heat Black wins the 16U title 57-49.
To the 17U title game between Magic Maroon and Magic Elite. Elite finishes the 1st half on an 8-0 run to take a 28-24 lead to the break. They take on another start of the second half run of 9-2. 37-26 Elite with 12:06 left. But Maroon was all over the offensive glass and they get a 3 point play off a miss to regain the lead 40-39 with 7:32 left. 44 all before Magic Elite puts this one out of reach with a 10-0 run. Lofton with the 2nd of back to back 3s in the run and Garvis with a dagger from deep as well. 67-57 Magic Elite wins the 17U title.
Players that caught my eye. Shane McSparron with a nice couple of days for WOTN 2. Nick Bobb from Lake City for WOTN 2 is a nice pickup for them too. I like what Trevor Berkley brings to Fury Blue 2. Zach Lofton brings playmaking but he also needs the ball in his hands for Magic Elite. The guy of note was Robert Ndondo-Lay. Impressive weekend. Was sore today from the nasty fall yesterday, but he had another quality day inside. Sam Meyer for the Heat Black 16s. Solid defense and he'll knock down open shots. Guards for Triple Threat. Mitch Wurm wasn't available all weekend and the names don't wow you but the Buffalo and STMA kids are hard-nosed defenders and they knock down open shots. Add in James Fort inside and that squad is a headache to play.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)