Welcome to the Czar's 5th season of writing. You'll notice that I've updated the layout here. The biggest change is that the featured pages and menu structure have been flip flopped so that the featured pages always appear in the orange bar across the top. The menu is now on the left side and has most of the same links as before. I've gone thru and cleaned up the list and tried to keep it as organized as I can. As the season progresses you'll see that header bar update with important pages of the day (Polls, AAU Team Websites etc).
I've also removed all of the ads I had posted and shrunk the old oversized header banner to maximize the amount of information you can see on the page. This allowed me to move up the Twitter feed section so that those of you who don't follow me on twitter can check here for quick updates. You know you'll want to because tweets during a game can be just as good as radio.
The updated layout is setup for mobile devices. This allows for easier reading of posts on those small screens and has a dropdown to access the featured pages which I personally think is pretty cool.
The updates also include the annual flip of the switch to the new school year so 2010-2011 has been archived on the Previous Seasons page and everything is now up for 2011-2012.
Reflections on Las Vegas 2011
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Reid Travis
So after almost 2 full days of recovery from a 5 day adventure in Las Vegas, its time to go over what we saw. Thankfully after losing my wallet at the Super 64 it was found so I didn't have to worry about the flight home. People say its a dry heat and I'm prone to agree. 100-105 degrees didn't seem that bad and there were actually sprinkles the last morning. Amazed that you can find a slot machine anywhere. Walk into 7-11, play a slot. Walk into a liquor store, play a slot. Food critics be patient, your info is coming.
Fab 48
The Fab 48 is sort of like the old Main Event as its top teams are from the Nike circuit. Nice thing with this tourney is that each division (5 alone for the 17s) was in its own gym. Have to say that using the main gym as 2 courts was not the best idea. Too crowded and the organization wasn't what you'd expect from a guy who's run a bunch of events. Couldn't stand the crowd control guy who seemed like his only mission was to be nothing but a jerk. Overall some great talent with #4 kid in the country Kyle Anderson (great passer) and Ish Wainwright who led the KC 76ers to titles at the Fab48 and then followed it up at the Best of Summer for their 3rd title of the summer. The crowd for the loaded Oakland Soldiers vs Belmont Shore game was something to see. Full house in the bleachers above the entrance along the sideline and all around the court. Impressive performance from PNR spring champion WI Swing in making the Final 4. Guard Zak Showalter continued to impress. In the lower levels, the top Select 16s didn't fare well in pool but won their consolation bracket. The top Select 17s lost in the final of the 2nd bracket and the top Comets 17s lost in the final of the 3rd bracket. Quality July for Tyler Vaughan of the Comets.
Adidas Super 64
What a setup at the headquarters. Fans on 1 side, coaches and media (table included) on the other. Full houses for all of top kid Shabazz Mohammed's games which was a nice gesture by the locals to keep him home. The Adidas Super 64 logo at halfcourt and on the backboards of the main court. Plus PA announcing for all those main court games. Classy. I could stand to turn down the PA volume and ditch the DJ in the gym but overall a really neat setup.
As to the games, how about a super pool of 4 of the best bigs in the country. Andre Drummond outplayed Kaleb Tarczewski and Isaiah Austin in 2 games. Cameron Ridley also in the pool but missed a game I wanted to see due to illness. He had a big game against the top Heat team in Indy. 1st game I saw there was a major highlight with Jordan Adams of the Atlanta Celtics and Mohammed going back and forth for almost 40 points each. Mohammed's DreamVision club came back to win that entertaining game. Texas Assault was the defending champs (16U) but didn't get put in the top 32 teams. Didn't matter as their star Marcus Smart led them to the title with 29 and 18 in the championship game. High level competitor though his flop for a cheap technical that knocked Utah Pump N Run star Jordan Loveridge out of their semifinal game changed that game entirely. Loveridge was one of those who really raised his stock during the tourney.
As to the local teams, after being blown out at the Best Buy tourney last week by the Shaqless Atlanta Celtics, the Fury Blue 17s won their pool and then gave the Celtics all they wanted in their early round playoff rematch. Shaq Goodwin too much on the glass in the 2nd half as Fury eventually fell in a close game. PNR 16s lose a wild 6 OT game 62-60 to DoublePump to bow out early. Southside won their pool. PNR 17s lost in the 1st round to a KC PNR team they handled in Denver.
Best story was the PNR 15s who made a run all the way to the championship game before losing 54-51 to the Las Vegas Prospects. PNR took out a very good Louisville Magic team (who beat an outstanding Ray Allen Select team in super pool) in the round of 16. Reid Travis with a very good tournament for PNR. 17 of 21 against Louisville Magic in the 2nd half for the comeback win. Nice lunch pail effort from Alex Herink as well. Can you cheer from long distance? Former DLS and PNR star Jonah Travis chiming in on twitter to me during the tourney when PNR was behind. "Yell at my brother because he's probably playing soft!" I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Can you say intense?
Nice to see one of our top local refs work a handful of games there including the 16U championship. The Super 64 was part of an officials camp where NBA officials showed up to help the officials.
Didn't see any of the Bigfoot Hoops tourney but a nice run to the final 8 by EOTO there.
The Gambling
Not to used to smoking with MN and WI having laws against it so that was tough. I'm a blackjack player and I came into the trip used to a 6 or 8 deck chute. But at the hotel I had 4 nights of double deck blackjack. No jumping in until a deck is done and you hold the cards. That means an entire new set of signals. A different but fun experience. I won the 1st and last nights and lost the middle 2. Overall I went even in the double deck version. Then on the final night on the strip it was back to the usual and I got totally mugged at the 1st casino. But I came back at The Bellagio with the best run of cards you'll ever see to get most of it back. So overall 2-3 record on my nights with a minor pittance of The Czar's expansive wealth lost. Very worthwhile entertainment.
The Food
You know I can't write about an adventure without talking about the food. Thinking it would be the best meal of the trip, the opening night dinner at Tony Roma's was a let down. Food was too blah for the expensive price. Though originally advertised at $3, the pork sandwich at the Fab 48 was worth the $4 price even if it was prepackaged ahead of time. Nice kick to the sauce. Cheese pizza (no sausage, boo) at the Super 64 was blah, but at least the price was reasonable. Besides, having pizza is never a bad thing. But the best bargain I've seen in a long time was the $1 hot dogs at the Super 64. Very good and cheap, can't go wrong with that.
Fab 48
The Fab 48 is sort of like the old Main Event as its top teams are from the Nike circuit. Nice thing with this tourney is that each division (5 alone for the 17s) was in its own gym. Have to say that using the main gym as 2 courts was not the best idea. Too crowded and the organization wasn't what you'd expect from a guy who's run a bunch of events. Couldn't stand the crowd control guy who seemed like his only mission was to be nothing but a jerk. Overall some great talent with #4 kid in the country Kyle Anderson (great passer) and Ish Wainwright who led the KC 76ers to titles at the Fab48 and then followed it up at the Best of Summer for their 3rd title of the summer. The crowd for the loaded Oakland Soldiers vs Belmont Shore game was something to see. Full house in the bleachers above the entrance along the sideline and all around the court. Impressive performance from PNR spring champion WI Swing in making the Final 4. Guard Zak Showalter continued to impress. In the lower levels, the top Select 16s didn't fare well in pool but won their consolation bracket. The top Select 17s lost in the final of the 2nd bracket and the top Comets 17s lost in the final of the 3rd bracket. Quality July for Tyler Vaughan of the Comets.
Adidas Super 64
What a setup at the headquarters. Fans on 1 side, coaches and media (table included) on the other. Full houses for all of top kid Shabazz Mohammed's games which was a nice gesture by the locals to keep him home. The Adidas Super 64 logo at halfcourt and on the backboards of the main court. Plus PA announcing for all those main court games. Classy. I could stand to turn down the PA volume and ditch the DJ in the gym but overall a really neat setup.
As to the games, how about a super pool of 4 of the best bigs in the country. Andre Drummond outplayed Kaleb Tarczewski and Isaiah Austin in 2 games. Cameron Ridley also in the pool but missed a game I wanted to see due to illness. He had a big game against the top Heat team in Indy. 1st game I saw there was a major highlight with Jordan Adams of the Atlanta Celtics and Mohammed going back and forth for almost 40 points each. Mohammed's DreamVision club came back to win that entertaining game. Texas Assault was the defending champs (16U) but didn't get put in the top 32 teams. Didn't matter as their star Marcus Smart led them to the title with 29 and 18 in the championship game. High level competitor though his flop for a cheap technical that knocked Utah Pump N Run star Jordan Loveridge out of their semifinal game changed that game entirely. Loveridge was one of those who really raised his stock during the tourney.
As to the local teams, after being blown out at the Best Buy tourney last week by the Shaqless Atlanta Celtics, the Fury Blue 17s won their pool and then gave the Celtics all they wanted in their early round playoff rematch. Shaq Goodwin too much on the glass in the 2nd half as Fury eventually fell in a close game. PNR 16s lose a wild 6 OT game 62-60 to DoublePump to bow out early. Southside won their pool. PNR 17s lost in the 1st round to a KC PNR team they handled in Denver.
Best story was the PNR 15s who made a run all the way to the championship game before losing 54-51 to the Las Vegas Prospects. PNR took out a very good Louisville Magic team (who beat an outstanding Ray Allen Select team in super pool) in the round of 16. Reid Travis with a very good tournament for PNR. 17 of 21 against Louisville Magic in the 2nd half for the comeback win. Nice lunch pail effort from Alex Herink as well. Can you cheer from long distance? Former DLS and PNR star Jonah Travis chiming in on twitter to me during the tourney when PNR was behind. "Yell at my brother because he's probably playing soft!" I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Can you say intense?
Nice to see one of our top local refs work a handful of games there including the 16U championship. The Super 64 was part of an officials camp where NBA officials showed up to help the officials.
Didn't see any of the Bigfoot Hoops tourney but a nice run to the final 8 by EOTO there.
The Gambling
Not to used to smoking with MN and WI having laws against it so that was tough. I'm a blackjack player and I came into the trip used to a 6 or 8 deck chute. But at the hotel I had 4 nights of double deck blackjack. No jumping in until a deck is done and you hold the cards. That means an entire new set of signals. A different but fun experience. I won the 1st and last nights and lost the middle 2. Overall I went even in the double deck version. Then on the final night on the strip it was back to the usual and I got totally mugged at the 1st casino. But I came back at The Bellagio with the best run of cards you'll ever see to get most of it back. So overall 2-3 record on my nights with a minor pittance of The Czar's expansive wealth lost. Very worthwhile entertainment.
The Food
You know I can't write about an adventure without talking about the food. Thinking it would be the best meal of the trip, the opening night dinner at Tony Roma's was a let down. Food was too blah for the expensive price. Though originally advertised at $3, the pork sandwich at the Fab 48 was worth the $4 price even if it was prepackaged ahead of time. Nice kick to the sauce. Cheese pizza (no sausage, boo) at the Super 64 was blah, but at least the price was reasonable. Besides, having pizza is never a bad thing. But the best bargain I've seen in a long time was the $1 hot dogs at the Super 64. Very good and cheap, can't go wrong with that.
2011 Best Buy Summer Classic Championships
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2011 Best Buy Summer Classic
The 3rd and final day of the 2011 Best Buy Summer Classic featured semifinals and championship games in all 9 brackets. Here's a glimpse of what I saw.
I arrive just in time to see the last 10 seconds and overtime of Southside's 56-54 win over MN PNR in the gold (2nd level bracket) semifinals. 50 all going to overtime. Then Joey King to Latrell Love late for the Southside lead. PNR looks for Wally Ellenson curling to the rim for a lob but DeShun Patterson gets up and knocks it away off Ellenson and Southside hangs on. Southside then had a rough go of it losing the gold title game big to the Atlanta Celtics. Celtics held off Texas D1 Ambassadors yesterday and beat Fury Blue (who had beaten IA PNR I) today on the way to that title. Southside beat Ajays Elite last night in the quarters of the Gold while PNR beat Comets Hanson.
Then its the 17 platinum (top) semifinals. PrymeTyme up 10 at half and then took a 15 point in 2nd half on the Houston Defenders only to see it cut to 2 late. Then the Houston coach gets tossed and free throws make the final margin PrymeTyme 72-62. In the other semifinal, a very tight and low scoring affair between the New England Playaz and Indiana Elite. I missed a 3 minute stall in the last 5 minutes. Kaleb Tarczewski with 1 of 2 FTs for the only Playaz pts in OT. They had a pair of 3s just miss in the last 15 seconds. Indiana Elite makes the final with a 45-42 OT win.
In a 15U semifinal, Fury Black took on MN PNR. Fury Black saw a 9 point lead cut to 5 before going on a huge run to lead by 19. Then coach Nick Carroll gets the gate and PNR cuts the lead to 9 with about 2 minutes left. But PNR goes cold after that and free throws push the margin to double digits with Fury Black making the championship game. They were beaten by the top Indiana Elite team in the finals.
The 17U Silver (3rd bracket of pool winners) Bracket title game was Iowa Barnstormers Black vs M33M. Barnstormers gave up a 6 point halftime lead. M33M turned it over with a chance to win in regulation and the Barnstormers almost got a running 3 to win it. M33M made a buzzer beater to force a 2nd overtime and made 2 FTs with 6.2 left in the 2nd OT to win 73-72. Comets Stock beat Wisconsin Force by 4 to win the 17U Bronze Bracket (teams that were 2nd in their pool). They were in the same pool as PrymeTyme.
In the 17 Platinum title game, PrymeTyme with back to back 3s late in the first half for a 27-22 halftime lead. They then get a 7-0 foul advantage to start the 2nd half which prompts an Indiana Elite techinical. 41-31 PrymeTyme with 10:55 left. Elite comes back to cut the lead to 50-48 inside of 5 minutes to play. Then back to back 3s and a drive for 2 more from stud Fred Van Vleet pushes the lead to 10 with 2 minutes left. PrymeTyme is indeed the sleeper of the tournament as they win the champion 63-52. They were 2-0 in pool and then went through a who's who of Michigan Hurricanes, Atlanta Celtics, Illinois Warriors, Houston Defenders and Indiana Elite. An amazing run for any team, especially one that isn't a big time shoe program. Combine that with Southside's tournament run (beating Indiana Elite One and MN Pump N Run) and it was nice to see programs like that succeed.
Then the 16s Gold (top) title game ended the tournament on a great high note. Grassroots Canada missed 3 late free throws that they were able to get back on offensive rebounds or off of Team Nebraska hands. That allowed them to pull off an 85-81 win in double overtime. A really fun game of athletes going up and down. The last 5 minutes and overtimes (all that I saw with the 17 platinum game going on) were 2-4 points the entire way.
Fred Van Vleet hands down wins my award for 17U MVP. He controlled the game with not just scoring but decision making with passes for easy shots or not forcing tempo with the lead. Reminded me of Jordan Taylor once upon a time. When BSM was ahead late, he got the ball and it was over. Same deal here. But the entire team outworked everybody they played. They also did a wonderful job of slowing the game down and spreading the floor to take advantage of Van Vleet's skills when they got ahead. Top to bottom, coaching, effort, clutch play, star play, it was all there for PrymeTyme. They were the best team here and deserved the title with their high level of play.
I arrive just in time to see the last 10 seconds and overtime of Southside's 56-54 win over MN PNR in the gold (2nd level bracket) semifinals. 50 all going to overtime. Then Joey King to Latrell Love late for the Southside lead. PNR looks for Wally Ellenson curling to the rim for a lob but DeShun Patterson gets up and knocks it away off Ellenson and Southside hangs on. Southside then had a rough go of it losing the gold title game big to the Atlanta Celtics. Celtics held off Texas D1 Ambassadors yesterday and beat Fury Blue (who had beaten IA PNR I) today on the way to that title. Southside beat Ajays Elite last night in the quarters of the Gold while PNR beat Comets Hanson.
Then its the 17 platinum (top) semifinals. PrymeTyme up 10 at half and then took a 15 point in 2nd half on the Houston Defenders only to see it cut to 2 late. Then the Houston coach gets tossed and free throws make the final margin PrymeTyme 72-62. In the other semifinal, a very tight and low scoring affair between the New England Playaz and Indiana Elite. I missed a 3 minute stall in the last 5 minutes. Kaleb Tarczewski with 1 of 2 FTs for the only Playaz pts in OT. They had a pair of 3s just miss in the last 15 seconds. Indiana Elite makes the final with a 45-42 OT win.
In a 15U semifinal, Fury Black took on MN PNR. Fury Black saw a 9 point lead cut to 5 before going on a huge run to lead by 19. Then coach Nick Carroll gets the gate and PNR cuts the lead to 9 with about 2 minutes left. But PNR goes cold after that and free throws push the margin to double digits with Fury Black making the championship game. They were beaten by the top Indiana Elite team in the finals.
The 17U Silver (3rd bracket of pool winners) Bracket title game was Iowa Barnstormers Black vs M33M. Barnstormers gave up a 6 point halftime lead. M33M turned it over with a chance to win in regulation and the Barnstormers almost got a running 3 to win it. M33M made a buzzer beater to force a 2nd overtime and made 2 FTs with 6.2 left in the 2nd OT to win 73-72. Comets Stock beat Wisconsin Force by 4 to win the 17U Bronze Bracket (teams that were 2nd in their pool). They were in the same pool as PrymeTyme.
In the 17 Platinum title game, PrymeTyme with back to back 3s late in the first half for a 27-22 halftime lead. They then get a 7-0 foul advantage to start the 2nd half which prompts an Indiana Elite techinical. 41-31 PrymeTyme with 10:55 left. Elite comes back to cut the lead to 50-48 inside of 5 minutes to play. Then back to back 3s and a drive for 2 more from stud Fred Van Vleet pushes the lead to 10 with 2 minutes left. PrymeTyme is indeed the sleeper of the tournament as they win the champion 63-52. They were 2-0 in pool and then went through a who's who of Michigan Hurricanes, Atlanta Celtics, Illinois Warriors, Houston Defenders and Indiana Elite. An amazing run for any team, especially one that isn't a big time shoe program. Combine that with Southside's tournament run (beating Indiana Elite One and MN Pump N Run) and it was nice to see programs like that succeed.
Then the 16s Gold (top) title game ended the tournament on a great high note. Grassroots Canada missed 3 late free throws that they were able to get back on offensive rebounds or off of Team Nebraska hands. That allowed them to pull off an 85-81 win in double overtime. A really fun game of athletes going up and down. The last 5 minutes and overtimes (all that I saw with the 17 platinum game going on) were 2-4 points the entire way.
Fred Van Vleet hands down wins my award for 17U MVP. He controlled the game with not just scoring but decision making with passes for easy shots or not forcing tempo with the lead. Reminded me of Jordan Taylor once upon a time. When BSM was ahead late, he got the ball and it was over. Same deal here. But the entire team outworked everybody they played. They also did a wonderful job of slowing the game down and spreading the floor to take advantage of Van Vleet's skills when they got ahead. Top to bottom, coaching, effort, clutch play, star play, it was all there for PrymeTyme. They were the best team here and deserved the title with their high level of play.
2011 Best Buy Summer Classic Day 2
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2011 Best Buy Summer Classic
Random things from Day 2 at the 2011 Best Buy Summer Classic. The day included the 1st 3 bracket rounds with all semifinals and finals tomorrow (all top brackets semis at 11:15, finals at 2:45). Nothing new in terms of food today, but 1 of the basic cinnamon rolls tomorrow morning is a tempting thought right about now.
17U Pigtails
Atlanta Celtics def Texas D1 Ambassadors 62-58 in Gold bracket quarterfinal. They'll play Fury Blue in the semis who beat IA PNR I in another quarterfinal.
16U Pigtails
In 15U, Heat Select lost to Indiana Elite in the quarterfinals. Fury Black def Net Gain 14s, then MN Elite to make the semifinals. MN PNR beat TC Force and then Nebraska Bison Gold in quartes. Fury Black vs MN PNR is an interesting semifinal game.
Now besides being swarmed by NSIC coaches during the PNR 16s loss to Ultimate Hoops and mocked for looking like a kid who went on the court to shoot, thank you coolest guy in the NSIC :) , my real highlight of the day wasn't watching games at all. I had a chance to talk hoops and life with a couple of different players during the day. To see kids who get it and appreciate what their coaches have done for them is a real pleasure. Not unheard of to not fully appreciate it until long after it's over. Always nice to hear stories of kids having a good experience not just on the court but off of it as well.
17U Pigtails
- PrymeTyme huge over Michigan Hurricanes.
- Illinois Warriors over Grassroots 69-54
- Texas D1 Ambassadors over Iowa Barnstormers Black 70-52
- Fury Blue over Dakota Schoolers 66-64 in OT. Fury didn't do a good job of closing it out in regulation but a pair of Tyler Moore steals and a late Marquealis Edwards bucket won it.
- IA PNR I def EOTO Gold 59-50
- Comets Hanson struggled but beat the SW MN Stars 62-59
- Old Gold 46-44 over M33M on Robert Hurd buzzer beater.
- Ajays Elite over ECI Prospects 56-42
Southside def Indiana Elite One 72-63 with big performance from Joey King
- PrymeTyme 69-59 over Atlanta Celtics. Fred Van Vleet 2nd outstanding game of the day for PrymeTyme. He's able to create his own offense or carve up defenses with outstanding passing.
- Illinois Warriors def Texas D1 Ambassadors.
- Houston Defenders handled Fury Blue
- Southern Select def IA PNR 1
- Indiana Elite def Comets Hanson 75-63. Comets cut lead to 3 with about 4 minutes left before 8-0 run put it away.
- Old Gold upsets MN PNR
- New England Playaz def Ajays Elite
- DoublePump def Southside
- PrymeTyme def Illinois Warriors
- Houston Defenders def Southern Select 67-56. Nice game from Select's Reggie Ragland. Andrew Harrison showed impressive game but too much yapping earned him an unnecessary technical. He had a really impressive blow by and then wrap around pass to Shaquille Cleare for a dunk.
- Indiana Elite def Old Gold 75-61
- NE Playaz def DoublePump in 2OT on buzzer beater.
Atlanta Celtics def Texas D1 Ambassadors 62-58 in Gold bracket quarterfinal. They'll play Fury Blue in the semis who beat IA PNR I in another quarterfinal.
16U Pigtails
- WI Starz def WOTN Black
- Comets Lewis def SW MN Stars
- Heat Ogorek upset Fury Gold
- Fury Blue def Heat Altena
- Heat Reese upset Dakota Pride
- NIBA def Dakota Schoolers White
- Schoolers Blue won their game (opponent unknown)
- Old Gold Dream Team def PrymeTyme.
- MN PNR def WI Starz
- Ultimate Hoops beat Comets Lewis, result not a surprise but the big blowout was.
- DC Assault handled Heat Ogorek
- Fury Blue lost to Grassroots Canada 53-51. A Fury turnover and loose ball foul with 2.8 seconds resulted in the 2 free throws that won it.
- Houston Select def Heat Reese by about 18. Nick Anderson with Heat Reese.
- Team Nebraska Express def NIBA
- Dakota Schoolers Blue def IA PNR I. Good win for Schoolers over Spring PNR tourney champs. 6'9 center Zach Hanson is a mid to high major kid to keep an eye on for the Schoolers.
- Arkansas Hawks def Old Gold Dream Team.
- Ultimate Hoops with an impressive 60-57 win over MN PNR. Point guard Grant Schaeffer stood out in the win.
- Grassroots Canada def DC Assault
- Team Nebraska upset Houston Select 64-63. Justise Winslow with a sick dunk in the game. Khadeem Lattin missed a dunk down 2 in the last 30 seconds that Nebraska converted that ultimately won it.
- Arkansas Hawks def Schoolers Blue
In 15U, Heat Select lost to Indiana Elite in the quarterfinals. Fury Black def Net Gain 14s, then MN Elite to make the semifinals. MN PNR beat TC Force and then Nebraska Bison Gold in quartes. Fury Black vs MN PNR is an interesting semifinal game.
Now besides being swarmed by NSIC coaches during the PNR 16s loss to Ultimate Hoops and mocked for looking like a kid who went on the court to shoot, thank you coolest guy in the NSIC :) , my real highlight of the day wasn't watching games at all. I had a chance to talk hoops and life with a couple of different players during the day. To see kids who get it and appreciate what their coaches have done for them is a real pleasure. Not unheard of to not fully appreciate it until long after it's over. Always nice to hear stories of kids having a good experience not just on the court but off of it as well.
2011 Best Buy Summer Classic Pool Play
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2011 Best Buy Summer Classic
Day 1 of the 2011 Best Buy Summer Classic featured pool play for all teams. Of course, all that really matters is that my 2 hot dogs grade out at a solid B+. The CDH/Washburn beef hot dog is a high standard to meet. Always fun to see the mini 12 oz bottle (not can, but still must consume mass quantities). Note to self, I could use that as a primitive start to a diet as it would cut out 40% of my Pepsi intake Now for my stream of unconsciousness thoughts for the day.
Good start to the day for the local teams with the Minnesota Comets coming back on Nebraska Select for a 58-54 win. 12-4 Comets run in the last 3:25 wins it. Tyler Vaughan continuing to play well for the Comets. Then the best game I saw all day between DoublePump Elite and Minnesota Pump N Run. Close one all the way. PNR down 48-44 when DoublePump misses a dunk. Will Dunn buries a pair of 3s and its PNR with a 50-49 lead outside of 2 minutes left. Nigel Williams Goss unstoppable off the bounce and his 3 point play puts DoublePump back up 52-50 with 1:27 left. A Sanjay Lumpkin putback ties the game at 52 all with still more than a minute left. What's this?. DoublePump is going to hold for 1 shot. Very shocking. They take timeout with 37.1 left.and miss with 2.6 to play. PNR goes Christian Laettner to Kevin Jensen but his shot is off the iron as regulation time expires. Lumpkin with a tap in to start the OT scoring. Then after a PNR stop, DoublePump has to give 3 fouls before the 1 and 1. Lumpkin buries both with 23 seconds left. Williams Goss to the rack with 16 seconds left and then PNR misses the front end. Williams Goss to the rack to tie and back we come. Its Carnell Sheppard at the horn and YES!!! His jumper at the buzzer is good! MN PNR wins 58-56 in an OT thriller.
Heat Elite without Dave Simmet were down 11 to Ajays Elite but went 14-0 to end the game and won on a Justin Pahl 3 at the buzzer. Pahl has really been shooting the ball well from Iowa in mid May all the way through this July period. Indiana Elite knocked off Southern Select 60-52 and then knocked off the Texas D1 Ambassadors. Texas D1 played without star Alex Caruso who is injured and hopes to be back for Las Vegas. Southern Select forward Reggie Ragland definitely looks the part of a big time linebacker (will play LB at Alabama) but he has game too. Houston Defenders handled the Illinois Warriors in their 1st game. Both Harrison twins playing well.
Indiana Elite Team Indiana gets the publicity here, but Indiana Elite One with Ron Patterson will be no slouch in this tournament either. They pounded Magic Tillman. Heat Biwan knocked out WolfPack from Belgium by 1 thanks to a Darius Wilkerson FT with 0.2 seconds left. Tubby Smith shows up for Atlanta Celtics and MN PNR. Celtics open up a 32-9 lead in the first half running and gunning for easy hoops and force 3 PNR timeouts. In the 3rd timeout, fire and brimstone. It must have gotten their attention as Wally Ellenson started a run to cut the lead to 16 at half. (Then I leave to see end of MN PNR 15s 78-33 win over Triple Threat, only game of day for that pool). I return to the PNR 17s to find that PNR has clawed their way back into it. They cut the lead all the way down to 58-56 with about 4 minutes to go but fall 76-70.
EOTO Gold behind the quality interior play of Tim Gill and a much improved Joe Gill took a 17 point lead on the WI Force in the 2nd half, only to see the Force go to a scrambing trapping defense and cut the lead to 1. The Force also got a pair of big 3s from Brendan Ortiz in the run. EOTO Gold hangs on to win 69-66. 1st game in a long time where I didn't see Tim Gill float on the perimeter which is a very good sign with his big body. But much of that is the sign of the thoroughly dysfunctional Henry team. Dakota Schoolers pounded the Belgium Wolfpack squad. Michael Busack was sitting out in the 2nd half that I watched icing an ankle.
The big matchup of NE Playaz vs Houston Defenders was marred by a late right shoulder injury to star Aaron Harrison. Fairly ugly game anyway. Shaq Cleare really outplayed Kaleb Tarczewski (who I wasn't as big a fan of tonight as other writers) especially in the 1st half. I liked his sound technique when defending ball screens. Nice to see a kid who's not just running aroundBut the Playaz have a ton of shooters around him and play good ball. No fluke in the 47-41 Playaz win.
Ian Theisen of the PNR 16s looks to be slimmer and more mobile. PNR 16s win both their games with no trouble. Houston Select 16s are for real. Khadeem Lattin seems to have length that goes on forever. Justise Winslow is really smooth and has all the athletic tools to boot. DC Assault 16s handled the Hammond Hurricanes in a game that was hard to watch with major jersey confusion. Navy Blue, green, white. No idea what was going on there.
The Strange
Good start to the day for the local teams with the Minnesota Comets coming back on Nebraska Select for a 58-54 win. 12-4 Comets run in the last 3:25 wins it. Tyler Vaughan continuing to play well for the Comets. Then the best game I saw all day between DoublePump Elite and Minnesota Pump N Run. Close one all the way. PNR down 48-44 when DoublePump misses a dunk. Will Dunn buries a pair of 3s and its PNR with a 50-49 lead outside of 2 minutes left. Nigel Williams Goss unstoppable off the bounce and his 3 point play puts DoublePump back up 52-50 with 1:27 left. A Sanjay Lumpkin putback ties the game at 52 all with still more than a minute left. What's this?. DoublePump is going to hold for 1 shot. Very shocking. They take timeout with 37.1 left.and miss with 2.6 to play. PNR goes Christian Laettner to Kevin Jensen but his shot is off the iron as regulation time expires. Lumpkin with a tap in to start the OT scoring. Then after a PNR stop, DoublePump has to give 3 fouls before the 1 and 1. Lumpkin buries both with 23 seconds left. Williams Goss to the rack with 16 seconds left and then PNR misses the front end. Williams Goss to the rack to tie and back we come. Its Carnell Sheppard at the horn and YES!!! His jumper at the buzzer is good! MN PNR wins 58-56 in an OT thriller.
Heat Elite without Dave Simmet were down 11 to Ajays Elite but went 14-0 to end the game and won on a Justin Pahl 3 at the buzzer. Pahl has really been shooting the ball well from Iowa in mid May all the way through this July period. Indiana Elite knocked off Southern Select 60-52 and then knocked off the Texas D1 Ambassadors. Texas D1 played without star Alex Caruso who is injured and hopes to be back for Las Vegas. Southern Select forward Reggie Ragland definitely looks the part of a big time linebacker (will play LB at Alabama) but he has game too. Houston Defenders handled the Illinois Warriors in their 1st game. Both Harrison twins playing well.
Indiana Elite Team Indiana gets the publicity here, but Indiana Elite One with Ron Patterson will be no slouch in this tournament either. They pounded Magic Tillman. Heat Biwan knocked out WolfPack from Belgium by 1 thanks to a Darius Wilkerson FT with 0.2 seconds left. Tubby Smith shows up for Atlanta Celtics and MN PNR. Celtics open up a 32-9 lead in the first half running and gunning for easy hoops and force 3 PNR timeouts. In the 3rd timeout, fire and brimstone. It must have gotten their attention as Wally Ellenson started a run to cut the lead to 16 at half. (Then I leave to see end of MN PNR 15s 78-33 win over Triple Threat, only game of day for that pool). I return to the PNR 17s to find that PNR has clawed their way back into it. They cut the lead all the way down to 58-56 with about 4 minutes to go but fall 76-70.
EOTO Gold behind the quality interior play of Tim Gill and a much improved Joe Gill took a 17 point lead on the WI Force in the 2nd half, only to see the Force go to a scrambing trapping defense and cut the lead to 1. The Force also got a pair of big 3s from Brendan Ortiz in the run. EOTO Gold hangs on to win 69-66. 1st game in a long time where I didn't see Tim Gill float on the perimeter which is a very good sign with his big body. But much of that is the sign of the thoroughly dysfunctional Henry team. Dakota Schoolers pounded the Belgium Wolfpack squad. Michael Busack was sitting out in the 2nd half that I watched icing an ankle.
The big matchup of NE Playaz vs Houston Defenders was marred by a late right shoulder injury to star Aaron Harrison. Fairly ugly game anyway. Shaq Cleare really outplayed Kaleb Tarczewski (who I wasn't as big a fan of tonight as other writers) especially in the 1st half. I liked his sound technique when defending ball screens. Nice to see a kid who's not just running aroundBut the Playaz have a ton of shooters around him and play good ball. No fluke in the 47-41 Playaz win.
Ian Theisen of the PNR 16s looks to be slimmer and more mobile. PNR 16s win both their games with no trouble. Houston Select 16s are for real. Khadeem Lattin seems to have length that goes on forever. Justise Winslow is really smooth and has all the athletic tools to boot. DC Assault 16s handled the Hammond Hurricanes in a game that was hard to watch with major jersey confusion. Navy Blue, green, white. No idea what was going on there.
The Strange
- PNR going back to the bright yellow shoes that have been hated so much previously.
- Kid with the Nike Swoosh cut in the back of his head.
- Czar almost taking a header on my 1st trip down the bleachers and jakking up my left foot in the process. No fear folks, the Czar does play hurt.
- The highlight games switched from court 1 to the main gym during the 2nd game on court. No surprise that the games were moved, but thought this would have been done before play began.
- Actually knowing a kid on a Canadian roster. Abu Conteh (formerly of Stillwater and St. Paul Como Park) playing for Academy CT out of Manitoba.
- Team NIBA (Aurora, IL) brought their 16 team, but somehow their 15s backed out at the last minute
2011 Best Buy Summer Classic 17U Preview
Labels:
2011 Best Buy Summer Classic
My previews of the 2011 Best Buy Summer Classic continue with a look at the 17U division. (Read the 15U/16U Divisions preview here). Now pay close attention because there are 57 teams that could end up in any of 5, yes 5 brackets. There are 19 pools of 3 teams. 9 of those teams are in the 1st 3 pools and are super pools. All 9 of those teams plus the 16 regular pool winners will advance to the Platinum Bracket. That's 25 teams which means 9 pigtail games. The losers of those 9 pigtail games will then form the Silver Bracket. The 9 winners will move on to the round of 16 in the Platinum Bracket. The 8 losers from those round of 16 games will form the Gold Bracket. The 8 winners continue play in the Platinum Bracket. The 16 2nd place finishers from the non super pools will play the Bronze Bracket. The 16 3rd place finishers will play the Classic Bracket. Whew! Got all that? If you have wall space to donate to post all of the brackets, tournament director Tom Krosschell would greatly appreciate it.
Here's my schedule of prospects to watch during the Wednesday games at Jefferson.
Here's a link to the entire 17U schedule
Super Pools A-C
In Pool A, you have the hosts Minnesota Pump N Run. Wally Ellenson starting to hear from high majors now. Sanjay Lumpkin just picked up offers from American and Richmond (Spider on their court is way cool!). Denver semifinalist Double Pump Elite makes the trip with 4 ranked players. 2013 PG Nigel Williams Goss was outstanding here last year and he returns as the 26th ranked player in the class (all rankings here are Rivals unless otherwise noted). He had previously committed to UNLV before pulling back after Lon Kruger left. Now hearing from many high majors. 6'4 G Tyrone Wallace is ranked #95 and has a pair of Pac 12 offers. 6'8 F Zena Edosomwan is #114 and 6'5 F Jordan Tebbutt is 116 and both have multiple Pac 12 offers as well. When I was in Denver, Double Pump had a 7'6 behemoth who was his own sideshow but he will not be attending. The final team in pool A is the Atlanta Celtics with 6'5 forwards Damien Wilson (Memphis commit) ranked #83 and Jordan Adams (UCLA commit) ranked #85. #21 ranked 6'8 F Shaq Goodwin played here with the Celtics last year but is expected to attend the Peach Jam instead. Double Pump plays the Celtics at 9:30 PM on Wednesday Night in a showcase game. I'll take Double Pump to win the pool
In Super Pool B, you have Indiana Elite, Texas D1 Ambassadors-Houston and the Illinois Warriors. Expect to see lots of Tom Crean as Indiana Elite has 3 Indiana commits on the roster. It starts with 6'8 F Hanner Parea (#15 ranked), 5'11 PG Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell (#23 ranked) and 6'7 wing Jeremy Hollowell who's ranked #52. Xavier commit 6'8 F James Farr also joins them for July. The team will be missing 7 footer Peter Jurkin who is also committed to Indiana due to a shin injury. 6'3 Guard Eron Harris is starting to see his interest expand as well. The Texas D1 Ambassadors bring their Houston squad. They feature 6'4 SG Alex Caruso who's ranked #63. 6'4 SG Jalen Washington, 6'3 shooter Devon Turk and 6'0 G Chase Brogna also ones to watch. A couple of wildcards for this roster. 6'9 Aly Mohamed may be with them or Houston Defenders Select. He may attend Rice. 6'8 C Kendrick Morris is a developing 2014 player. Southern Select from Georgia rounds out the pool. 6'5 SG Charles Mann is ranked #140. 6'7 F Damien Goodwin is also seeing some D1 interest. They also feature Alabama football commit 6'4 245 lbs Reggie Ragland. I'll take Indiana Elite to win the pool
In Pool C, you have the New England Playaz who bring the top ranked player in the event. He's 12th ranked 7'0 C Kaleb Tarczewski. They also have a 6'8 2014 forward Jarred Reuter. Jon Papale is one of a quality group of shooters on the roster. The 3rd semifinalist from Denver (Indiana Elite was the 2nd) making the trip is the loaded Houston Defenders Select squad. They won Denver and are considered one of the top teams in the nation (they beat Indiana Elite in Denver, though IE got them in the quarters last week) They have 6'5 2013 twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison. Andrew is a PG and ranked the top 2013 player in the nation. Aaron is a shooting guard and ho hum he's ranked #9 in the country. 6'7 F Derrick Griffin is ranked #30 in the 2013 class. And there's 6'9 F Shaquille Cleare who's ranked #29 in the 2012 class. They also have guard Christian Sanders who's receiving high major interest. The Illinois Warriors return to the metro after playing at the Sabes Invite. 6'8 F Brad Foster and 6'1 PG Luke Norman are a pair of players to keep an eye on for the Warriors. Houston Defenders play New England Playaz at 8:15 PM on Wednesday in the best pool game of the tournament with me picking Houston Defenders to win the pool.
Regular Pools D-S
Pool D is the 1st regular pool. Fury Gold and WI Hoops Select join the Michigan Hurricanes. The Hurricanes bring the #60 player in the 2013 class, Byron "Bo" Zeigler. He's a 6'6 wing. In Pool E, Old Gold from Chicago, MN Heat Duberry and M33M (SD). Expect Old Gold to be athletic. M33M is Mike Miller's program and his relative Jade Miller from hometown Mitchell plays for the program. Pool F has Academy CT from Manitoba and a pesky Comets Stock crew. The last team is my sleeper of the entire tournament and that's Pryme Tyme from Rockford, IL. They feature a very good backcourt 5'11 PG Fred Van Vleet who will attend Wichita St and Marcus Posley who has a UW-Green Bay offer. Pool G has the 2nd Iowa Pump N Run team and the WI Wizards. The SW MN Stars head the pool but will be without 6'9" Zach Huisken (and Casey Schilling will be with Dakota Schoolers). Look for 6'7 F Kyle Kilgore to have a much bigger role for them this week.
The ECI Prospects headline Pool H with versatile forwards Daniel Yale and AJ Jacobsen. Banger Dexter Werner takes up space in the middle and is productive. The KC Outlaws and Comets Seevers round out the pool. ECI Select and WI Starz compete with pool favorite Fury Blue in pool I. Scrappy WOTN and Basketball Saskatchewan fall in behind M33M Memphis in Pool J. Keep an eye on 2013 F Robert Hubbs who has 4 high major offers right now. Heat Elite should take out Ajays Elite (offshoot of Pryme Tyme) and Colorado Titans in pool K. Justin Pahl playing well for Heat now.. Maybe they can run into the Atlanta Celtics again this year. They gave the Celtics their best game of the tournament last year in this event. Dakota Schoolers are my favorite over Wolf Pack (Belgium) and Heat Biwan in Pool L. Casey Schilling and Mike Busack representing Minnesota in that one. Bigs Zach Kraning and Scott Mulder (missed St. Cloud due to injury so I think he'll be back) are quality interior players worth watching.
Team GetShook has Shawn Bear but struggled at the Hoosier Shootout. Team Missouri was also there an 0-3 in a tough pool but won the Copper Bracket.. 6'4 SG James Williams has D1 interest and high school teammate (but no relation) 6'7 Kelleon Williams is an interesting 2014 prospect. 6'5 SG Jake Schannuth is another to watch. IA PNR I rounds out the pool. MN Southside and Joey King headline Pool N. Bear Claw Club from Colorado and a pesky Basketball Manitoba squad round out the pool. Magic Tillman and Arizona Red Shirts are in Pool O with Indiana Elite One. 6'3 G Ron Patterson is ranked #127 and now plays for Indiana Elite One after playing for the top squad in Denver.
Comets Hanson with Joe Burt and Tyler Vaughan highlights Pool P. QC Elite and Nebraska Select are the rest of the pool. Arkansas Hawks NW are in Pool Q with Grassroots and Magic Superfriends. They play each other at 4:55 Wed afternoon. Grassroots with Freddie Young, Darrion Strong and Zach Lofton (just got Duquesne offer). Magic Superfriends with Darian Pittman, Rodney Owens, Demetrius Martin and shooter Tyson Kalien is very dangerous. They've beat 43 Hoops and Howard Pulley Black this year. In Pool R, G James Harrington should lead IA Barnstormers Black to the pool title over MN Heat McDonald and EOTO Black. Last but not least Mpls Gator and EOTO Gold are in pool S. They join guard Brandon Ortiz and F Jamal "Popcorn" Morris from the Wisconsin Force. Ortiz played well in St. Cloud and was amazing in the 3 OT state championship game for Madison Memorial in March.
Too many teams and games to predict brackets. But Houston Defenders, New England Playaz, Indiana Elite have to be the 1st group of favorites. I put DoublePump and the Atlanta Celtics right behind them Plenty of possible games that would be interesting to watch even at the pigtail level.
Here's my schedule of prospects to watch during the Wednesday games at Jefferson.
Here's a link to the entire 17U schedule
Super Pools A-C
In Pool A, you have the hosts Minnesota Pump N Run. Wally Ellenson starting to hear from high majors now. Sanjay Lumpkin just picked up offers from American and Richmond (Spider on their court is way cool!). Denver semifinalist Double Pump Elite makes the trip with 4 ranked players. 2013 PG Nigel Williams Goss was outstanding here last year and he returns as the 26th ranked player in the class (all rankings here are Rivals unless otherwise noted). He had previously committed to UNLV before pulling back after Lon Kruger left. Now hearing from many high majors. 6'4 G Tyrone Wallace is ranked #95 and has a pair of Pac 12 offers. 6'8 F Zena Edosomwan is #114 and 6'5 F Jordan Tebbutt is 116 and both have multiple Pac 12 offers as well. When I was in Denver, Double Pump had a 7'6 behemoth who was his own sideshow but he will not be attending. The final team in pool A is the Atlanta Celtics with 6'5 forwards Damien Wilson (Memphis commit) ranked #83 and Jordan Adams (UCLA commit) ranked #85. #21 ranked 6'8 F Shaq Goodwin played here with the Celtics last year but is expected to attend the Peach Jam instead. Double Pump plays the Celtics at 9:30 PM on Wednesday Night in a showcase game. I'll take Double Pump to win the pool
In Super Pool B, you have Indiana Elite, Texas D1 Ambassadors-Houston and the Illinois Warriors. Expect to see lots of Tom Crean as Indiana Elite has 3 Indiana commits on the roster. It starts with 6'8 F Hanner Parea (#15 ranked), 5'11 PG Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell (#23 ranked) and 6'7 wing Jeremy Hollowell who's ranked #52. Xavier commit 6'8 F James Farr also joins them for July. The team will be missing 7 footer Peter Jurkin who is also committed to Indiana due to a shin injury. 6'3 Guard Eron Harris is starting to see his interest expand as well. The Texas D1 Ambassadors bring their Houston squad. They feature 6'4 SG Alex Caruso who's ranked #63. 6'4 SG Jalen Washington, 6'3 shooter Devon Turk and 6'0 G Chase Brogna also ones to watch. A couple of wildcards for this roster. 6'9 Aly Mohamed may be with them or Houston Defenders Select. He may attend Rice. 6'8 C Kendrick Morris is a developing 2014 player. Southern Select from Georgia rounds out the pool. 6'5 SG Charles Mann is ranked #140. 6'7 F Damien Goodwin is also seeing some D1 interest. They also feature Alabama football commit 6'4 245 lbs Reggie Ragland. I'll take Indiana Elite to win the pool
In Pool C, you have the New England Playaz who bring the top ranked player in the event. He's 12th ranked 7'0 C Kaleb Tarczewski. They also have a 6'8 2014 forward Jarred Reuter. Jon Papale is one of a quality group of shooters on the roster. The 3rd semifinalist from Denver (Indiana Elite was the 2nd) making the trip is the loaded Houston Defenders Select squad. They won Denver and are considered one of the top teams in the nation (they beat Indiana Elite in Denver, though IE got them in the quarters last week) They have 6'5 2013 twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison. Andrew is a PG and ranked the top 2013 player in the nation. Aaron is a shooting guard and ho hum he's ranked #9 in the country. 6'7 F Derrick Griffin is ranked #30 in the 2013 class. And there's 6'9 F Shaquille Cleare who's ranked #29 in the 2012 class. They also have guard Christian Sanders who's receiving high major interest. The Illinois Warriors return to the metro after playing at the Sabes Invite. 6'8 F Brad Foster and 6'1 PG Luke Norman are a pair of players to keep an eye on for the Warriors. Houston Defenders play New England Playaz at 8:15 PM on Wednesday in the best pool game of the tournament with me picking Houston Defenders to win the pool.
Regular Pools D-S
Pool D is the 1st regular pool. Fury Gold and WI Hoops Select join the Michigan Hurricanes. The Hurricanes bring the #60 player in the 2013 class, Byron "Bo" Zeigler. He's a 6'6 wing. In Pool E, Old Gold from Chicago, MN Heat Duberry and M33M (SD). Expect Old Gold to be athletic. M33M is Mike Miller's program and his relative Jade Miller from hometown Mitchell plays for the program. Pool F has Academy CT from Manitoba and a pesky Comets Stock crew. The last team is my sleeper of the entire tournament and that's Pryme Tyme from Rockford, IL. They feature a very good backcourt 5'11 PG Fred Van Vleet who will attend Wichita St and Marcus Posley who has a UW-Green Bay offer. Pool G has the 2nd Iowa Pump N Run team and the WI Wizards. The SW MN Stars head the pool but will be without 6'9" Zach Huisken (and Casey Schilling will be with Dakota Schoolers). Look for 6'7 F Kyle Kilgore to have a much bigger role for them this week.
The ECI Prospects headline Pool H with versatile forwards Daniel Yale and AJ Jacobsen. Banger Dexter Werner takes up space in the middle and is productive. The KC Outlaws and Comets Seevers round out the pool. ECI Select and WI Starz compete with pool favorite Fury Blue in pool I. Scrappy WOTN and Basketball Saskatchewan fall in behind M33M Memphis in Pool J. Keep an eye on 2013 F Robert Hubbs who has 4 high major offers right now. Heat Elite should take out Ajays Elite (offshoot of Pryme Tyme) and Colorado Titans in pool K. Justin Pahl playing well for Heat now.. Maybe they can run into the Atlanta Celtics again this year. They gave the Celtics their best game of the tournament last year in this event. Dakota Schoolers are my favorite over Wolf Pack (Belgium) and Heat Biwan in Pool L. Casey Schilling and Mike Busack representing Minnesota in that one. Bigs Zach Kraning and Scott Mulder (missed St. Cloud due to injury so I think he'll be back) are quality interior players worth watching.
Team GetShook has Shawn Bear but struggled at the Hoosier Shootout. Team Missouri was also there an 0-3 in a tough pool but won the Copper Bracket.. 6'4 SG James Williams has D1 interest and high school teammate (but no relation) 6'7 Kelleon Williams is an interesting 2014 prospect. 6'5 SG Jake Schannuth is another to watch. IA PNR I rounds out the pool. MN Southside and Joey King headline Pool N. Bear Claw Club from Colorado and a pesky Basketball Manitoba squad round out the pool. Magic Tillman and Arizona Red Shirts are in Pool O with Indiana Elite One. 6'3 G Ron Patterson is ranked #127 and now plays for Indiana Elite One after playing for the top squad in Denver.
Comets Hanson with Joe Burt and Tyler Vaughan highlights Pool P. QC Elite and Nebraska Select are the rest of the pool. Arkansas Hawks NW are in Pool Q with Grassroots and Magic Superfriends. They play each other at 4:55 Wed afternoon. Grassroots with Freddie Young, Darrion Strong and Zach Lofton (just got Duquesne offer). Magic Superfriends with Darian Pittman, Rodney Owens, Demetrius Martin and shooter Tyson Kalien is very dangerous. They've beat 43 Hoops and Howard Pulley Black this year. In Pool R, G James Harrington should lead IA Barnstormers Black to the pool title over MN Heat McDonald and EOTO Black. Last but not least Mpls Gator and EOTO Gold are in pool S. They join guard Brandon Ortiz and F Jamal "Popcorn" Morris from the Wisconsin Force. Ortiz played well in St. Cloud and was amazing in the 3 OT state championship game for Madison Memorial in March.
Too many teams and games to predict brackets. But Houston Defenders, New England Playaz, Indiana Elite have to be the 1st group of favorites. I put DoublePump and the Atlanta Celtics right behind them Plenty of possible games that would be interesting to watch even at the pigtail level.
Best Buy Summer Classic 15s and 16s Preview
Labels:
2011 Best Buy Summer Classic,
Reid Travis
Its time for the 2011 Best Buy Summer Classic. I'll begin with the 1st of 2 previews of the event, starting with the 15s and 16s. Tournament format for these divisions is 3 team pools. 1st and 2nd place teams in each pool will play the Gold Bracket. 3rd place will play the Silver Bracket. 36 teams in 16U and 30 in 15U.
16U Division (Click here for Schedule)
MN PNR 16s get home court with their 2 pool games on the show court. With NIBA (Aurora, IL) and IA PNR II in the pool, except them to roll. In pool B, Arkansas Hawks I'm told have a nice team so the game with Fury Blue at 8:15 Wed Night should be a fun game to determine that pool. Hawks are athletic and that's something that's not a Fury Blue strength. But Fury Blue is very balanced with Brycen Wojta, Zach Lindquist, Dustin Fronk, Ben Oberfeld and Bridge Tusler. Nebraska Bison White is the other team in the pool. Pool C has the sick good Houston Select 2014 squad. They've won 2 straight national titles and played up in Denver and won the 16s. Wouldn't be shocked if they did that again here. Khadeem Lattin is a shot blocking force. Justise Winslow is a major player for them as well. Grassroots Canada's top team is their 16s and I expect them to handle Heat Reese and Colorado Titans in Pool D.
Illinois Warriors with 5'8 point guard Marvie Keith and 6'9 post Marquis Todd will have to contend with MN Heat Ogorek to win Pool E. Team Nebraska Express is no slouch there either. Comets Stanfield and Hammond Hurricanes in Pool F but I'll take DC Assault here. 5'10 G Will Ferguson is ranked #73 nationally by Scout.com. Duez Henderson's Iowa Pump N Run I with the Soukop twins won the 16s at the PNR Spring Tourney and I expect them to have no problems with SW MN Stars and Team Lockdown in Pool G. Ultimate Hoops and Grant Schaeffer I'm thinking will take out WOTN Gold and Pryme Tyme in Pool H.
One of the best pool games comes out of Pool I where Comets Elite will take on Dakota Schoolers White (St. Cloud Semis). That game is 2:40 on Wed on the middle court at Kennedy's Activity Center. Old Gold Hit Squad (2nd team) is also in the pool. The top team Old Gold Dream Team leads Pool J over ECI Prospects and WI Starz. I love the balance of Pool K with the MN Jaguars (listing Darius Hill, Gerald McCarver and Renard Suggs), WOTN Black (top team that has been respectable) and the very good Dakota Pride and Moorhead's Aaron Lien. Assuming AJ Jacobsen will play up in the 17s with ECI Prospects rather than playing with this group. I like the Pride to come out after being tested. Finally, Pool L is topped by Fury Gold who's been outstanding this year. DJ Pollard, Danny Sullivan and the Aase cousins (Joe and Tom) plus shooters Adam Huessner and Luke Scott make up a loaded roster. Expect some D1s to start looking at Tom Aase at this tournament.
Now for the infamous bracket predictions. Old Gold fun win over MN Jaguars before losing to MN PNR. Schoolers White over SW MN Stars before tough loss to Ultimate Hoops. Heat Ogorek over Schoolers Blue then lose to DC Assault. Fury Blue over Heat Altena then beat Grassroots Canada.. Dakota Pride over Heat Reese then lose to Houston Select. Comets Elite over IA PNR II and Illinois Warriors. Fury Gold over Comets Stanfield and IA PNR I (outstanding Fury Gold vs IA PNR I quarterfinal). WI Starz over Pryme Tyme before losing to Arkansas Hawks.
Then starting with the final 8. MN PNR over Ultimate Hoops, DC Assault over Fury Blue, Houston Select over Comets Elite, IA PNR I over Arkansas Hawks. In the semis and final DC Assault over MN PNR, Houston Select over Fury Gold. Houston Select over DC Assault to win the 16U title.
15U Division (Click here for Schedule)
Pool A dominated by Reid Travis, Henry Ellenson et al for MN Pump N Run. Triple Threat and NIBA in the pool. In Pool B, WOTN and WI Wizards in the pool but another major tournament contender is in this pool and that's Indiana Elite One. Keep an eye on Justin Brent, Collin Barthel and Jeff Harris for them. In Pool C, the Net Gain 14s with one of the state better 2015 prospects Sam Neumann are playing up with Dakota Schoolers White and IA PNR I who I pick to win the pool. Minnesota Elite with another 2015 star Andrew Grosz headline Pool D with Team Saskatchewan and Dakota Schoolers Blue. Fury Black is my pick in Pool E over Pryme Tyme and Basketball Manitoba.
Indiana Elite Kendrick is their 3rd team but don't be fooled. This team can play with Jeremy Tyler and Mike Jones. Its the toughest 15U pool with Dakota Pride (6'6 Jim Warmack of E Grand Forks on that squad) and MN Heat Vang. MN Heat Select with Jeff Jones (football stud), Quinton Garvis and Andre Wallace headline pool E over SW MN Stars and IA PNR II. Pool H is pretty quiet with Nebraska Bison Gold, Ultimate Hoops and my pick MN Heat Frank. Pool I not much better with Team Lockdown, WI Starz and Basketball Manitoba 14s. Pool J has a solid TC force team with Elk River's Clay Elrod who I think outlast EOTO and All Iowa Attack to win the final pool.
MN PNR already avenged a loss in the PNR Spring Tourney to MN Elite but I think they'll do it at home again in 1 semifinal. Similar feel too as MN Elite will likely have to take out MN Fury Black in the quarters. A dynamite quarterfinal looms with Heat Select and Indiana Elite 1 with Ind Elite moving on. I think whoever comes out of pool F moves on to the semifinal and that's the other Indiana Elite team. I'll take MN PNR to win it at home over the top Indiana Elite team.
16U Division (Click here for Schedule)
MN PNR 16s get home court with their 2 pool games on the show court. With NIBA (Aurora, IL) and IA PNR II in the pool, except them to roll. In pool B, Arkansas Hawks I'm told have a nice team so the game with Fury Blue at 8:15 Wed Night should be a fun game to determine that pool. Hawks are athletic and that's something that's not a Fury Blue strength. But Fury Blue is very balanced with Brycen Wojta, Zach Lindquist, Dustin Fronk, Ben Oberfeld and Bridge Tusler. Nebraska Bison White is the other team in the pool. Pool C has the sick good Houston Select 2014 squad. They've won 2 straight national titles and played up in Denver and won the 16s. Wouldn't be shocked if they did that again here. Khadeem Lattin is a shot blocking force. Justise Winslow is a major player for them as well. Grassroots Canada's top team is their 16s and I expect them to handle Heat Reese and Colorado Titans in Pool D.
Illinois Warriors with 5'8 point guard Marvie Keith and 6'9 post Marquis Todd will have to contend with MN Heat Ogorek to win Pool E. Team Nebraska Express is no slouch there either. Comets Stanfield and Hammond Hurricanes in Pool F but I'll take DC Assault here. 5'10 G Will Ferguson is ranked #73 nationally by Scout.com. Duez Henderson's Iowa Pump N Run I with the Soukop twins won the 16s at the PNR Spring Tourney and I expect them to have no problems with SW MN Stars and Team Lockdown in Pool G. Ultimate Hoops and Grant Schaeffer I'm thinking will take out WOTN Gold and Pryme Tyme in Pool H.
One of the best pool games comes out of Pool I where Comets Elite will take on Dakota Schoolers White (St. Cloud Semis). That game is 2:40 on Wed on the middle court at Kennedy's Activity Center. Old Gold Hit Squad (2nd team) is also in the pool. The top team Old Gold Dream Team leads Pool J over ECI Prospects and WI Starz. I love the balance of Pool K with the MN Jaguars (listing Darius Hill, Gerald McCarver and Renard Suggs), WOTN Black (top team that has been respectable) and the very good Dakota Pride and Moorhead's Aaron Lien. Assuming AJ Jacobsen will play up in the 17s with ECI Prospects rather than playing with this group. I like the Pride to come out after being tested. Finally, Pool L is topped by Fury Gold who's been outstanding this year. DJ Pollard, Danny Sullivan and the Aase cousins (Joe and Tom) plus shooters Adam Huessner and Luke Scott make up a loaded roster. Expect some D1s to start looking at Tom Aase at this tournament.
Now for the infamous bracket predictions. Old Gold fun win over MN Jaguars before losing to MN PNR. Schoolers White over SW MN Stars before tough loss to Ultimate Hoops. Heat Ogorek over Schoolers Blue then lose to DC Assault. Fury Blue over Heat Altena then beat Grassroots Canada.. Dakota Pride over Heat Reese then lose to Houston Select. Comets Elite over IA PNR II and Illinois Warriors. Fury Gold over Comets Stanfield and IA PNR I (outstanding Fury Gold vs IA PNR I quarterfinal). WI Starz over Pryme Tyme before losing to Arkansas Hawks.
Then starting with the final 8. MN PNR over Ultimate Hoops, DC Assault over Fury Blue, Houston Select over Comets Elite, IA PNR I over Arkansas Hawks. In the semis and final DC Assault over MN PNR, Houston Select over Fury Gold. Houston Select over DC Assault to win the 16U title.
15U Division (Click here for Schedule)
Pool A dominated by Reid Travis, Henry Ellenson et al for MN Pump N Run. Triple Threat and NIBA in the pool. In Pool B, WOTN and WI Wizards in the pool but another major tournament contender is in this pool and that's Indiana Elite One. Keep an eye on Justin Brent, Collin Barthel and Jeff Harris for them. In Pool C, the Net Gain 14s with one of the state better 2015 prospects Sam Neumann are playing up with Dakota Schoolers White and IA PNR I who I pick to win the pool. Minnesota Elite with another 2015 star Andrew Grosz headline Pool D with Team Saskatchewan and Dakota Schoolers Blue. Fury Black is my pick in Pool E over Pryme Tyme and Basketball Manitoba.
Indiana Elite Kendrick is their 3rd team but don't be fooled. This team can play with Jeremy Tyler and Mike Jones. Its the toughest 15U pool with Dakota Pride (6'6 Jim Warmack of E Grand Forks on that squad) and MN Heat Vang. MN Heat Select with Jeff Jones (football stud), Quinton Garvis and Andre Wallace headline pool E over SW MN Stars and IA PNR II. Pool H is pretty quiet with Nebraska Bison Gold, Ultimate Hoops and my pick MN Heat Frank. Pool I not much better with Team Lockdown, WI Starz and Basketball Manitoba 14s. Pool J has a solid TC force team with Elk River's Clay Elrod who I think outlast EOTO and All Iowa Attack to win the final pool.
MN PNR already avenged a loss in the PNR Spring Tourney to MN Elite but I think they'll do it at home again in 1 semifinal. Similar feel too as MN Elite will likely have to take out MN Fury Black in the quarters. A dynamite quarterfinal looms with Heat Select and Indiana Elite 1 with Ind Elite moving on. I think whoever comes out of pool F moves on to the semifinal and that's the other Indiana Elite team. I'll take MN PNR to win it at home over the top Indiana Elite team.
2011 Day 3 July Results
Labels:
Rashad Vaughn,
Reid Travis
Here's how MN teams fared on Day 3 on the July recruiting period.
Adidas Invitational
43 Hoops 17s finish 5-1. They beat KC PNR 55-51 before losing Pray and Play Players and star Perry Ellis 69-64. Marcus Marshall, Marcus Tyus, Nate Kratch and Cullen Russo were the standouts for 43.
Heat Elite 17s finish 4-1. They lost to Houston Hoopstars and top 15 player Cameron Ridley (34 points) 76-55
Heat Duberry 17s lost to ACAD Elite 79-57 in their 1st Bronze bracket game.
MN PNR 16s lost to Spiece Indy Heat 68-67 in 1st round bracket play.
Heat Altena lost to Spiece Gym Rats Daniel 65-53 in 1st round silver bracket to finish 1-3 overall.
Heat Ogorek beat Colorado Mustangs in silver bracket 58-51. They then lost in the quarters to Illinois Old School 59-56
MN PNR 15s def KYA Basketball in 1st round of bracket play 77-49. They then beat KC Pump N Run (who beat MN PNR for title in Denver) 47-42. Reid Travis 10 points. They then lost in quarterfinals 58-53 to Eric Gordon All-Stars. Worth noting that the 2 teams in front of MN PNR's in pool, 1 made the semis and other was playing to make semifinals.
43 Hoops Carr 15s lost to CIA Bounce 71-37 in 1st round bracket play. They finish 2-2.
Hoosier Shootout
MN Cyclones win the 14U Division with 69-52 win over BA Celitics. Kobe Critchley 27 pts and 10 ast. Alex Illikainen 12 points and 14 boards. U of M asst Ron Jirsa looking on.
MN Glory 17s beat Toronto Elite 100-75 and Indiana Select 88-87 in 2 OT. Anders Broman 45 points in that game. They then lost to Illinois Crush in the semifinals of the silver bracket to finish the tourney at 4-2.
MN Select Blue 17s lost to Team Atlanta in 1st round Silver bracket. They finish 1-3.
Team GetShook beat Indy Home School Wildcats in 1st round Copper bracket before losing to MD Hoopmasters in quarterfinals. They finish 1-4.
NY2LA Next Level Invitational
14U
Heat Phillips 14s lost 63-31 to WI Hoyas to finish 1-2 in pool. They then lost to WI Academy 46-45 in 1st round of Platinum Bracket to finish tournament 1-3.
15U
Howard Pulley Black 15s lost 58-46 to Iowa Barnstormers (0-3 in pool). They lost 65-42 to Playground Elite in 1st round Platinum Bracket
Grassroots 15s (2-1 in pool) beat Kingdom Hoops II 54-37. They then lost to Racine Warriors 49-25 in 1st round Platinum Bracket.
Comets Elite 15s beat IA PNR I 54-32 to finish pool play 2-1. They lost to WI Scholars 74-61 in 1st round Platinum Bracket.
Howard Pulley White 15s 0-3 in pool but beat IA PNR I 56-51 in 1st round Gold Bracket. Will play Randolph Boys Club White in quarterfinals.
Heat Frank 15s lost to Ray Allen Select 66-39 in 1st round Platinum Bracket to finish 2-2.
Comets Stock 15s lost 1st round Gold Bracket to Dakota Schoolers Blue 64-39
16U
Howard Pulley Black 16s finish 1-3 as they lost 60-50 to IBA Select in 1st round Platinum Bracket
Comets Elite 16s beat WI Swing Gard 63-43 in 1st round Platinum Bracket. They play WI Playmakers White (Comets Shootout champs) in the quarterfinals.
Magic Black 16s 1-2 in pool. Lost 59-34 to SYF Players in 1st round Platinum Bracket.
Howard Pulley White 16s finish 0-4 with 68-65 loss to WI Swing Bench in 1st round of Gold Bracket.
17U
MN Southside beat Team NLP-LJ 61-48 in Platinum Bracket playin game. They then lost 72-69 to Milwaukee Running Rebels. 2-3 overall record.
SW MN Stars finish 0-4. They lost 66-58 to Iowa Barnstormers Black in quarterfinals of Gold Bracket.
Net Gain beat Colorado Titans 61-38 in Platinum Bracket playin game. They then lost 76-75 in round of 16 to PNR Spring Tourney champ WI Swing Litscher. Rashad Vaughn continues to impress for Net Gain.
Heat Biwan finishes 0-4 with 60-47 loss to ECI Prospects in Gold Bracket playin game.
MN Magic beat ECI 59-54 in Gold Bracket quarterfinal (1-3 overall). They'll play IA PNR I in semifinal.
Grassroots finishes 1-3 with 84-82 loss to SW IL Jets in Platinum Bracket playin game.
Howard Pulley White finishes 2-2. They lost 51-48 to Iowa Barnstormers Gold in Platinum Bracket playin game.
Comets Elite def East Troy 56-54 in Platinum Bracket playin game. They then lost to Team NLP-DF 55-39. They finish 3-2.
Heat McDonald didn't play. They play WI Blizzard Trautman in quarters of Silver Bracket. 0-3 currently.
Adidas Invitational
43 Hoops 17s finish 5-1. They beat KC PNR 55-51 before losing Pray and Play Players and star Perry Ellis 69-64. Marcus Marshall, Marcus Tyus, Nate Kratch and Cullen Russo were the standouts for 43.
Heat Elite 17s finish 4-1. They lost to Houston Hoopstars and top 15 player Cameron Ridley (34 points) 76-55
Heat Duberry 17s lost to ACAD Elite 79-57 in their 1st Bronze bracket game.
MN PNR 16s lost to Spiece Indy Heat 68-67 in 1st round bracket play.
Heat Altena lost to Spiece Gym Rats Daniel 65-53 in 1st round silver bracket to finish 1-3 overall.
Heat Ogorek beat Colorado Mustangs in silver bracket 58-51. They then lost in the quarters to Illinois Old School 59-56
MN PNR 15s def KYA Basketball in 1st round of bracket play 77-49. They then beat KC Pump N Run (who beat MN PNR for title in Denver) 47-42. Reid Travis 10 points. They then lost in quarterfinals 58-53 to Eric Gordon All-Stars. Worth noting that the 2 teams in front of MN PNR's in pool, 1 made the semis and other was playing to make semifinals.
43 Hoops Carr 15s lost to CIA Bounce 71-37 in 1st round bracket play. They finish 2-2.
Hoosier Shootout
MN Cyclones win the 14U Division with 69-52 win over BA Celitics. Kobe Critchley 27 pts and 10 ast. Alex Illikainen 12 points and 14 boards. U of M asst Ron Jirsa looking on.
MN Glory 17s beat Toronto Elite 100-75 and Indiana Select 88-87 in 2 OT. Anders Broman 45 points in that game. They then lost to Illinois Crush in the semifinals of the silver bracket to finish the tourney at 4-2.
MN Select Blue 17s lost to Team Atlanta in 1st round Silver bracket. They finish 1-3.
Team GetShook beat Indy Home School Wildcats in 1st round Copper bracket before losing to MD Hoopmasters in quarterfinals. They finish 1-4.
NY2LA Next Level Invitational
14U
Heat Phillips 14s lost 63-31 to WI Hoyas to finish 1-2 in pool. They then lost to WI Academy 46-45 in 1st round of Platinum Bracket to finish tournament 1-3.
15U
Howard Pulley Black 15s lost 58-46 to Iowa Barnstormers (0-3 in pool). They lost 65-42 to Playground Elite in 1st round Platinum Bracket
Grassroots 15s (2-1 in pool) beat Kingdom Hoops II 54-37. They then lost to Racine Warriors 49-25 in 1st round Platinum Bracket.
Comets Elite 15s beat IA PNR I 54-32 to finish pool play 2-1. They lost to WI Scholars 74-61 in 1st round Platinum Bracket.
Howard Pulley White 15s 0-3 in pool but beat IA PNR I 56-51 in 1st round Gold Bracket. Will play Randolph Boys Club White in quarterfinals.
Heat Frank 15s lost to Ray Allen Select 66-39 in 1st round Platinum Bracket to finish 2-2.
Comets Stock 15s lost 1st round Gold Bracket to Dakota Schoolers Blue 64-39
16U
Howard Pulley Black 16s finish 1-3 as they lost 60-50 to IBA Select in 1st round Platinum Bracket
Comets Elite 16s beat WI Swing Gard 63-43 in 1st round Platinum Bracket. They play WI Playmakers White (Comets Shootout champs) in the quarterfinals.
Magic Black 16s 1-2 in pool. Lost 59-34 to SYF Players in 1st round Platinum Bracket.
Howard Pulley White 16s finish 0-4 with 68-65 loss to WI Swing Bench in 1st round of Gold Bracket.
17U
MN Southside beat Team NLP-LJ 61-48 in Platinum Bracket playin game. They then lost 72-69 to Milwaukee Running Rebels. 2-3 overall record.
SW MN Stars finish 0-4. They lost 66-58 to Iowa Barnstormers Black in quarterfinals of Gold Bracket.
Net Gain beat Colorado Titans 61-38 in Platinum Bracket playin game. They then lost 76-75 in round of 16 to PNR Spring Tourney champ WI Swing Litscher. Rashad Vaughn continues to impress for Net Gain.
Heat Biwan finishes 0-4 with 60-47 loss to ECI Prospects in Gold Bracket playin game.
MN Magic beat ECI 59-54 in Gold Bracket quarterfinal (1-3 overall). They'll play IA PNR I in semifinal.
Grassroots finishes 1-3 with 84-82 loss to SW IL Jets in Platinum Bracket playin game.
Howard Pulley White finishes 2-2. They lost 51-48 to Iowa Barnstormers Gold in Platinum Bracket playin game.
Comets Elite def East Troy 56-54 in Platinum Bracket playin game. They then lost to Team NLP-DF 55-39. They finish 3-2.
Heat McDonald didn't play. They play WI Blizzard Trautman in quarters of Silver Bracket. 0-3 currently.
2011 Day 2 July Results
Here's how MN teams fared on day 2 on the July recruiting period.
Adidas Invitational
MN Pump N Run 17s beat Franchize All Stars 68-60 to finish pool play 2-1 (2nd). Lost 46-41 to Full Package Walker in 1st round bracket play.
43 Hoops 17s now 4-0 as they beat NW Ohio 68-64 to win their pool. Marcus Marshall 22 pts. Then beat Florida Rams Blue 69-62 in 1st round bracket play. Marcus Tyus 28 pts. Sean Scott 17 and 6. They'll play KC PNR in the round of 32.
Heat Elite 17s now 4-0 as they beat Indiana Crusaders 84-56. Josh Tismer 15 pts. Then beat Nashville Celtics 59-57. Mitchell Kuck 20 pts 5 rebs. U of M asst Vince Taylor took in the 2nd half of the game.
Heat Duberry 17s lost 66-45 to Franklin All-Stars to finish pool play 0-3. They play ACAD Elite in round of 16 of Bronze bracket.
Magic Superfriends 17s lost 68-55 to Texas Select. They finish 1-2 but 2nd in pool thanks to tiebreaker. Lost 79-66 to Southern Select in 1st round of Gold bracket.
MN PNR 16s lost 79-70 to Devin Harris Super Stars to finish 1-2 in pool. They'll play Spiece Indy Heat in 1st round bracket play.
Heat Altena lost to Spiece Central Mahurin 59-48 to finish 1-2 in pool. They'll take on Spiece Gym Rats - Daniel in bronze bracket.
Heat Ogorek lost to BA Hoyas 80-60 to finish 1-2 in pool. They'll take on Colorado Mustangs in bronze bracket. Both Heat teams could play each other with 2 wins.
MN PNR 15s def Gateway Basketball Club 56-34. Lost to Meanstreets 68-59 to finish 1-2 in super pool. They'll take on KYA Basketball in 1st round of bracket play.
43 Hoops Carr 15s beat Grand Rapids Storm Blue 63-47. Lost to Triple Threat AKA Threat220 70-63 for 2-1 pool finish but won the 3 way tiebreaker for top seed in pool. They'll play super pool winner CIA Bounce in 1st round bracket play.
Hoosier Shootout
MN Select White17s 3-0 in pool, lost to IWC Lone Peak in pigtail game in bracket play.
MN Select Blue 17s 1-2 (Blake Williams 8 3s and 33 points in their pool win). They play Team Atlanta in 1st round Silver Bracket.
Team GetShook 17s 0-3. They play Indy Home School Wildcats in 1st round Copper bracket.
MN Glory 17s 2-1 (lost today's pool game to finish 2nd in pool). They'll play Toronto Elite in 1st round Silver Bracket.
MN Glory 16s 1-2 in pool as they won today. Beat Select Blue in Bronze bracket opener before losing to Hidden Gems in quarters.
MN Select Blue 16s 1-2 in pool. Won 71-64 today thanks to 7 3s and 27 points from Yasin Omar.
MN Select White 16s 3-0 to win pool. Lost to Crons Hester in bracket opener.
MN Glory 15s 0-3 in pool. Beat Chattanooga Titans in 1st round Silver bracket and then lost in quarters to Missouri Impact White.
MN Select Warriors 15s 1-2 winning last pool game today. Lost to Crons-Shover in 1st round Silver Bracket.
MN Cyclones 14s 5-0. They beat ACB (MI) 47-46 to win quarterfinal after easily sweeping their pool. Alex Illikainen 2 FTs with 7 seconds left to win it. They they pounded Michigan Madness 101-56 in 14U semifinal. Jeremiah Hanson (yes another Hanson) 24 points. Illikainen 16 pts, 17 boards. Daniel Hudrlik 12 and 14. They'll play BA Celtics for 14U title.
TVA 14s 2-1 but due to points tiebreaker only finished 3rd in pool. They advance in bracket by forfeit before losing to Team Hustle in Silver Bracket semifinals.
NY2LA Next Level Invitational
14U
Heat Phillips 14s lost 55-22 to Kingdom Hoops I (1-1 in pool). Play WI Hoyas for chance to win pool
15U
Howard Pulley Black 15s lost 55-51 to Peoria Irish (0-2 in pool)
Grassroots 15s (1-1) beat Randolph Boys Club Blue 37-13.
Comets Elite 15s lost 57-52 to Playground Elite. (1-1)
Howard Pulley White 15s lost 68-17 to WI Blizzard Reader, lost 34-27 to IBA Select (0-3 pool)
Heat Frank 15s 2-0 on the day (2-1 pool). They beat WI Shooters 71-64 and won 59-40 over IA PNR II to finish 2nd in their pool
Comets Stock 15s split their 2 games to finish 1-2 in pool. They lost 57-33 to Racine Warriors and beat WI Blizzard Lehocky 52-38.
16U
Howard Pulley Black 16s lost both of their games today to finish 1-2 in pool. Top WI Playmakers team beat them 60-50. Kingdom Hoops I beat them 57-51.
Comets Elite 16s also lost both games today to finish 1-2 in pool. 65-33 loss to Rising Stars Gold and lost 64-43 to SYF Players.
Magic Black 16s stuff is totally convoluted on NY2LA site. Either split with a big win or lost 2 very close ones.
Howard Pulley White 16s lost both games for 0-3 pool finish. WI Blizzard Hawley 51-44 and 59-36 to WI Shooters
17U
MN Southside lost 70-64 to Team NLP-DF to finish 1-2 in pool but will advance to Platinum Bracket.
SW MN Stars lost to SYF Players 63-55 (not a win as previously written) and lost 51-23 to BTI PNR. 0-3 in pool.
Net Gain beat WI Playmakers 72-62 to finish 1-2 in pool.
MN Magic lost to WI Shooters 72-60 (0-3)
Heat Biwan lost to SW IL Jets 76-38 (0-3)
Grassroots beat Playground Elite II 68-65 to finish 1-2 in pool.
Howard Pulley White beat Kingdom Hoops II 68-59. They finish 2nd at 2-1 in pool.
Comets Elite def WI Blizzard Trautman 83-66 to finish 2-1 in pool
Heat McDonald lost 60-26 to Friends of Hoops to finish 0-3 in pool.
Adidas Invitational
MN Pump N Run 17s beat Franchize All Stars 68-60 to finish pool play 2-1 (2nd). Lost 46-41 to Full Package Walker in 1st round bracket play.
43 Hoops 17s now 4-0 as they beat NW Ohio 68-64 to win their pool. Marcus Marshall 22 pts. Then beat Florida Rams Blue 69-62 in 1st round bracket play. Marcus Tyus 28 pts. Sean Scott 17 and 6. They'll play KC PNR in the round of 32.
Heat Elite 17s now 4-0 as they beat Indiana Crusaders 84-56. Josh Tismer 15 pts. Then beat Nashville Celtics 59-57. Mitchell Kuck 20 pts 5 rebs. U of M asst Vince Taylor took in the 2nd half of the game.
Heat Duberry 17s lost 66-45 to Franklin All-Stars to finish pool play 0-3. They play ACAD Elite in round of 16 of Bronze bracket.
Magic Superfriends 17s lost 68-55 to Texas Select. They finish 1-2 but 2nd in pool thanks to tiebreaker. Lost 79-66 to Southern Select in 1st round of Gold bracket.
MN PNR 16s lost 79-70 to Devin Harris Super Stars to finish 1-2 in pool. They'll play Spiece Indy Heat in 1st round bracket play.
Heat Altena lost to Spiece Central Mahurin 59-48 to finish 1-2 in pool. They'll take on Spiece Gym Rats - Daniel in bronze bracket.
Heat Ogorek lost to BA Hoyas 80-60 to finish 1-2 in pool. They'll take on Colorado Mustangs in bronze bracket. Both Heat teams could play each other with 2 wins.
MN PNR 15s def Gateway Basketball Club 56-34. Lost to Meanstreets 68-59 to finish 1-2 in super pool. They'll take on KYA Basketball in 1st round of bracket play.
43 Hoops Carr 15s beat Grand Rapids Storm Blue 63-47. Lost to Triple Threat AKA Threat220 70-63 for 2-1 pool finish but won the 3 way tiebreaker for top seed in pool. They'll play super pool winner CIA Bounce in 1st round bracket play.
Hoosier Shootout
MN Select White17s 3-0 in pool, lost to IWC Lone Peak in pigtail game in bracket play.
MN Select Blue 17s 1-2 (Blake Williams 8 3s and 33 points in their pool win). They play Team Atlanta in 1st round Silver Bracket.
Team GetShook 17s 0-3. They play Indy Home School Wildcats in 1st round Copper bracket.
MN Glory 17s 2-1 (lost today's pool game to finish 2nd in pool). They'll play Toronto Elite in 1st round Silver Bracket.
MN Glory 16s 1-2 in pool as they won today. Beat Select Blue in Bronze bracket opener before losing to Hidden Gems in quarters.
MN Select Blue 16s 1-2 in pool. Won 71-64 today thanks to 7 3s and 27 points from Yasin Omar.
MN Select White 16s 3-0 to win pool. Lost to Crons Hester in bracket opener.
MN Glory 15s 0-3 in pool. Beat Chattanooga Titans in 1st round Silver bracket and then lost in quarters to Missouri Impact White.
MN Select Warriors 15s 1-2 winning last pool game today. Lost to Crons-Shover in 1st round Silver Bracket.
MN Cyclones 14s 5-0. They beat ACB (MI) 47-46 to win quarterfinal after easily sweeping their pool. Alex Illikainen 2 FTs with 7 seconds left to win it. They they pounded Michigan Madness 101-56 in 14U semifinal. Jeremiah Hanson (yes another Hanson) 24 points. Illikainen 16 pts, 17 boards. Daniel Hudrlik 12 and 14. They'll play BA Celtics for 14U title.
TVA 14s 2-1 but due to points tiebreaker only finished 3rd in pool. They advance in bracket by forfeit before losing to Team Hustle in Silver Bracket semifinals.
NY2LA Next Level Invitational
14U
Heat Phillips 14s lost 55-22 to Kingdom Hoops I (1-1 in pool). Play WI Hoyas for chance to win pool
15U
Howard Pulley Black 15s lost 55-51 to Peoria Irish (0-2 in pool)
Grassroots 15s (1-1) beat Randolph Boys Club Blue 37-13.
Comets Elite 15s lost 57-52 to Playground Elite. (1-1)
Howard Pulley White 15s lost 68-17 to WI Blizzard Reader, lost 34-27 to IBA Select (0-3 pool)
Heat Frank 15s 2-0 on the day (2-1 pool). They beat WI Shooters 71-64 and won 59-40 over IA PNR II to finish 2nd in their pool
Comets Stock 15s split their 2 games to finish 1-2 in pool. They lost 57-33 to Racine Warriors and beat WI Blizzard Lehocky 52-38.
16U
Howard Pulley Black 16s lost both of their games today to finish 1-2 in pool. Top WI Playmakers team beat them 60-50. Kingdom Hoops I beat them 57-51.
Comets Elite 16s also lost both games today to finish 1-2 in pool. 65-33 loss to Rising Stars Gold and lost 64-43 to SYF Players.
Magic Black 16s stuff is totally convoluted on NY2LA site. Either split with a big win or lost 2 very close ones.
Howard Pulley White 16s lost both games for 0-3 pool finish. WI Blizzard Hawley 51-44 and 59-36 to WI Shooters
17U
MN Southside lost 70-64 to Team NLP-DF to finish 1-2 in pool but will advance to Platinum Bracket.
SW MN Stars lost to SYF Players 63-55 (not a win as previously written) and lost 51-23 to BTI PNR. 0-3 in pool.
Net Gain beat WI Playmakers 72-62 to finish 1-2 in pool.
MN Magic lost to WI Shooters 72-60 (0-3)
Heat Biwan lost to SW IL Jets 76-38 (0-3)
Grassroots beat Playground Elite II 68-65 to finish 1-2 in pool.
Howard Pulley White beat Kingdom Hoops II 68-59. They finish 2nd at 2-1 in pool.
Comets Elite def WI Blizzard Trautman 83-66 to finish 2-1 in pool
Heat McDonald lost 60-26 to Friends of Hoops to finish 0-3 in pool.
2011 Day 1 July Results
Here's how MN teams fared on day 1 on the July recruiting period.
Adidas Invitational
MN Pump N Run 17s lost 55-51 to NW Panthers, def MARCROWE MSM4L 86-81.
43 Hoops 17s def Hoosier Hoops 78-40 and Louisiana Dynasty 78-65. Marcus Tyus 30 pts, Marcus Marshall 20 pts. Nate Kratch 15 pts and 8 boards. All of those stats from the 2nd game.
Heat Elite 17s def Orlando Wildcats 65-58 and Spiece Hoosier Hoops 70-61.
Heat Duberry 17s lost their 2 games 70-46 and 68-52
Magic Superfriends 17s split their 2 games.
MN PNR 16s beat Gateway Basketball Club 66-63, lost to Colorado Hawks 51-49
Heat Altena beat Triple Balance 44-40, lost to NW Ohio 63-59
Heat Ogorek def Indy Racers 68-53, lost to Illinois Attack 77-59
MN PNR 15s lost to Louisville Magic 59-49
43 Hoops Carr 15s beat Club Champions 69-34
Hoosier Shootout
MN Select White17s 2-0
MN Select Blue 17s 1-1
MN Glory 17s 2-0
Team GetShook 17s 0-2
MN Glory 16s 0-2
MN Select Blue 16s 0-2
MN Select White 16s 2-0
MN Glory 15s 0-2
MN Select Warriors 15s 0-2
MN Cyclones 14s 2-0. Alex Illikanien 18 pts, 21 rbs in game 1, 16 pts, 18 boards in game 2. In game 2, Kobe Critchley 9 pts, 10 boards and 9 ast.
TVA 14s 1-1
NY2LA Next Level Invitational
14U and 15U
Heat Phillips 14s def Dakota Schoolers Blue 51-43
Howard Pulley Black 15s lost to Ray Allen Select 74-39
Grassroots 15s lost to WI Scholars 69-47
Comets Elite 15s def Dakota Schoolers White 49-24
Howard Pulley White 15s lost to Terry Porter Elite 57-56
Heat Frank 15s lost to WI Playmakers 59-54
Comets Stock 15s beat WI RAP-White 55-49
16U
Howard Pulley Black 16s def Dakota Schoolers Blue 71-63
Comets Elite 16s def KC Spurs 65-53
Magic Black 16s lost to Peoria Irish 53-30
Howard Pulley White 16s lost to Dakota Schoolers White 66-55
17U
MN Southside lost to Terry Porter Elite 78-61, def Inland Empire 51-48
SW MN Stars lost to WI Swing Litscher 58-38 , beat SYF Players 63-55
Net Gain lost 53-27 to Kingdom Hoops I and lost to Peoria Irish 59-57
MN Magic lost to Playground Elite I 79-49 and lost to Dakota Schoolers 68-66
Heat Biwan lost 63-40 to Milwaukee Running Rebels and lost to IA Barnstormers Gold 64-37.
Grassroots beat ECI Prospects 80-72, lost to IL Rising Stars Gold 77-62
Howard Pulley White lost 62-61 to Colorado Titans, def IL Rising Stars Blue 73-41
Comets Elite def IA PNR I 63-57, lost 57-53 to Team NLP-LJ.
Heat McDonald lost 80-30 to IA Barnstormers Black, lost 63-43 to Fox Valley Fire
Adidas Invitational
MN Pump N Run 17s lost 55-51 to NW Panthers, def MARCROWE MSM4L 86-81.
43 Hoops 17s def Hoosier Hoops 78-40 and Louisiana Dynasty 78-65. Marcus Tyus 30 pts, Marcus Marshall 20 pts. Nate Kratch 15 pts and 8 boards. All of those stats from the 2nd game.
Heat Elite 17s def Orlando Wildcats 65-58 and Spiece Hoosier Hoops 70-61.
Heat Duberry 17s lost their 2 games 70-46 and 68-52
Magic Superfriends 17s split their 2 games.
MN PNR 16s beat Gateway Basketball Club 66-63, lost to Colorado Hawks 51-49
Heat Altena beat Triple Balance 44-40, lost to NW Ohio 63-59
Heat Ogorek def Indy Racers 68-53, lost to Illinois Attack 77-59
MN PNR 15s lost to Louisville Magic 59-49
43 Hoops Carr 15s beat Club Champions 69-34
Hoosier Shootout
MN Select White17s 2-0
MN Select Blue 17s 1-1
MN Glory 17s 2-0
Team GetShook 17s 0-2
MN Glory 16s 0-2
MN Select Blue 16s 0-2
MN Select White 16s 2-0
MN Glory 15s 0-2
MN Select Warriors 15s 0-2
MN Cyclones 14s 2-0. Alex Illikanien 18 pts, 21 rbs in game 1, 16 pts, 18 boards in game 2. In game 2, Kobe Critchley 9 pts, 10 boards and 9 ast.
TVA 14s 1-1
NY2LA Next Level Invitational
14U and 15U
Heat Phillips 14s def Dakota Schoolers Blue 51-43
Howard Pulley Black 15s lost to Ray Allen Select 74-39
Grassroots 15s lost to WI Scholars 69-47
Comets Elite 15s def Dakota Schoolers White 49-24
Howard Pulley White 15s lost to Terry Porter Elite 57-56
Heat Frank 15s lost to WI Playmakers 59-54
Comets Stock 15s beat WI RAP-White 55-49
16U
Howard Pulley Black 16s def Dakota Schoolers Blue 71-63
Comets Elite 16s def KC Spurs 65-53
Magic Black 16s lost to Peoria Irish 53-30
Howard Pulley White 16s lost to Dakota Schoolers White 66-55
17U
MN Southside lost to Terry Porter Elite 78-61, def Inland Empire 51-48
SW MN Stars lost to WI Swing Litscher 58-38 , beat SYF Players 63-55
Net Gain lost 53-27 to Kingdom Hoops I and lost to Peoria Irish 59-57
MN Magic lost to Playground Elite I 79-49 and lost to Dakota Schoolers 68-66
Heat Biwan lost 63-40 to Milwaukee Running Rebels and lost to IA Barnstormers Gold 64-37.
Grassroots beat ECI Prospects 80-72, lost to IL Rising Stars Gold 77-62
Howard Pulley White lost 62-61 to Colorado Titans, def IL Rising Stars Blue 73-41
Comets Elite def IA PNR I 63-57, lost 57-53 to Team NLP-LJ.
Heat McDonald lost 80-30 to IA Barnstormers Black, lost 63-43 to Fox Valley Fire
5 to watch in the 2011 recruiting period
Labels:
Joey King,
Siyani Chambers,
Tyus Jones
Here are 5 names that have a chance to be noteworthy stockraisers this July.
Joey King - MN Southside
Maybe the player with the most pressure this July. He played well against SW MN Stars at the spring PNR Tourney and was up and down in Iowa. He gets a great opportunity in Milwaukee at the 1st NY2LA event. A win in pool play is a must and will propel them into the platinum bracket. This is the 1 month where his interest level will be crystalized.
Johnny Woodard - Net Gain Sports
Woodard starts his summer where it "ended" as Net Gain returns to Milwaukee to open July. When he last played before Memorial Day it was in Milwaukee where he injured a shoulder and was thought to be done. He's since been cleared and after the outstanding spring he had, it would have been a shame to see him sit out. He has the most college ready body in the class. Using that body, he's also demonstrated that he's as good a finisher as anyone in the class as he can take contact and still score. Continued quality play should have high majors after him.
Nate Kratch - 43 Hoops
Has been outstanding all spring for coach Al Harris and the D1 offers have started to come as Jacksonville and Nebraska-Omaha are on board (how cool would a front line of Krych and Kratch sound?). More athletic than he looks and has shown the ability to swat shots. Expect his stock to rise during this period during a tough schedule in Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis.
Siyani Chambers - Howard Pulley Black
He's rebounded nicely after a tough start to the spring. He's a quality leader and has good basketball IQ. Will his size be an issue for high D1 schools? He has the ultimate platforms to show as he'll be at the Lebron James Skills Academy and the Peach Jam during the opening period.
Carson Shanks - MN Select White 16U
Ignoring the fact that its totally ridiculous that I at a hulking 5'3" am projecting results for a 7 footer, let's get a 2013 kid in here. The size and the potential have shown and he's played well recently, specifically at the Gopher Team Camp. Will get plenty of looks because you can't teach size. With a quality July, interest would skyrocket.
10 more to watch
Tyler Flack - MN Select White
Kyle Bauman - MN Select White
Isaiah Zierden - Howard Pulley Black
Zach Stahl - Howard Pulley Black
Wally Ellenson - MN Pump N Run
Sanjay Lumpkin - MN Pump N Run
Zach Huisken - SW MN Stars
Casey Schilling - Dakota Schoolers
Ater Mangyang - Net Gain Sports
Tyler Vaughan - MN Comets
Joey King - MN Southside
Maybe the player with the most pressure this July. He played well against SW MN Stars at the spring PNR Tourney and was up and down in Iowa. He gets a great opportunity in Milwaukee at the 1st NY2LA event. A win in pool play is a must and will propel them into the platinum bracket. This is the 1 month where his interest level will be crystalized.
Johnny Woodard - Net Gain Sports
Woodard starts his summer where it "ended" as Net Gain returns to Milwaukee to open July. When he last played before Memorial Day it was in Milwaukee where he injured a shoulder and was thought to be done. He's since been cleared and after the outstanding spring he had, it would have been a shame to see him sit out. He has the most college ready body in the class. Using that body, he's also demonstrated that he's as good a finisher as anyone in the class as he can take contact and still score. Continued quality play should have high majors after him.
Nate Kratch - 43 Hoops
Has been outstanding all spring for coach Al Harris and the D1 offers have started to come as Jacksonville and Nebraska-Omaha are on board (how cool would a front line of Krych and Kratch sound?). More athletic than he looks and has shown the ability to swat shots. Expect his stock to rise during this period during a tough schedule in Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis.
Siyani Chambers - Howard Pulley Black
He's rebounded nicely after a tough start to the spring. He's a quality leader and has good basketball IQ. Will his size be an issue for high D1 schools? He has the ultimate platforms to show as he'll be at the Lebron James Skills Academy and the Peach Jam during the opening period.
Carson Shanks - MN Select White 16U
Ignoring the fact that its totally ridiculous that I at a hulking 5'3" am projecting results for a 7 footer, let's get a 2013 kid in here. The size and the potential have shown and he's played well recently, specifically at the Gopher Team Camp. Will get plenty of looks because you can't teach size. With a quality July, interest would skyrocket.
10 more to watch
Tyler Flack - MN Select White
Kyle Bauman - MN Select White
Isaiah Zierden - Howard Pulley Black
Zach Stahl - Howard Pulley Black
Wally Ellenson - MN Pump N Run
Sanjay Lumpkin - MN Pump N Run
Zach Huisken - SW MN Stars
Casey Schilling - Dakota Schoolers
Ater Mangyang - Net Gain Sports
Tyler Vaughan - MN Comets
2011 July Period Opens
Its the 2011 July recruiting period. Teams off to the 4 winds, here's where you can find them in the 1st round of tournaments.
In Indianapolis, there are 2 events.
Hoosier Shootout (all of these teams except GetShook will then head to Kentucky)
MN Select (1 15u, both 16u, both 17u)
MN Glory (15U, 16U, 17U)
Team GetShook (17U)
MN Cyclones (14U)
Adidas Invitational
MN PNR all 3 teams superpooled (they'll then head home to play in their own tourney at the end of the 1st period)
43 Hoops 15s and 17s (then head to Chicago and Milwaukee)
MN Heat has teams Altena and Ogorek in the 16s
Duberry and Bui teams from the Heat are in the 17s
Magic Superfriends 17s
Many of our teams flock to Milwaukee for the Next Level Invitational (NY2LA).
Howard Pulley's top 15s in pooled with the loaded Ray Allen Select and IA Barnstormers teams
Grassroots, Comets Elite, Howard Pulley White, Heat Gardner and a 2nd Comets team also in the 15s.
Howard Pulley's top 16s also in a loaded pool. Top WI Playmakers team (won Comets tourney), top Kingdom Hoops and top Dakota Schoolers teams in the pool. Can we just move this pool to Minneapolis to be centrally located for everybody?
Top Comets 16s in a tough pool with SYF. Magic (assuming Black with Konner Goettsche et al) and Pulley White also in the 16s.
In the 17s, Southside in a loaded pool with Terry Porter Elite. SW MN Stars with the top WI Swing team that won the spring PNR tourney. Net Gain has the WI Playmakers and top Kingdom Hoops team in their pool.
A different Magic team, Heat Biwan, Grassroots, Comets Elite and Heat McDonald all are in the bracket as well.
Siyani Chambers and Tyus Jones will head to Akron for the prestigiousLebron James Skills Academy before heading off to the Peach Jam with the top Howard Pulley squad.
Coming tomorrow, MN players to watch in July
In Indianapolis, there are 2 events.
Hoosier Shootout (all of these teams except GetShook will then head to Kentucky)
MN Select (1 15u, both 16u, both 17u)
MN Glory (15U, 16U, 17U)
Team GetShook (17U)
MN Cyclones (14U)
Adidas Invitational
MN PNR all 3 teams superpooled (they'll then head home to play in their own tourney at the end of the 1st period)
43 Hoops 15s and 17s (then head to Chicago and Milwaukee)
MN Heat has teams Altena and Ogorek in the 16s
Duberry and Bui teams from the Heat are in the 17s
Magic Superfriends 17s
Many of our teams flock to Milwaukee for the Next Level Invitational (NY2LA).
Howard Pulley's top 15s in pooled with the loaded Ray Allen Select and IA Barnstormers teams
Grassroots, Comets Elite, Howard Pulley White, Heat Gardner and a 2nd Comets team also in the 15s.
Howard Pulley's top 16s also in a loaded pool. Top WI Playmakers team (won Comets tourney), top Kingdom Hoops and top Dakota Schoolers teams in the pool. Can we just move this pool to Minneapolis to be centrally located for everybody?
Top Comets 16s in a tough pool with SYF. Magic (assuming Black with Konner Goettsche et al) and Pulley White also in the 16s.
In the 17s, Southside in a loaded pool with Terry Porter Elite. SW MN Stars with the top WI Swing team that won the spring PNR tourney. Net Gain has the WI Playmakers and top Kingdom Hoops team in their pool.
A different Magic team, Heat Biwan, Grassroots, Comets Elite and Heat McDonald all are in the bracket as well.
Siyani Chambers and Tyus Jones will head to Akron for the prestigiousLebron James Skills Academy before heading off to the Peach Jam with the top Howard Pulley squad.
Coming tomorrow, MN players to watch in July
2011 Tuneup Weekend Preview
Its the end of June and that means it time to tuneup for the big July recruiting period that is just around the corner. For Minnesota teams that usually means a trip to the Dakota Showcase in Sioux Falls. But this year teams and D2 coaches will also be flocking to St. Cloud for the 2011 Great Plains Alliance Tournament. 12 teams each in the Platinum and Gold Divisions. If it wasn't for the Crown Prince being in town all weekend for the Brewers/Twins series, that's where I'd be. But here's what I would watch there and some comments on the Dakota Showcase.
In St. Cloud at the Whitney, Pool A should be dominated by the top Comets squad with Joe Burt and Tyler Vaughan. WI Force, 2nd ECI team and Heat Lesewski round out the pool. Heat Elite (possibly with Eric Robertson which would add much need athleticism) plays the top Select crew with Brady Wohler et al at 11:30 Friday morning for the top spot in pool B. Comets Seevers and EOTO Black (2nd team) round out that pool. Fury Blue, the top ECI team, and a pair of Comets teams round out the pool. Keep an eye on Daniel Yale from ECI and who knows if AJ Jacobsen will appear. Center Mike Schreiber has played well inside for Fury Blue recently and Marquealis Edwards and Tony Kuplic are 2 who can go off at anytime. I like Fury here but no walkovers vs Comets Stock or ECI in the pool
Quarterfinals are Friday night with the semifinals and championship early Saturday (10:20 and 12:40). I like the Pool B/Pool C 2nd place matchup in the quarters. Wouldn't surprise me to see Comets Hanson win it by taking out both of the top teams from Pool B (Heat, Select) on Saturday.
The Gold Bracket is a combination of 15s and 16s. The top Comets 16s and Nate Huot should handle Triple Threat, WOTN and ECI's 15s in pool A. 7:20 on Thursday features Carson Shanks and the top Select 16s taking on Nick Carroll's Fury Black 15s. Expect that to decide pool B. Last pool is wide open with ECI 16s, Fury White (3rd team), Team Flight (who?) and the top Comets 15s. Bracket play should turn out similar as I see Select's top team taking on the Comets top team with the home squad hanging on to win.
In Sioux Falls, 9 of the 24 teams are from Minnesota and the noteworthy ones are mostly 16U teams playing up. Fury Blue 16s play Ultimate Hoops 16s at 9 AM Friday in a very good pool matchup between 2 of the better 16U teams MN. Those teams have the Iowa Barnstormers team with James Harrington in their pool. MN Cagers and WOTN 17s are a pair of feisty squads in pool B. EOTO Gold (top team) has the Glory 16s in Pool C. Glory Elite highlights pool D. Anders Broman and Carey Woods coming off very good showings in Mankato last weekend. SW MN Stars with Cody Schilling and Zach Huisken are in pool E. WOTN 16s are in the final pool.
In St. Cloud at the Whitney, Pool A should be dominated by the top Comets squad with Joe Burt and Tyler Vaughan. WI Force, 2nd ECI team and Heat Lesewski round out the pool. Heat Elite (
Quarterfinals are Friday night with the semifinals and championship early Saturday (10:20 and 12:40). I like the Pool B/Pool C 2nd place matchup in the quarters. Wouldn't surprise me to see Comets Hanson win it by taking out both of the top teams from Pool B (Heat, Select) on Saturday.
The Gold Bracket is a combination of 15s and 16s. The top Comets 16s and Nate Huot should handle Triple Threat, WOTN and ECI's 15s in pool A. 7:20 on Thursday features Carson Shanks and the top Select 16s taking on Nick Carroll's Fury Black 15s. Expect that to decide pool B. Last pool is wide open with ECI 16s, Fury White (3rd team), Team Flight (who?) and the top Comets 15s. Bracket play should turn out similar as I see Select's top team taking on the Comets top team with the home squad hanging on to win.
In Sioux Falls, 9 of the 24 teams are from Minnesota and the noteworthy ones are mostly 16U teams playing up. Fury Blue 16s play Ultimate Hoops 16s at 9 AM Friday in a very good pool matchup between 2 of the better 16U teams MN. Those teams have the Iowa Barnstormers team with James Harrington in their pool. MN Cagers and WOTN 17s are a pair of feisty squads in pool B. EOTO Gold (top team) has the Glory 16s in Pool C. Glory Elite highlights pool D. Anders Broman and Carey Woods coming off very good showings in Mankato last weekend. SW MN Stars with Cody Schilling and Zach Huisken are in pool E. WOTN 16s are in the final pool.
2011 MYAS State Tourney Results
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2011 MYAS State
Due to my coaching & scorekeeping obligations with the Magic Black 14s (and the fact that the 14U and 15U brackets were at the South Pole, thank you MYAS), I only saw a little bit of the 15U bracket. Everything else was 14U ball. Without being too biased, the Magic Black buzzer beater win in OT over GetShook Black to win a pool in 14U was one of the better games of the weekend.
17U
Have to start with Johnson blowing out the Heat Biwan (high seed in the pool) in the opener and then winning the pool and stealing the 6 seed with a thrilling 64-63 win over WOTN. Heat Biwan 79-58 over WOTN and WOTN surprisingly didn't come out of the pool. The other big pool story was EOTO Gold taking out Comets Hanson 62-60 to win their pool and steal the 2nd seed. Great run on the weekend for EOTO Gold as they finish 4th. They lost 69-68 to Glory in the 3rd place game. Comets Hanson had a 60-58 win over Johnson in a bracket pigtail and had to come right back against a rested Southside squad. Southside 66-55 won that one. Glory in a bit of a shocker blows out Heat Elite 70-44 after Heat Elite had a bye. Fury Blue took out Glory by 21 in the semis and Southside by 19 to win the title.
16U
Fury Gold, Fury Blue, Ultimate Hoops, Heat Altena, and Dakota Pride all handled their pools. The 2nd Comets club was seeded 19th but upset Heat Ogorek 41-40 to win the pool and steal the 3rd seed. The MN Cagers once again battled a top team right to the end as they lost 65-64 to the top Comets team. Maybe that was an omen as 11th seeded Heat Reese upset the Comets 70-59 to steal the 6 seed. 9th seeded MN Raptors beat 8th seeded MN PNR 15s 47-46 to win the final pool. Ultimate Hoops knocked off the top 2 Heat teams before falling to Fury Gold in the semis. Heat Altena took out Comets Lewis before falling to Ultimate Hoops in the quarters. MN PNR 15s took out Dakota Pride 69-52 in the round of 16 which is a nice win for the PNR 15s. Fury Blue 66-52 over PNR in the quarters and then they overcome the Fury Gold curse with a 60-56 win in the title game. Ultimate Hoops def WOTN 47-44 to take 3rd place.
15U
In the 15s, the top 4 seeds all easily rolled through their pools. In the 5/8 battle in pool E, Chris Carr's 43 Hoops 15s got a free throw with 2.7 seconds left to beat Heat Frank 49-48 to win that pool. MN Warriors upset TC Force 58-51 to swap the 6 and 7 seeds. But the big story was 9th seeded Heat Weimar making a huge run in bracket play. Heat director Willie Vang taking the reins for bracket play and getting it done. They blew out 5th seed Heat Frank 53-35 in the pigtail game. Then upset top seeded MN Elite 45-42 and 8 seed 43 Hoops Carr 38-36 to advance to the final. 43 Hoops Carr beat Comets Stumpf 73-63 in the quarters. Heat Weimar lost the final 50-41 to Heat Select. Heat Select's road to the final included a 62-61 quarterfinal win over a Jon Sobaski led MN Bandits squad. The Bandits got a late layup from Sobaski to beat TC Force in their pigtail game. Then Heat Select had a semifinal rematch win 73-71 over Fury Black (I think that went 2 OT).
17U
Have to start with Johnson blowing out the Heat Biwan (high seed in the pool) in the opener and then winning the pool and stealing the 6 seed with a thrilling 64-63 win over WOTN. Heat Biwan 79-58 over WOTN and WOTN surprisingly didn't come out of the pool. The other big pool story was EOTO Gold taking out Comets Hanson 62-60 to win their pool and steal the 2nd seed. Great run on the weekend for EOTO Gold as they finish 4th. They lost 69-68 to Glory in the 3rd place game. Comets Hanson had a 60-58 win over Johnson in a bracket pigtail and had to come right back against a rested Southside squad. Southside 66-55 won that one. Glory in a bit of a shocker blows out Heat Elite 70-44 after Heat Elite had a bye. Fury Blue took out Glory by 21 in the semis and Southside by 19 to win the title.
16U
Fury Gold, Fury Blue, Ultimate Hoops, Heat Altena, and Dakota Pride all handled their pools. The 2nd Comets club was seeded 19th but upset Heat Ogorek 41-40 to win the pool and steal the 3rd seed. The MN Cagers once again battled a top team right to the end as they lost 65-64 to the top Comets team. Maybe that was an omen as 11th seeded Heat Reese upset the Comets 70-59 to steal the 6 seed. 9th seeded MN Raptors beat 8th seeded MN PNR 15s 47-46 to win the final pool. Ultimate Hoops knocked off the top 2 Heat teams before falling to Fury Gold in the semis. Heat Altena took out Comets Lewis before falling to Ultimate Hoops in the quarters. MN PNR 15s took out Dakota Pride 69-52 in the round of 16 which is a nice win for the PNR 15s. Fury Blue 66-52 over PNR in the quarters and then they overcome the Fury Gold curse with a 60-56 win in the title game. Ultimate Hoops def WOTN 47-44 to take 3rd place.
15U
In the 15s, the top 4 seeds all easily rolled through their pools. In the 5/8 battle in pool E, Chris Carr's 43 Hoops 15s got a free throw with 2.7 seconds left to beat Heat Frank 49-48 to win that pool. MN Warriors upset TC Force 58-51 to swap the 6 and 7 seeds. But the big story was 9th seeded Heat Weimar making a huge run in bracket play. Heat director Willie Vang taking the reins for bracket play and getting it done. They blew out 5th seed Heat Frank 53-35 in the pigtail game. Then upset top seeded MN Elite 45-42 and 8 seed 43 Hoops Carr 38-36 to advance to the final. 43 Hoops Carr beat Comets Stumpf 73-63 in the quarters. Heat Weimar lost the final 50-41 to Heat Select. Heat Select's road to the final included a 62-61 quarterfinal win over a Jon Sobaski led MN Bandits squad. The Bandits got a late layup from Sobaski to beat TC Force in their pigtail game. Then Heat Select had a semifinal rematch win 73-71 over Fury Black (I think that went 2 OT).
2011 MYAS State Tourney Preview
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2011 MYAS State
This weekend is the last big event of the spring portion of the AAU season as MYAS holds their state championships. With AAU crumbling away this year, MYAS has the weekend all alone. The tournament format is seeded but teams will play pool play before moving into the bracket.
The schedule for the weekend can be found here. 16U and 17U games are at Hopkins. 14U and 15U games are at Lakeville South.
17U
The best news is that MYAS decieded to combine 11th/12th grade this year after 2 years of forfeits in the championship game due to using seniors. The field doesn't have the cream of the crop (HP, 43, PNR or Net Gain) but still has 4 noteworthy teams competing and they received the top 4 seeds. That's Fury Blue, Comets Elite, Southside and Heat Elite in seed order. Watch out for the 7th and 8th seeds WOTN and Comets Stock. Heat Duberry comes in with the dangerous 12th seed. But the most dangerous low seed I'm watching is #19 seed Johnson who should have Marcus Marshall with them.
Fury Blue has Heat Duberry in pool A. EOTO Gold is the 14 seed and they're in with Comets Elite in Pool B. Southside should have no problems in pool C. Heat Elite has 16 seed Comets Seevers in their pool in a rematch from earlier in the season. Riley Mickleson vs Dave Simmet inside gives me another chance to use the irresistible force vs immovable object cliche. Pool F is winnable for WOTN but I'll take Johnson to win it. Pool E is the most wide open with Comets Stock and 5th seeded Glory in the pool. Triple Threat is down this year but they can still be dangerous in this pool.
The top 4 seeds will receive 1st round byes if they win their pools. All 2nd place teams and the winners of pools E and F will play in the 4 pigtail games. Southside ends up with the toughest bracket draw in my opinion. I see them having to go through Johnson (or WOTN), Comets Elite and either top Fury or top Heat to win the entire thing. My pick: Comets Elite
16U
Now the fun begins as this bracket is absolutely loaded (and not just with 6 of 24 teams being from the Heat). Fury Gold and Fury Blue received the top 2 seeds. Ultimate Hoops got the 4, Comets Elite the 6, PNR tourney runner up Dakota Pride only got a 7 (will AJ Jacobsen appear?) and lurking as a very very dangerous 8 seed are the MN PNR 15s. If the 15 seeded 43 Hoops group is the Nick Anderson team then that's a very dangerous team as well. They draw Fury Blue in pool play. John Sherman's Magic Black crew is the 13th seed and they should have a good one with Ultimate Hoops in pool play. Does Greg Wesley go back to them for the weekend? If not, Nick O'Hara, Konner Goettsche and Collin Host still give the Magic plenty to work with. But I think the top 8 seeds all win their pools. That means a quarterfinal bracket that is outstanding. Fury Gold vs MN PNR (wow), Ultimate Hoops vs Heat Altena, Fury Blue vs Dakota Pride (wow) and Heat Ogorek vs Comets Elite. The winners of the WOW games move to the final with tough wins and any combination would be outstanding. Though I'm sure Fury Blue would love another shot at Fury Gold (0-2 this season vs them, Fury Gold is 30-3 and no losses in state this season). I won't bet against Fury Gold.
15U
This bracket misses out with the MN PNR 15s playing up, but it still is outstanding with 5 top teams in the bracket. MN Elite earned the 1 seed. Heat Select, Fury Black and Comets Elite are 2-4. Some real sleepers right behind them though with Heat Frank, TC Force and 43 Hoops Carr at 5,6 and 8. No problems for the top 4 seeds getting through. Heat Frank vs 43 Hoops Carr will decide pool E in an entertaining game. 43 Hoops was runner up to the loaded Ray Allen Select squad at the NY2LA event 2 weeks ago. TC Force is my pick in pool F (largely East Ridge kids who played well at Sabes).
Comets Elite vs 43 Hoops Carr sticks out in the quarterfinals with the winner likely playing MN Elite in 1 very good semifinal. That sets up Heat Select vs Fury Black on the other side of the bracket. These teams went to a buzzer beating thrilling finish in their last meeting in the semifinals of the Fury tournament 2 weeks ago. Andre Wallace bank fade 3 from 25 feet after 3/4 court pass at the buzzer to win it in OT for the Heat. That was after the Heat gave up an 18 point lead. Such a tough bracket to pick as I think you could throw the top 4 seeds and 43 Hoops in a hat and come out with a quality pick. Since the teams have met up so often this season, I'll take MN Elite over Heat Select in a close final.
The schedule for the weekend can be found here. 16U and 17U games are at Hopkins. 14U and 15U games are at Lakeville South.
17U
The best news is that MYAS decieded to combine 11th/12th grade this year after 2 years of forfeits in the championship game due to using seniors. The field doesn't have the cream of the crop (HP, 43, PNR or Net Gain) but still has 4 noteworthy teams competing and they received the top 4 seeds. That's Fury Blue, Comets Elite, Southside and Heat Elite in seed order. Watch out for the 7th and 8th seeds WOTN and Comets Stock. Heat Duberry comes in with the dangerous 12th seed. But the most dangerous low seed I'm watching is #19 seed Johnson who should have Marcus Marshall with them.
Fury Blue has Heat Duberry in pool A. EOTO Gold is the 14 seed and they're in with Comets Elite in Pool B. Southside should have no problems in pool C. Heat Elite has 16 seed Comets Seevers in their pool in a rematch from earlier in the season. Riley Mickleson vs Dave Simmet inside gives me another chance to use the irresistible force vs immovable object cliche. Pool F is winnable for WOTN but I'll take Johnson to win it. Pool E is the most wide open with Comets Stock and 5th seeded Glory in the pool. Triple Threat is down this year but they can still be dangerous in this pool.
The top 4 seeds will receive 1st round byes if they win their pools. All 2nd place teams and the winners of pools E and F will play in the 4 pigtail games. Southside ends up with the toughest bracket draw in my opinion. I see them having to go through Johnson (or WOTN), Comets Elite and either top Fury or top Heat to win the entire thing. My pick: Comets Elite
16U
Now the fun begins as this bracket is absolutely loaded (and not just with 6 of 24 teams being from the Heat). Fury Gold and Fury Blue received the top 2 seeds. Ultimate Hoops got the 4, Comets Elite the 6, PNR tourney runner up Dakota Pride only got a 7 (will AJ Jacobsen appear?) and lurking as a very very dangerous 8 seed are the MN PNR 15s. If the 15 seeded 43 Hoops group is the Nick Anderson team then that's a very dangerous team as well. They draw Fury Blue in pool play. John Sherman's Magic Black crew is the 13th seed and they should have a good one with Ultimate Hoops in pool play. Does Greg Wesley go back to them for the weekend? If not, Nick O'Hara, Konner Goettsche and Collin Host still give the Magic plenty to work with. But I think the top 8 seeds all win their pools. That means a quarterfinal bracket that is outstanding. Fury Gold vs MN PNR (wow), Ultimate Hoops vs Heat Altena, Fury Blue vs Dakota Pride (wow) and Heat Ogorek vs Comets Elite. The winners of the WOW games move to the final with tough wins and any combination would be outstanding. Though I'm sure Fury Blue would love another shot at Fury Gold (0-2 this season vs them, Fury Gold is 30-3 and no losses in state this season). I won't bet against Fury Gold.
15U
This bracket misses out with the MN PNR 15s playing up, but it still is outstanding with 5 top teams in the bracket. MN Elite earned the 1 seed. Heat Select, Fury Black and Comets Elite are 2-4. Some real sleepers right behind them though with Heat Frank, TC Force and 43 Hoops Carr at 5,6 and 8. No problems for the top 4 seeds getting through. Heat Frank vs 43 Hoops Carr will decide pool E in an entertaining game. 43 Hoops was runner up to the loaded Ray Allen Select squad at the NY2LA event 2 weeks ago. TC Force is my pick in pool F (largely East Ridge kids who played well at Sabes).
Comets Elite vs 43 Hoops Carr sticks out in the quarterfinals with the winner likely playing MN Elite in 1 very good semifinal. That sets up Heat Select vs Fury Black on the other side of the bracket. These teams went to a buzzer beating thrilling finish in their last meeting in the semifinals of the Fury tournament 2 weeks ago. Andre Wallace bank fade 3 from 25 feet after 3/4 court pass at the buzzer to win it in OT for the Heat. That was after the Heat gave up an 18 point lead. Such a tough bracket to pick as I think you could throw the top 4 seeds and 43 Hoops in a hat and come out with a quality pick. Since the teams have met up so often this season, I'll take MN Elite over Heat Select in a close final.
A Furious Weekend
Its the 2011 Minnesota Fury Shootout. The 14U squad that I help out with was in action all weekend so I didn't get a chance to take in much else, but I still had plenty to see in that short time. Combine that with Walking Tacos all weekend (4 in total) and it was a fine weekend. I even showed restraint by resisting the Domino's Pizza all weekend. Tough call.
Saturday
The unknown MN Cagers squad took on the Dakota Pride in a 16U pool game on Saturday morning. While it was a downpour outside, the Cagers took it to the Pride inside to the tune of a 10 point second half lead. The Pride recovered to force overtime and then knocked down a buzzer beater to win 53-51.
Other tidbits from the 17U games over at Eastview saw Freddie Young (formerly of Brooklyn Center then prep school last year) return to the metro to join Grassroots. Darrion Strong has also joined them moving over from the PNR 16s.
Then its back to Eagan for the rest of my weekend. The 15s didn't disappoint. Nick Carroll's Fury Black cardiac kids again entertaining. They came from 16 or 18 down in the last 5:30 against MN Elite to win a super pool game. Fury got the tie with 30 seconds left then forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass. They held for 1 and Wheeler Baker got loose in the lane for the game winner with 2.6 left. 58-56 Fury Black wins a thriller. That's after MN Elite put a real hurting on them in the quarters of the PNR tournament a month ago. Then its to the dungeon (back sport court at Eagan) where Heat Select lost a super pool game to the Comets 61-59 on a Christian Pekarek 3 at the buzzer.
Sunday
MN Elite got some entertainment in the quarterfinals as the Heat team they were playing had their coach tossed late in the first half. They held off the top Comets squad (having a very good year) in the semis and took out Heat Select for the 15U title. But its the Heat Select vs Fury Black game in the semis that proved to be another thriller. Fury Black gets down big again but rallies back in the last minute to force overtime. In the OT, Heat Select misses a free throw for the lead. Fury pushes the ball back and Heat tries to take a charge. Its a blocking call 25-30 feet away from the basket with 1 second left and Fury is in the double bonus. Oh my. 1st FT is no good but the 2nd is up and in for a 75-74 Fury Black lead. Time out Heat. Out of the time out, Eden Prairie's Andre Wallace channels Christian Laettner as he gets the 3/4 court pass and banks in a turnaround 3 from about 25 feet on the right wing at the buzzer to win it. Holy Cow! Fury Gold took out Fury Blue again to win the 16s title. Would have loved to see that Fury Gold team play in Denver. Fury Blue 17s took out Grassroots to win the 17s title.
The Czar's 14s
Now its time for a Point of Personal Privilege. No that's not the boot in the backside that many of us would like to give the MN Legislature today. Most of my weekend was spent eating walking tacos between the games of the Magic Black 14u team that I help coach. We had the lead most of the way on Friday night vs the MN Warriors, that's Rosemount head coach Brian Schnettler and his young guys, but gave away a 6 point lead in the last minute and lost by 2. Give the Warriors credit for making us pay with 8 points for the 4 late game mistakes. Interesting note that the game started out with 1 referee for the 1st 6 minutes. Thank you traffic. We bounced back on Saturday afternoon with a 39 point win over the MN Suns to move on to the 6 team title bracket on Sunday.
After trailing by 7 at the half to the MN Crush, we came back to win by 10. A tale of 2 halves in that one. The Crush squad had already faced tourney pressure earlier in the day by winning with points in the 8 AM game to make the bracket. That Crush crew has a talented Burnsville kid that you'll hear more about down the line. In the semifinals, we defeated Grassroots by about 20 to earn a rematch with the MN Warriors. After I forgot to put the numbers in the official book (DOH!), the kids responded by jumping out to a 27-10 lead, up 20 at the half and we go on to win the 14s title 54-30. We played the Sunday games without one of our top kids. We've now won 9 out of 10 to improve to 14-7 on the year. 5-1 with me actually on the bench, thank you very much. 2 really tough losses when I'm keeping book though, including Friday night and a 20 foot loose ball heave at the buzzer against Magic White at the Magic Tourney last month. Disturbing trend there. That said it has been an entirely local schedule. After playing the last 4 weekends, its a much deserved and needed weekend off before playing MYAS state in 2 weeks.
Saturday
The unknown MN Cagers squad took on the Dakota Pride in a 16U pool game on Saturday morning. While it was a downpour outside, the Cagers took it to the Pride inside to the tune of a 10 point second half lead. The Pride recovered to force overtime and then knocked down a buzzer beater to win 53-51.
Other tidbits from the 17U games over at Eastview saw Freddie Young (formerly of Brooklyn Center then prep school last year) return to the metro to join Grassroots. Darrion Strong has also joined them moving over from the PNR 16s.
Then its back to Eagan for the rest of my weekend. The 15s didn't disappoint. Nick Carroll's Fury Black cardiac kids again entertaining. They came from 16 or 18 down in the last 5:30 against MN Elite to win a super pool game. Fury got the tie with 30 seconds left then forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass. They held for 1 and Wheeler Baker got loose in the lane for the game winner with 2.6 left. 58-56 Fury Black wins a thriller. That's after MN Elite put a real hurting on them in the quarters of the PNR tournament a month ago. Then its to the dungeon (back sport court at Eagan) where Heat Select lost a super pool game to the Comets 61-59 on a Christian Pekarek 3 at the buzzer.
Sunday
MN Elite got some entertainment in the quarterfinals as the Heat team they were playing had their coach tossed late in the first half. They held off the top Comets squad (having a very good year) in the semis and took out Heat Select for the 15U title. But its the Heat Select vs Fury Black game in the semis that proved to be another thriller. Fury Black gets down big again but rallies back in the last minute to force overtime. In the OT, Heat Select misses a free throw for the lead. Fury pushes the ball back and Heat tries to take a charge. Its a blocking call 25-30 feet away from the basket with 1 second left and Fury is in the double bonus. Oh my. 1st FT is no good but the 2nd is up and in for a 75-74 Fury Black lead. Time out Heat. Out of the time out, Eden Prairie's Andre Wallace channels Christian Laettner as he gets the 3/4 court pass and banks in a turnaround 3 from about 25 feet on the right wing at the buzzer to win it. Holy Cow! Fury Gold took out Fury Blue again to win the 16s title. Would have loved to see that Fury Gold team play in Denver. Fury Blue 17s took out Grassroots to win the 17s title.
The Czar's 14s
Now its time for a Point of Personal Privilege. No that's not the boot in the backside that many of us would like to give the MN Legislature today. Most of my weekend was spent eating walking tacos between the games of the Magic Black 14u team that I help coach. We had the lead most of the way on Friday night vs the MN Warriors, that's Rosemount head coach Brian Schnettler and his young guys, but gave away a 6 point lead in the last minute and lost by 2. Give the Warriors credit for making us pay with 8 points for the 4 late game mistakes. Interesting note that the game started out with 1 referee for the 1st 6 minutes. Thank you traffic. We bounced back on Saturday afternoon with a 39 point win over the MN Suns to move on to the 6 team title bracket on Sunday.
After trailing by 7 at the half to the MN Crush, we came back to win by 10. A tale of 2 halves in that one. The Crush squad had already faced tourney pressure earlier in the day by winning with points in the 8 AM game to make the bracket. That Crush crew has a talented Burnsville kid that you'll hear more about down the line. In the semifinals, we defeated Grassroots by about 20 to earn a rematch with the MN Warriors. After I forgot to put the numbers in the official book (DOH!), the kids responded by jumping out to a 27-10 lead, up 20 at the half and we go on to win the 14s title 54-30. We played the Sunday games without one of our top kids. We've now won 9 out of 10 to improve to 14-7 on the year. 5-1 with me actually on the bench, thank you very much. 2 really tough losses when I'm keeping book though, including Friday night and a 20 foot loose ball heave at the buzzer against Magic White at the Magic Tourney last month. Disturbing trend there. That said it has been an entirely local schedule. After playing the last 4 weekends, its a much deserved and needed weekend off before playing MYAS state in 2 weeks.
On the road in Iowa
Minnesota made its biggest road trip of the year by walking, running, or dancing its way south to the Kings of the Court tourney in Des Moines. Not only teams but tons of local referees made the trip for this tourney that used 13 different buildings. Unlike the Texas Lightning 8th graders, I didn't travel coach in my own bus. I was also fortunate not to be eaten by the life size polar bear in the lobby of Des Moines North High School. Speaking of food, a nice variety week with stuffed french toast at IHOP, Outback and a pulled pork sandwich at the outstanding Kingdom Hoops facility which runs circles around (Not so) High Performance Academy. 5 nice hardwood courts with 1 sportcourt. Here's some of the sights from my weekend.
Friday Night
A late afternoon departure but the day starts with a bang. MN Heat Weimar 15s give up a wild 3 at the buzzer to Kingdom Hoops II to go to OT. Then Kingdom holds for the entire OT and scores with 4.3 seconds left to win 52-50 in OT. Howard Pulley's top 15s took out IA Pump N Run 2 52-34. Then my technology goes haywire on me and I'm ready to make a clay pigeon out of it so live updates for the rest of the night are ruined. Its off to see the end of the PNR 17s with Ian Theisen (16s off) as they win 64-27 over IA Central Elite. Glory 16s beat Kingdom Hoops 2 54-47. Heat Elite 17s win 69-55 over IA Mavericks Wilson. Magic Superfriends run away from Heat Lesewski in the second half.
Saturday Pool Play
The day starts with a look at the start of the Iowa State AAU Tournament. The top All Iowa Attack team with D1 stars Adam Woodbury, Mike Gesell, and Kyle Abrahamson (all top 150 kids). They played without star PG Marcus Paige and still won 77-27. Iowa Barnstormers were up 30 in their game before it became unwatchable. Then its next door to Des Moines North and greeted by the life size stuffed polar bear in the lobby. Heat Elite 17s beat EOTO Black 68-36. EOTO Gold with Evan Battle lost by 7 to the Omaha Crusaders. Then the PNR 15s started off 34-0 and blew out IA Magic 85-11. Henry Ellenson 24 points. Down 30-0 and Magic airballed a free throw, just 1 of those days. Glory 16s also blown out. Heat Ogorek 16s hung around with top Mokan squad until last 10 minutes and lost by 25. Pulley White 17s with Siyani Chambers and Quinton Hooker won their pool with a 96-53 win. Southside pounded the ball inside and beat ECI Select to win their pool. Joey King 18 in the first half of that one.
Saturday Bracket Play
Then one of the best games I saw on the weekend as Fury Black 15s came from 10 down in the second half and beat Kingdom Hoops I 55-54. Kingdom Hoops played without Jay Knuth (maybe top frosh in IA) who was injured last week at Sabes. MN PNR 15s got off to a quick lead and beat MN Elite by 12 in the first round. Heat Select 15s also won to setup the matchup with PNR. MN Ballers (replacement for 43 Hoops who played 17s at Select tourney) and Ultimate Hoops both win to force a quarterfinal matchup. Fury Blue 16s made a late run and almost came from 8 down late but lost 51-48 to Kingdom Hoops 1. HP White 17s come from 3 down in last minute to beat Magic Superfriends 63-61. Heat Elite 17s lost to ECI Prospects 76-75 on an AJ Jacobsen buzzer beater. PNR 17s were 1 down at half before beating the Iowa Barnstormers 69-51 (no James Harrington for Stormers). The day ends with a really fun 14u game between Alex Illikainen's MN Cyclones and Texas Lightning. Have to love an 8th grade team with their own decked out tour bus. 30-29 Cyclones at half but Lightning with a 38-35 lead late before Illikainen comes up with a great high low post feed for a layup, his own post move, 1 free throw and puts back the miss on the 2nd. Kobe Critchley 4-4 FTs to seal the 49-44 win. The day ends with the top brackets filled with Minnesota teams. 4 teams in 15u, 3 in 16u and 3 in 17u.
Sunday Bracket Play
MN Fury Black and MN Heat Select both get blown out in the quarters. MN PNR in a surprise thrashing took out Heat Select 61-28. Heat with no answers for a 3-2 zone. Mokan Red took out Fury 57-37. Trailblazers took out MN Heat Frank. Ultimate Hoops took out the MN Ballers 60-46 in the 16u quarters. HP 16 Black took out Kingdom Hoops 1 50-48 in overtime in the quarters in a very entertaining game. Kingdom Hoops using 3 fouls to give at the end of regulation and then smartly not using the 4th as Pulley put up a prayer at the regulation buzzer. Joey King in foul trouble but Southside pulls away and beat ECI Prospects 72-59 in the 17 quarters. HP 17 White took out Prime Time 84-61 in another 17U quarter. Then Southside took on PNR in the semis. An 18-4 run gave PNR a 35-25 lead that was cut to 4 but a late 12-0 run gave the Pumps 58-44 win. Kingdom Hoops I came up clutch against HP White 17s to win 76-69. Lots of missed free throws both ways down the stretch in that one. In the silver bracket Heat Ogorek and Heat Altena (top 2 MN Heat 16u teams) played an intense game with Heat Ogorek hanging on 40-36 to win their half of the Silver bracket (2nd place pool finishers)
Titles
Kingdom Hoops defeated MN PNR 76-59 to win the 17s. All Iowa Attack Moore with Peter Jok defeated Howard Pulley 16 Black 56-51 for the 16U title. MN PNR took out the other Mokan team in the 15s 47-42 to win the 15u title. Net Gain defeated MN Cyclones 47-38 to win the 14U title.
Players that caught my eye
Tyson Kalien - Magic Superfriends. He shot the lights out against Heat Lesewski and played well against Pulley.
Justin Pahl - Heat Elite 17s. 10 3s in 2 pool games including 6 3s and 29 points in their 2nd pool game. He also had 18 points and 4 3s in their opener.
AJ Jacobsen - ECI Prospects. He nailed a buzzer beater to knock Heat Elite 17s out of the 1st round. Then he put the Prospects on his back in the first half against Southside with Joey King in foul trouble. Prospects played without their other star Daniel Yale.
Wally Ellenson - MN PNR 17s. He was the lightning rod during the 18-4 run that put PNR over the time against Southside as he got the rim and was able to finish at will.
Latrell Love - Southside. Not the biggest or most mobile post player you'll see but you can't help but notice that he's very productive and finds ways to score.
Dexter Werner - ECI Prospects. The big man from Bismarck had a great battle with Joey King inside and more than held his own rejecting King on more than 1 occassion. He had the flop of the tourney guarding King in the post and drawing the charge.
Friday Night
A late afternoon departure but the day starts with a bang. MN Heat Weimar 15s give up a wild 3 at the buzzer to Kingdom Hoops II to go to OT. Then Kingdom holds for the entire OT and scores with 4.3 seconds left to win 52-50 in OT. Howard Pulley's top 15s took out IA Pump N Run 2 52-34. Then my technology goes haywire on me and I'm ready to make a clay pigeon out of it so live updates for the rest of the night are ruined. Its off to see the end of the PNR 17s with Ian Theisen (16s off) as they win 64-27 over IA Central Elite. Glory 16s beat Kingdom Hoops 2 54-47. Heat Elite 17s win 69-55 over IA Mavericks Wilson. Magic Superfriends run away from Heat Lesewski in the second half.
Saturday Pool Play
The day starts with a look at the start of the Iowa State AAU Tournament. The top All Iowa Attack team with D1 stars Adam Woodbury, Mike Gesell, and Kyle Abrahamson (all top 150 kids). They played without star PG Marcus Paige and still won 77-27. Iowa Barnstormers were up 30 in their game before it became unwatchable. Then its next door to Des Moines North and greeted by the life size stuffed polar bear in the lobby. Heat Elite 17s beat EOTO Black 68-36. EOTO Gold with Evan Battle lost by 7 to the Omaha Crusaders. Then the PNR 15s started off 34-0 and blew out IA Magic 85-11. Henry Ellenson 24 points. Down 30-0 and Magic airballed a free throw, just 1 of those days. Glory 16s also blown out. Heat Ogorek 16s hung around with top Mokan squad until last 10 minutes and lost by 25. Pulley White 17s with Siyani Chambers and Quinton Hooker won their pool with a 96-53 win. Southside pounded the ball inside and beat ECI Select to win their pool. Joey King 18 in the first half of that one.
Saturday Bracket Play
Then one of the best games I saw on the weekend as Fury Black 15s came from 10 down in the second half and beat Kingdom Hoops I 55-54. Kingdom Hoops played without Jay Knuth (maybe top frosh in IA) who was injured last week at Sabes. MN PNR 15s got off to a quick lead and beat MN Elite by 12 in the first round. Heat Select 15s also won to setup the matchup with PNR. MN Ballers (replacement for 43 Hoops who played 17s at Select tourney) and Ultimate Hoops both win to force a quarterfinal matchup. Fury Blue 16s made a late run and almost came from 8 down late but lost 51-48 to Kingdom Hoops 1. HP White 17s come from 3 down in last minute to beat Magic Superfriends 63-61. Heat Elite 17s lost to ECI Prospects 76-75 on an AJ Jacobsen buzzer beater. PNR 17s were 1 down at half before beating the Iowa Barnstormers 69-51 (no James Harrington for Stormers). The day ends with a really fun 14u game between Alex Illikainen's MN Cyclones and Texas Lightning. Have to love an 8th grade team with their own decked out tour bus. 30-29 Cyclones at half but Lightning with a 38-35 lead late before Illikainen comes up with a great high low post feed for a layup, his own post move, 1 free throw and puts back the miss on the 2nd. Kobe Critchley 4-4 FTs to seal the 49-44 win. The day ends with the top brackets filled with Minnesota teams. 4 teams in 15u, 3 in 16u and 3 in 17u.
Sunday Bracket Play
MN Fury Black and MN Heat Select both get blown out in the quarters. MN PNR in a surprise thrashing took out Heat Select 61-28. Heat with no answers for a 3-2 zone. Mokan Red took out Fury 57-37. Trailblazers took out MN Heat Frank. Ultimate Hoops took out the MN Ballers 60-46 in the 16u quarters. HP 16 Black took out Kingdom Hoops 1 50-48 in overtime in the quarters in a very entertaining game. Kingdom Hoops using 3 fouls to give at the end of regulation and then smartly not using the 4th as Pulley put up a prayer at the regulation buzzer. Joey King in foul trouble but Southside pulls away and beat ECI Prospects 72-59 in the 17 quarters. HP 17 White took out Prime Time 84-61 in another 17U quarter. Then Southside took on PNR in the semis. An 18-4 run gave PNR a 35-25 lead that was cut to 4 but a late 12-0 run gave the Pumps 58-44 win. Kingdom Hoops I came up clutch against HP White 17s to win 76-69. Lots of missed free throws both ways down the stretch in that one. In the silver bracket Heat Ogorek and Heat Altena (top 2 MN Heat 16u teams) played an intense game with Heat Ogorek hanging on 40-36 to win their half of the Silver bracket (2nd place pool finishers)
Titles
Kingdom Hoops defeated MN PNR 76-59 to win the 17s. All Iowa Attack Moore with Peter Jok defeated Howard Pulley 16 Black 56-51 for the 16U title. MN PNR took out the other Mokan team in the 15s 47-42 to win the 15u title. Net Gain defeated MN Cyclones 47-38 to win the 14U title.
Players that caught my eye
Tyson Kalien - Magic Superfriends. He shot the lights out against Heat Lesewski and played well against Pulley.
Justin Pahl - Heat Elite 17s. 10 3s in 2 pool games including 6 3s and 29 points in their 2nd pool game. He also had 18 points and 4 3s in their opener.
AJ Jacobsen - ECI Prospects. He nailed a buzzer beater to knock Heat Elite 17s out of the 1st round. Then he put the Prospects on his back in the first half against Southside with Joey King in foul trouble. Prospects played without their other star Daniel Yale.
Wally Ellenson - MN PNR 17s. He was the lightning rod during the 18-4 run that put PNR over the time against Southside as he got the rim and was able to finish at will.
Latrell Love - Southside. Not the biggest or most mobile post player you'll see but you can't help but notice that he's very productive and finds ways to score.
Dexter Werner - ECI Prospects. The big man from Bismarck had a great battle with Joey King inside and more than held his own rejecting King on more than 1 occassion. He had the flop of the tourney guarding King in the post and drawing the charge.
Some local conference shuffling
For 2011-12, there's been plenty of talk about the new Granite Ridge Conference but locally I'm seeing some realignment as well. Let's line up the dominoes.
First, Providence Academy moves over to the Tri-Metro from the MCAA. Size wise this makes sense as Providence has been growing like a weed. Makes for some very entertaining DLS vs Providence girls games too. That fills out the Tri-Metro at 12 teams with the same divisional scheduling they've done in the past. Providence is the western most school so somebody has to move to the east division. St. Paul Academy is the pick (very logical) making the league look like this.
West: Blake, Breck, Brooklyn Center, De La Salle, Minnehaha and Providence
East: Concordia, Mounds Park, St. Agnes, St. Anthony, St. Croix Lutheran and St. Paul Academy
That leaves the MCAA at 9 teams. I'm reading that the MCAA changed their bylaws last year to allow non-christian schools. Lester Prairie was placed in the league by the MSHSL after being denied by the MCAA so that doesn't quite count. They combined athletics with existing MCAA member Holy Trinity after entering the league if I remember correctly. It appears PACT saw that, reapplied for membership (previously denied under the old bylaw) and was admitted as the 10th team. That makes since since PACT played almost a full MCAA schedule anyway and is similar size and location. Traditionally the MCAA schedule has 1 game against each team and then the conference tourney. Now it appears they've broken the mold and will play a 13 game divisional schedule. With the league schedule ending in mid-February, it looks like the tournament could still be played and be done in time for Bethany and SW Christian to still start early state tournament play.
North: Maranatha, Legacy, West Lutheran, Heritage and PACT
South: New Life, Bethany, Trinity, Southwest Christian and Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity
Sad thing about these moves is that the annual Heritage vs Providence trophy game appears to be off the schedule.
It also appears that there will be a new Metro Charter Conference playing in 2011-12. Think back to the days of the old Metro Lakes Conference before it dissolved and some of the schools ended up in the EMAC. Prairie Seeds Academy, Minnesota Transitions, FAIR Downtown, St. Croix Prep (new to the varsity scene this year, played JV schedule last year), Math and Science Academy and a couple more that are escaping me (e.g Spectrum and Four Directions).
First, Providence Academy moves over to the Tri-Metro from the MCAA. Size wise this makes sense as Providence has been growing like a weed. Makes for some very entertaining DLS vs Providence girls games too. That fills out the Tri-Metro at 12 teams with the same divisional scheduling they've done in the past. Providence is the western most school so somebody has to move to the east division. St. Paul Academy is the pick (very logical) making the league look like this.
West: Blake, Breck, Brooklyn Center, De La Salle, Minnehaha and Providence
East: Concordia, Mounds Park, St. Agnes, St. Anthony, St. Croix Lutheran and St. Paul Academy
That leaves the MCAA at 9 teams. I'm reading that the MCAA changed their bylaws last year to allow non-christian schools. Lester Prairie was placed in the league by the MSHSL after being denied by the MCAA so that doesn't quite count. They combined athletics with existing MCAA member Holy Trinity after entering the league if I remember correctly. It appears PACT saw that, reapplied for membership (previously denied under the old bylaw) and was admitted as the 10th team. That makes since since PACT played almost a full MCAA schedule anyway and is similar size and location. Traditionally the MCAA schedule has 1 game against each team and then the conference tourney. Now it appears they've broken the mold and will play a 13 game divisional schedule. With the league schedule ending in mid-February, it looks like the tournament could still be played and be done in time for Bethany and SW Christian to still start early state tournament play.
North: Maranatha, Legacy, West Lutheran, Heritage and PACT
South: New Life, Bethany, Trinity, Southwest Christian and Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity
Sad thing about these moves is that the annual Heritage vs Providence trophy game appears to be off the schedule.
It also appears that there will be a new Metro Charter Conference playing in 2011-12. Think back to the days of the old Metro Lakes Conference before it dissolved and some of the schools ended up in the EMAC. Prairie Seeds Academy, Minnesota Transitions, FAIR Downtown, St. Croix Prep (new to the varsity scene this year, played JV schedule last year), Math and Science Academy and a couple more that are escaping me (e.g Spectrum and Four Directions).
2011 Sabes Tourney weekend recap
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2011 Sabes Invitational
The longest weekend of the year has concluded with the completion of the 2011 Sabes Invitational and 2011 Meg Vang/Minnesota Heat Tournament. I had a chance to visit both tournaments, I'll add some of what I saw, but first some of the odd.
I had 3 separate times where a player saw an unoccupied trainers station and me in the vicinity with my press pass on and asked me if I was a trainer. That included Hopkins' Zach Stahl asking if I could tape his ankle. LOL! So to all of you, no I'm not a trainer and no I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, though it would have been tempting as late as we went. No, the Emperor can't do it either despite being a highly trained medical professional.
Tried to hit Jimmy John's for lunch on Saturday and they were out of bread. That's like a bank being out of money. So it ended up being replaced with double set of fries and extra grease on the double cheeseburger at McDonalds. Not good for the Czar's ever expanding waistline.
As to the High Performance Academy facility, 2 back courts have sideline against the wall, 1 other court has a cage about a foot off the end line. Only 2 baskets per court which isn't great for practice purposes if you want to do stations or anything like that. A major mistake in the scheduling of officials in this one by having the officials move from court to court. That means that if their game gets behind they also hold up the next game that they're going to officiate. That meant that the late game Saturday night didn't start until around 10:45 PM instead of the scheduled 10:10 time. Teams get a break and move court to court, no need to move the refs around. 11:35 PM and game still had 12 minutes left. Winner had to come back at 9:10 AM, that's a bit much.
Heat Tourney
We'll start simple with the 16U and 17U finals late Sunday at Bethel after completion of the Sabes. I was hoping for pizza after a long day but no such luck. WOTN took on 43 Hoops in the final. 43 Hoops impressive in the tourney blowing out MN Southside by 30 in the semis and then taking a 22 point halftime lead in the title game before winning the championship 53-31. 7 triples in the first half for 43 Hoops, 3 from Sean Scott. All of this without Marcus Marshall who sat out due to a knee injury suffered last week at the Jayhawk. Nick Sanborn productive for WOTN who also had an appearance from Brett Rasmussen. The second half was slow paced and all about jump shooting for 43 as they coasted home.
The 16U title game also featured 43 Hoops (didn't even realize they had a true 16s but I'll pay attention now) taking on Fury Gold. 43 Hoops with Washburn's Nick Anderson (stud!), Johnson's Waylon Johnson, Dion Bradley (Highland Park, but rumored transfer) and MCA's Isaiah Hanson on the roster. I come over from the 17s final with 8 minutes left and Fury Gold leading 36-32. That must have been the jinx because Fury finishes the game on a 20-3 run. Back to back 3s and a technical foul in a timeout start the run. The bottom falls out from there. Fury Gold wins the 16s title 56-35.
Interesting note from the tourney that brought back memories of the heat at the Best Buy Summer Classic last July. The track surrounding the courts at the Bethel rec center became an ice rink thanks to the humidity yesterday so late games had to be moved last night. Always something to make the life of a tournament director interesting.
2011 Sabes Invitational Recap
Pool Play
To the long part of the weekend, but there was a 35 second shot clock. It opened Friday night with the Howard Pulley 15 Black squad taking out MN Elite 58-42. Gaelin Elmore and Stephon Sharp with easy buckets inside and quality guard play from Kamali Chambers and Ben Fiers. They hold Andrew Grosz to 5 points as Elite had plenty of good looks that just didn't go in but the Pulley squad played awfully well.
Then the story of the night (and maybe the weekend). Magic Superfriends hung around and took a 41-40 lead on the Pulley 17 Black squad with 10 minutes left. Pulley looked to pull away up 10+ late, but a pair of missed front ends and clutch shooting allowed Magic to tie the game late. Then a Pulley miss and Rodney Owens (as a Packers fan it pains me to say this but OWENS, OWENS, OWENS! is appopriate in this case) runs out for a layup with 2.1 left to win it 69-67. Many thought Pulley had the game wrapped up and went to watch other games and missed this insane ending. Who else this year will be able to say they beat 43 Hoops and Pulley's top team? The irony is that Magic went on to lose their other 2 pool games and finish last in the pool.
Matt Thomas 5 of his 7 3s in the 1st half on his way to 30+ points as the WI Playmakers 16s beat the Illinois Warriors 68-58. Really like how MJ Delmore runs the point for the Playmakers. Isaiah Austin did appear for Texas PRO and while KC PNR did hang around, there was just too much talent to overcome. Texas PRO wins 75-60. #2 ranked Isaiah Austin is 7'1" and has skill like 6'1" player, just crazy skill. Played pseudo point guard and center on weekend. Comets big loss to St. Louis Eagles in 16s.
To Saturday (longest day of my basketball season with the late games) and it starts with Ray Allen Select in the 15s. First possession and I see them running ... (you guessed it). But they ran counters out of it so I was actually warming up to it. Love the game of guard Riley LaChance for them. Also in 15s, KC PNR gave up 17-3 run to St. Louis Eagles but countered with 13-0 run and won an entertaining game 48-42. MN Elite had a chance down 1 but missed in the last 5 seconds to lose 65-62 to Team Nebraska. Then later its deja vu as Team Nebraska almost comes from 7 down to Pulley 15 Black before falling 72-70. MN Elite beat the Playmakers to get a win in pool play.
Matt Thomas and the Playmakers out dueled All Iowa Attack and Peter Jok to the tune of a 60-51 win. Thomas 25 before missing the evening session for prom. Jok scored 28 included last 3s to keep it close. Major shock in the 16s as the 2nd Schoolers club opened a 20 point second half lead on the top Pulley 16s before winning by 7. Comets beat the 2nd Pulley squad in 16s 70-38. Jok came up clutch late with back to back 3s as AIA beat the Illinois Warriors 50-48.
Bracket Play
St. Louis Eagles 2 knocked out MN Elite 62-56. TC Force gave St. Louis Eagles a game before losing 51-45. That TC Force squad is largely East Ridge kids. Comets 16s lost 44-35 to Chicago Demons. Howard Pulley Black 16s over HP White 16s 68-41.
Playmakers 16s and KC Keys had a crazy ending. Playmakers missed a front end with 20 seconds left up 1. KC fouled with 3.5 left and they take a time out they don't have but no technical. 1 of 2 FTs is good. Playmakers pass after make is intercepted and Keys race back only to miss the layup at the horn that would have won it so we'll play OT. Toby Hegner with 2 offensive rebounds leading to a putback with 25 seconds left that ultimately wins the game 58-56.
A fun Sunday morning in early bracket play. In 15u quarters, St. Louis Eagles 2 over HP Black 53-44. Quality 16u session with Kingdom Hoops giving up 7 point lead late but they get a putback with 5 seconds left in double OT to win 55-54. Schoolers Blue holds off Playmakers (Comets semis rematch I think?) 65-64 as Playmakers had ball down 3 with 3 seconds left. Matt Thomas was back from prom for that one, wonder if he stayed up all night? Would have made sense with a 2 hour trip and post prom.
Howard Pulley 17 Black then ran out to 15 point lead on St. Louis Eagles with 11:40 left. Then Eagles came back with a 19-3 run to take the lead. A pair of Cameron Biedscheid FTs with 1:49 left gave the Eagles an 8 point lead and it looked over. But Pulley had 2 chances at 3s in the last 12 seconds that would have tied the game before falling 67-64 in the 17u quarters. Cory Arentsen came up with clutch 3s in the comeback for the Eagles. While HP played really well in the 1st half, the rest of what I saw was forced shots and questionable chemistry. Very surprising to see a team with 2 outstanding point guards give up double digit leads. Isaiah Zierden showing again that he can fill it in a hurry when hot. Eagles sat their starters in an apparent disciplinary move until 8:18 left in the first half and trailed 19-11 when they came in.
Ray Allen Select ended up rolling to the 15U title 77-57 by beating St. Louis Eagles 2. Kingdom Hoops got down 20-8 but came back to lead 16s title game 33-32 at half. St. Louis Eagles pulled away in 2nd half to win 72-57. Treyvon Young opening eyes for Kingdom Hoops. Nolan Berry 23 points to lead the Eagles. Eagles 17s took on Texas PRO for the title. Cameron Biedscheid relatively quiet all weekend for the Eagles. Isaiah Austin stepped up huge with a triple double (blocks) as Texas PRO won the title 70-63. Daniel House outstanding all weekend for Texas PRO. Texas PRO just did survive KC PNR 17s in the semis winning 53-51. KC star Gavin Thurman had an open 3 at the buzzer that would have won it.
Speaking of KC PNR, their 17s are the best team I see in HS or AAU in running a set and getting what they want. Here's an example with 2 reads.
Shooter in right corner. Post on left block and top of key. Guards on wings. Post swings ball from top of key to left wing (away from shooter). The post follows his pass into a ball screen. Guard comes off it and post rolls into swinging gate/elevator screen on left block to shooter coming to left wing (misdirection). If guard turns down the ball screen and drives left baseline (sucker play to make shooter's defender think help), the big rolls to middle of lane and both bigs screen away for the shooter to come to left wing behind the ball. Both are really tough to guard and they ran these for a truckload of 3s against Texas PRO. They got KJ Pritchard open look after open look using these.
I had 3 separate times where a player saw an unoccupied trainers station and me in the vicinity with my press pass on and asked me if I was a trainer. That included Hopkins' Zach Stahl asking if I could tape his ankle. LOL! So to all of you, no I'm not a trainer and no I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, though it would have been tempting as late as we went. No, the Emperor can't do it either despite being a highly trained medical professional.
Tried to hit Jimmy John's for lunch on Saturday and they were out of bread. That's like a bank being out of money. So it ended up being replaced with double set of fries and extra grease on the double cheeseburger at McDonalds. Not good for the Czar's ever expanding waistline.
As to the High Performance Academy facility, 2 back courts have sideline against the wall, 1 other court has a cage about a foot off the end line. Only 2 baskets per court which isn't great for practice purposes if you want to do stations or anything like that. A major mistake in the scheduling of officials in this one by having the officials move from court to court. That means that if their game gets behind they also hold up the next game that they're going to officiate. That meant that the late game Saturday night didn't start until around 10:45 PM instead of the scheduled 10:10 time. Teams get a break and move court to court, no need to move the refs around. 11:35 PM and game still had 12 minutes left. Winner had to come back at 9:10 AM, that's a bit much.
Heat Tourney
We'll start simple with the 16U and 17U finals late Sunday at Bethel after completion of the Sabes. I was hoping for pizza after a long day but no such luck. WOTN took on 43 Hoops in the final. 43 Hoops impressive in the tourney blowing out MN Southside by 30 in the semis and then taking a 22 point halftime lead in the title game before winning the championship 53-31. 7 triples in the first half for 43 Hoops, 3 from Sean Scott. All of this without Marcus Marshall who sat out due to a knee injury suffered last week at the Jayhawk. Nick Sanborn productive for WOTN who also had an appearance from Brett Rasmussen. The second half was slow paced and all about jump shooting for 43 as they coasted home.
The 16U title game also featured 43 Hoops (didn't even realize they had a true 16s but I'll pay attention now) taking on Fury Gold. 43 Hoops with Washburn's Nick Anderson (stud!), Johnson's Waylon Johnson, Dion Bradley (Highland Park, but rumored transfer) and MCA's Isaiah Hanson on the roster. I come over from the 17s final with 8 minutes left and Fury Gold leading 36-32. That must have been the jinx because Fury finishes the game on a 20-3 run. Back to back 3s and a technical foul in a timeout start the run. The bottom falls out from there. Fury Gold wins the 16s title 56-35.
Interesting note from the tourney that brought back memories of the heat at the Best Buy Summer Classic last July. The track surrounding the courts at the Bethel rec center became an ice rink thanks to the humidity yesterday so late games had to be moved last night. Always something to make the life of a tournament director interesting.
2011 Sabes Invitational Recap
Pool Play
To the long part of the weekend, but there was a 35 second shot clock. It opened Friday night with the Howard Pulley 15 Black squad taking out MN Elite 58-42. Gaelin Elmore and Stephon Sharp with easy buckets inside and quality guard play from Kamali Chambers and Ben Fiers. They hold Andrew Grosz to 5 points as Elite had plenty of good looks that just didn't go in but the Pulley squad played awfully well.
Then the story of the night (and maybe the weekend). Magic Superfriends hung around and took a 41-40 lead on the Pulley 17 Black squad with 10 minutes left. Pulley looked to pull away up 10+ late, but a pair of missed front ends and clutch shooting allowed Magic to tie the game late. Then a Pulley miss and Rodney Owens (as a Packers fan it pains me to say this but OWENS, OWENS, OWENS! is appopriate in this case) runs out for a layup with 2.1 left to win it 69-67. Many thought Pulley had the game wrapped up and went to watch other games and missed this insane ending. Who else this year will be able to say they beat 43 Hoops and Pulley's top team? The irony is that Magic went on to lose their other 2 pool games and finish last in the pool.
Matt Thomas 5 of his 7 3s in the 1st half on his way to 30+ points as the WI Playmakers 16s beat the Illinois Warriors 68-58. Really like how MJ Delmore runs the point for the Playmakers. Isaiah Austin did appear for Texas PRO and while KC PNR did hang around, there was just too much talent to overcome. Texas PRO wins 75-60. #2 ranked Isaiah Austin is 7'1" and has skill like 6'1" player, just crazy skill. Played pseudo point guard and center on weekend. Comets big loss to St. Louis Eagles in 16s.
To Saturday (longest day of my basketball season with the late games) and it starts with Ray Allen Select in the 15s. First possession and I see them running ... (you guessed it). But they ran counters out of it so I was actually warming up to it. Love the game of guard Riley LaChance for them. Also in 15s, KC PNR gave up 17-3 run to St. Louis Eagles but countered with 13-0 run and won an entertaining game 48-42. MN Elite had a chance down 1 but missed in the last 5 seconds to lose 65-62 to Team Nebraska. Then later its deja vu as Team Nebraska almost comes from 7 down to Pulley 15 Black before falling 72-70. MN Elite beat the Playmakers to get a win in pool play.
Matt Thomas and the Playmakers out dueled All Iowa Attack and Peter Jok to the tune of a 60-51 win. Thomas 25 before missing the evening session for prom. Jok scored 28 included last 3s to keep it close. Major shock in the 16s as the 2nd Schoolers club opened a 20 point second half lead on the top Pulley 16s before winning by 7. Comets beat the 2nd Pulley squad in 16s 70-38. Jok came up clutch late with back to back 3s as AIA beat the Illinois Warriors 50-48.
Bracket Play
St. Louis Eagles 2 knocked out MN Elite 62-56. TC Force gave St. Louis Eagles a game before losing 51-45. That TC Force squad is largely East Ridge kids. Comets 16s lost 44-35 to Chicago Demons. Howard Pulley Black 16s over HP White 16s 68-41.
Playmakers 16s and KC Keys had a crazy ending. Playmakers missed a front end with 20 seconds left up 1. KC fouled with 3.5 left and they take a time out they don't have but no technical. 1 of 2 FTs is good. Playmakers pass after make is intercepted and Keys race back only to miss the layup at the horn that would have won it so we'll play OT. Toby Hegner with 2 offensive rebounds leading to a putback with 25 seconds left that ultimately wins the game 58-56.
A fun Sunday morning in early bracket play. In 15u quarters, St. Louis Eagles 2 over HP Black 53-44. Quality 16u session with Kingdom Hoops giving up 7 point lead late but they get a putback with 5 seconds left in double OT to win 55-54. Schoolers Blue holds off Playmakers (Comets semis rematch I think?) 65-64 as Playmakers had ball down 3 with 3 seconds left. Matt Thomas was back from prom for that one, wonder if he stayed up all night? Would have made sense with a 2 hour trip and post prom.
Howard Pulley 17 Black then ran out to 15 point lead on St. Louis Eagles with 11:40 left. Then Eagles came back with a 19-3 run to take the lead. A pair of Cameron Biedscheid FTs with 1:49 left gave the Eagles an 8 point lead and it looked over. But Pulley had 2 chances at 3s in the last 12 seconds that would have tied the game before falling 67-64 in the 17u quarters. Cory Arentsen came up with clutch 3s in the comeback for the Eagles. While HP played really well in the 1st half, the rest of what I saw was forced shots and questionable chemistry. Very surprising to see a team with 2 outstanding point guards give up double digit leads. Isaiah Zierden showing again that he can fill it in a hurry when hot. Eagles sat their starters in an apparent disciplinary move until 8:18 left in the first half and trailed 19-11 when they came in.
Ray Allen Select ended up rolling to the 15U title 77-57 by beating St. Louis Eagles 2. Kingdom Hoops got down 20-8 but came back to lead 16s title game 33-32 at half. St. Louis Eagles pulled away in 2nd half to win 72-57. Treyvon Young opening eyes for Kingdom Hoops. Nolan Berry 23 points to lead the Eagles. Eagles 17s took on Texas PRO for the title. Cameron Biedscheid relatively quiet all weekend for the Eagles. Isaiah Austin stepped up huge with a triple double (blocks) as Texas PRO won the title 70-63. Daniel House outstanding all weekend for Texas PRO. Texas PRO just did survive KC PNR 17s in the semis winning 53-51. KC star Gavin Thurman had an open 3 at the buzzer that would have won it.
Speaking of KC PNR, their 17s are the best team I see in HS or AAU in running a set and getting what they want. Here's an example with 2 reads.
Shooter in right corner. Post on left block and top of key. Guards on wings. Post swings ball from top of key to left wing (away from shooter). The post follows his pass into a ball screen. Guard comes off it and post rolls into swinging gate/elevator screen on left block to shooter coming to left wing (misdirection). If guard turns down the ball screen and drives left baseline (sucker play to make shooter's defender think help), the big rolls to middle of lane and both bigs screen away for the shooter to come to left wing behind the ball. Both are really tough to guard and they ran these for a truckload of 3s against Texas PRO. They got KJ Pritchard open look after open look using these.
2011 MN Heat Tournament Preview
The 2nd annual Minnesota Heat Invitational is this weekend. Its headquartered at Bethel with 23 gyms in the north metro being used for over 200 teams. All pool games are Friday and Saturday with all of the brackets on Sunday. Here's what I'd watch.
17U
Its a very respectable local field at 17U with MN Southside, WOTN (possibly with Kyle Baumann again?), 43 Hoops, Magic Superfriends and the MN PNR 15s playing up. The quarterfinals could feature a Magic Superfriends vs 43 Hoops grudge match. Superfriends beat 43 Hoops in pool play before 43 Hoops made a run to the final. MN PNR 15s vs WOTN is another possible matchup of pool winners in the quarters. Southside vs 43 Hoops in a projected semifinal is a game worthy of a tourney final. All bracket games are at Bethel.
16U
The top 2 Heat teams, Magic Black 16s (top Magic team, will they have Gregory Wesley back with them), Fury Black 15s, 43 Hoops 15s, Fury Gold and Fury White are all in the tournament. Only the pool winners make the championship bracket. Magic Black vs Fury Black 15s is an interesting quarterfinal possibility. All bracket games are at Bethel.
15U
The 15U division is just 2 big brackets. Losers from the 1st game of the title bracket drop into a consolation bracket. The top Comets team, an east metro group (likely Johnson kids) and the tNBA 14s playing up are some of the participants.
14U
Minneapolis Select, MN Cyclones (Alex Illikanien, Kobe Critchley et al), All Iowa Attack, the top teams from 43 Hoops and the Magic Black team that I'm an assistant coach for are in a very nice bracket. Semifinals and finals are late Sunday afternoon at Irondale.
Some notable players to watch
Marcus Marshall - 43 Hoops
Nate Kratch - 43 Hoops
Marcus Tyus - 43 Hoops
Joey King - Southside
Darian Pittman - Magic Superfriends
Rodney Owens - Magic Superfriends
Reed Travis - MN PNR 15s
DJ Pollard - Fury Gold 16s
Alex Illikanien - MN Cyclones 14s
17U
Its a very respectable local field at 17U with MN Southside, WOTN (possibly with Kyle Baumann again?), 43 Hoops, Magic Superfriends and the MN PNR 15s playing up. The quarterfinals could feature a Magic Superfriends vs 43 Hoops grudge match. Superfriends beat 43 Hoops in pool play before 43 Hoops made a run to the final. MN PNR 15s vs WOTN is another possible matchup of pool winners in the quarters. Southside vs 43 Hoops in a projected semifinal is a game worthy of a tourney final. All bracket games are at Bethel.
16U
The top 2 Heat teams, Magic Black 16s (top Magic team, will they have Gregory Wesley back with them), Fury Black 15s, 43 Hoops 15s, Fury Gold and Fury White are all in the tournament. Only the pool winners make the championship bracket. Magic Black vs Fury Black 15s is an interesting quarterfinal possibility. All bracket games are at Bethel.
15U
The 15U division is just 2 big brackets. Losers from the 1st game of the title bracket drop into a consolation bracket. The top Comets team, an east metro group (likely Johnson kids) and the tNBA 14s playing up are some of the participants.
14U
Minneapolis Select, MN Cyclones (Alex Illikanien, Kobe Critchley et al), All Iowa Attack, the top teams from 43 Hoops and the Magic Black team that I'm an assistant coach for are in a very nice bracket. Semifinals and finals are late Sunday afternoon at Irondale.
Some notable players to watch
Marcus Marshall - 43 Hoops
Nate Kratch - 43 Hoops
Marcus Tyus - 43 Hoops
Joey King - Southside
Darian Pittman - Magic Superfriends
Rodney Owens - Magic Superfriends
Reed Travis - MN PNR 15s
DJ Pollard - Fury Gold 16s
Alex Illikanien - MN Cyclones 14s
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