pangos shooutout results

	What:	2003 Pangos Summer Shootout
	When:	July 15-17, 2003
	Where:	Brethren Christian Warrior Center
	Who:	36 Teams in "Open" Division; 8 in "Select" Division
NCAA Certified Event Division I Coaches Permitted to Attend

We've been so busy watching games last week, and getting ready for the final two big west coast events (the Big Time and the Best of Summer), as well as spending both Saturday and Sunday at the Say No Summer League over at West Los Angeles College, that we haven't had a lot of time to write as much as we wanted to. And there's been a ton of action going on, it's summer, the weather has been great, so who wants to be sitting in front of a computer all day anyway?

But assuming that a few of you are still out there reading this, we'll pass along some stuff that's happened this past week, including a few results from the Pangos 2003 Shootout, which ended late Thursday night, along with the first half of the NCAA summer evaluation period (which ran from July 8 through 17). And as the clock was about to strike midnight, and the college coaches scurried from the gym so as not to be out on the 18th (July 18-21 is a "dead period" in men's Division I college recruiting, and coaches can't be out...another evaluation period begins tomorrow with the opening of the adidas Las Vegas Big Time, and runs through July 31), so too did most of the fans and players. In fact, by the time we left the Warrior Center on Thursday night, there was nobody left in the room except for Dinos Trigonis and the guy who turned the lights out behind him.

But before the period ended we got to see some really good small school players take on some of the more established travel teams, and interestingly, a team full of mostly young talent (4-D Stars) brought home the gold. Schuyler McKay fand Darren Morrison also of Price teamed up with 6'-6" Sone Finister from Crensahw and Jonathan Toliver from Westchester, and Jerard Moret and Justin Thomas from Loyola, as well as Frank Henry-Ala, who has reportedly transferred from Pacific Hills to Verbum Dei, to defeat Ollie Goulston's Team San Diego, which was led by tournament MVP Jared Dudley (who is reportedly heading to South Kent School in Connecticut for a post-grad year) and incoming freshman JayDee Luster (5'-9" Fr. PG) who might just be one of the most exciting young players we've seen this summer. And he's also a pretty nice young man--earlier in writing about the Fullcourt Press All-West Camp all-star games we noted that Luster was a "no-show" for one of the all-star contests. Turns out he was there, but gave up his spot so that one of his teammates, a rising junior, would have the opportunity to play before the assembled college coaches, because Luster realized that he's getting more than his share of needed exposure already. We've also heard that there are some college coaches who have offered him already, including San Diego State's Steve Fisher, which speaks volumes about just how talented this young man is going to be by the time he gets to college. Dudley will be playing for the Pump N Run team in Las Vegas, which he will rejoin after a stellar performance at the Bob Gibbons tournament this past spring.

We also only caught one of the semifinal games and the consolation final on Thursday, but what we did see was impressive. IEBP came close, but didn't get the big cigar in their semifinal contest against Team San Diego. IEBP's No. 1 team is a talented group of players led by guys like Donovan Morris (6'-5" Sr. G/F) from Winchendon, Michael Boone (7'-0" Sr. C) from Loma Linda Academy, Andrew Green (6'-6" Sr. G) from Perris, Anthony Dandridge (6'-4" Sr. G) from Cajon, and Timothy Denson (6'-0" Sr. G) from Santiago HS. They should perform well in Vegas and we'll be watching for Keith Howard and Julius Patterson's guys there.

We didn't get to see the game because we were watching the center-court action, but we understand from Dinos Trigonis that Marina HS which was led by 6'3" senior James Lambert, defeated Team And 1/16's (which is really an ARC team with And 1 gear sponsorship) to win the "Select Division" playoff.. .

Other teams and players we saw who impressed, or didn't get to see who we heard good things about:

Dinos' own Belmont Shore team featured really top guard play with Gabe Pruitt fresh off his high-scoring stint at ABCD, as well as Ed White the Harvard-Westlake rising junior and Calvary Chapel rising senior guard Ralph Miley. Taylor King, the incoming Mater Dei frosh sensation that a lot of people are talking about (and who reportedly played very well at the Fairfax Goodman Tournament over the weekend) wasn't there, but Jamal Boykin was, and Dinos' team was really strong. They will combine with H-Squad at the Big Time, and will add players such as Curtis Allen and Matt Sargeant, as well as Daniel McCall and Danny Williams, who played solidly for H-Squad.

The ICan All-Stars, coached by Rock Johnson, had some of the best "no-name" talent in this tournament, but there are more than a few solid players you'll be hearing from, including guys like Marcus Malone (6'-5" Sr. G) from Dominguez, Dezon Otis (6'-2" So. G) from Dominguez, James Silvie (6'-6" Jr. F) from Long Beach Cabrillo, Marcus Myers (6'-8" Sr. F) from Dominguez, Marquis Washington (5'-10" Sr. G) from LA Washington, and a few others we'd never seen before. Remember, Rock usually discovers some of these kids before others can grab them up for the higher-profile traveling teams (Hassan Adams was once one of his lesser-known players....but not for long). Keep an eye out for Sean Johnson (6'-10" Jr. C) from Antelope Vallley or Dezon Otis (6'-2" So. G) from Compton Dominguez (coach Russell Otis' son), as well as Mike Shelton (6'-5" Jr. G) from Dominguez and James Silvie (6'-6" Jr. F) from Long Beach Cabrillo. This was a really solid team that should have probably done better overall than they did in terms of wins and losses.

High Five America seems to be on the way back again (we haven't seen them playing at these events in Southern California for a few years, as they used to follow just the Nike circuit, or so it seemed), and they had some really talented guys, including Grayson Moyer, Jake Wohlfeil, AJ Reilly and Tito Zargoza. They didn't win in the end, and were eliminated in the quarterfinals, but they were still fun to watch.

We didn't get to see the No. 1 LA Rockfish team, which only played at Compton Dominguez, but we have heard that Joel Smith (6'-8" Sr. F) from Lompoc, who will return to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, NH for his senior year, and who recently gave a verbal to the University of Washington, will not be with the Rockfish this summer in Las Vegas or at the Best of Summer. Joel is taking a chemistry class this summer, and is working on rehabbing his knee which was slightly injured this past season. Without him in the lineup this is the first Rockfish team that we can recall in a long time which hasn't had a dominant go-to big-man. We also don't know if the Rockfish roster will be changed around for Vegas, but at this tournament, the Fishies had Tim Ahlering from Mission Viejo, Danny Anderson from Morro Bay, Buchi Awaji from Loyola, Phil Frieson from Dos Pueblos, Jason Hill from Cleveland, Arturas Lazdauskas from Hollywood, Brian McTear (who is still just a rising junior, and a solid point guard) from Crenshaw, Phillip Oknonma, a 6'-11" center from Blue Ridge Academy, who is doing another post grad year after spending a few years out here at Antelope Valley Christian, and Dawin Whiten. We also noticed that the Rockfish had Perrin Johnson listed on their roster, which struck us as odd, given that Perrin has recently given a verbal commitment to Louisville for this coming fall (he was released from his NLI which he signed with Rider last fall), but since we didn't see them at all, we can't say whether he was there or not.

We also didn't get to see the Salt Lake Metro teams, but we understand that the guys at InsidersHoops.com (Hicks and Pierson) both liked a couple of their guys a lot. Maybe we'll catch up to them in Vegas. A team we did get to watch, and which has a lot of unrealized potential, was Eric Hardin's Los Angeles Paladins. This latest incarnation of the Paladins is very, very talented, and features one of the top players in the country, Dorrell Wright--who is also not related to Donnell Wright, also a member of this team and also a student at Leuzinger. Dorrell played superbly, but his play alone wasn't enough to get the Paladins into the final four, which is a shame, because we would have enjoyed watching them play against teams that, at least on paper, they should have beaten. The Paladins will likely also have Trey Duty (6'-9" Sr. F) who is enrolled at Stoneridge Prep, as well as Bryant Willliams (5'-11" Jr. G) from Rancho Verde, Davon Jefferson (6'-7" Jr. F) from Lynwood, and Aaron Jackson (5'-11" Jr. G) from Loyola. Not the deepest team around, but a bunch of solid and talented players.

We could go on and on, but we don't have the time. Dinos Trigonis also sent us his "2003 Pangos Shootout All-Tournament Team" list. Here it is:

Dorrell Wright (6'-7" Sr. F) Winchendon MA
Bobby Brown (6'-0" Post Grad G) Westchester, Los Angeles CA
Curtis Allen (6'-4" Sr. G) Rolling Hills Prep, Palos Verdes CA
Gabriel Pruitt (6'-3" Sr. G) Westchester, Los Angeles, CA
Jamal Boykin (6'-7" Jr. G/F) Fairfax, Los Angeles, CA
JayDee Luster (5'-10" Fr. G) Hoover, San Diego CA
Lamar Roberson (6'-7" Sr. F) Dominguez, Compton CA
Lee Cummard (6'-6" Sr. F) Mesa, AZ
Nick Young (6'-5" Post Grad G) Cleveland, Reseda CA
Danny Williams (6'-2" Jr. G) Fremont, Los Angeles CA
Jake Schmidt (6'-8" Sr. F) Thermopolis, WY
Matt Thomas (6'-4" Sr. G) MLK, Riverside CA
Matt Sargeant (6'-3" Sr. G) Ocean View, Huntington Beach CA
Lorenzo Keeler (6'-2" Sr. G) Escondido CA
Donovan Morris (6'-3" Sr. G) Winchendon MA
Joe Darger (6'-6" Jr. F) Riverton, UT
Joseph Martinez (6'-7" Sr. F) El Dorado, Placentia CA
Craig Austin (6'-9" Sr. F) Carlsbad CA
Brayden Bell (6'-10" Jr. F) Brighton UT
Jerry Davon Jefferson (6'-7" Jr. F) Lynwood CA
Chase Budinger (6'-5" So. G) La Costa Canyon/Carlsbad CA
Everest Schmidt (6'-8" Sr. F) Hoopa Valley, Orleans CA
Chris Berry (6'-6" Sr. G/F) Centennial, Compton CA
Brandon Glenn (6'-5" Post Grad G) San Diego CA
Andrew Hatch (6'-1" Sr. G) Ayala, Chino Hills CA
James Lambert (6'-3" Sr. G) Marina, Huntington Beach CA
Chris Fields (6'-5" Sr. G) Long Beach Poly, Long Beach CA