LAS VEGAS – A final burst of
thoughts on the previous five days’ worth of high school basketball action
across this ever-expanding town, in between frantically throwing clothes into a
duffle bag, and about 10 pounds of rosters and schedules into a carry-on bag
that passes as a “brief case” of sorts:
*The news of the death of Wake Forest Coach Skip Prosser did have a numbing effect on the proceeding in the
gymnasiums at the Foothill (Reebok’s “RBK Championships”), Durango (Main Event)
and Rancho (adidas Super 64) high school gymnasiums Thursday.
“It puts things like sports into
perspective” and “It shows you have to live each day as if it might be your last
on Earth” are two of the clichés that are trotted out and uttered and written
when a death of someone so well-known and respected within his or her community
(in this case, basketball) dies so unexpectedly.
But, once again, they’re also
truisms.
Rest in peace, Coach
Prosser.
*Although the Southern
California-based Belmont Shore team eventually won the Reebok championship, the
South truly dominated the event.
Six of the eight quarterfinalists
(the Illinois Wolves being the other exception) were from southern
regions.
And Belmont Shore was led by guard
Brandon Jennings, a Southern
California resident but who attends Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson,
Va.
That team also got a huge helping
hand from power forward Leonard Washington, who was a senior in Louisiana last
season and is still trying to get NCAA-eligible so he can accept a college
scholarship.
What are we to make of that
southern-flavored final day at Foothill?
Two things, at least: 1) The
tournament field wasn’t nearly as strong as it was a year ago, across all
regions; 2) Each of those teams had a bunch of really good players.
*Based on their spring
championships in the Boo Williams Championships and Wildcat Classic tournaments
in the spring, as well as championships at the Peach Jam and now Main Event,
it’s pretty hard to argue with the proposition that the New York Gauchos are the
strongest of 2007’s traveling teams.
Kemba Walker (Manhattan Rice) of
the Gauchos is the best traditional (with scoring being several rungs
down on the list of most important things he lends to his team) point guard I’ve
seen in July.
I consider Brandon Jennings to be
the best of the scoring points guards (guards who can create offense for
teammates but whose ability to make shots is a much bigger part of their
on-court personalities).
Continuing with that theme, I think
Jrue Holiday (North Hollywood, CA, Campbell Hall/Pump-N-Run) is the best of the
combo guards who are capable of playing either the 1 (point) or 2
(shooting) guard slots on the college level.
*The best of the 6-10 or taller
players I saw over the five days were, in roughly this order, Derrick Favors
(Atlanta Celtics), Tyler Zeller (Indiana Elite), Eloy Vargas (Team Breakdown)
and B.J. Mullens (Ohio Basketball Club).
It’s tantalizing to think of how
dominating Favors is going to be (yeah, he’s already heavy into that mode, I
know) once he learns something about the fundamentals of low-post play other
than catching passes or offensive rebounds and ramming the ball through that
metal cylinder.
Vargas was the rebounder of the
center-types I saw. He could be a player in the mold of a Marcus Camby or Tyson Chandler.
*The five players I saw with the
most innate physical tools: (in no order) Favors, Jennings, Holiday, Demar DeRozan (P Miller Traveling Team) and Daquan Jones (World Wide
Renegades/Black).
*The two guys who don’t have mega
reputations as prospects but who impressed me as much as anyone because of how
relentlessly they played on every possession at both ends of the floor: Tom Pritchard (King of Court) and Delwan Graham (Atlanta Celtics).
Pritchard, a left-handed power
forward in the mold of Jon Brockman of the University of Washington and the high
school and traveling team teammate of Michigan State-bound Delvon Roe, and
Graham, another lefty who reminds me in a way of former UNLV and NBA player
Stacy Augmon, should be in any list of the 100 best prospects in the class of
2008.
Inducted into the USBWA Hall of
Fame in April, 2005, Frank Burlison is Scout.com’s national basketball expert and is
also a columnist for the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram. He can be reached at
frank.burlison@presstelegram.com. Read more of Burlison’s pieces at
www.frankhoops.com