pump report one

	What:	adidas Double Pump West Coast All Star Camp
	Where:	Cal State Dominguez Hills
		1000 E. Victoria, Carson, CA
	When:	Session #1: July 7 through 10, 2000
	Who:	300 top players, D-I coaches

We saw some really excellent basketball yesterday. Here are some notes and observations on some, but certainly not all, of the players we saw by stationing ourselves at Court 1 only for the first session of real games last night:

Keion Kindred (6'-3" Jr. PG/SG) from Compton Dominguez was probably the most dominating player we watched yesterday, at least the most dominating in a single game. He was just everywhere. . .running the point, driving, dishing, great ball-handling, using his size and body strength to set great picks, get inside for rebounding, and he was shooting the ball well from outside. Looks a lot older than someone who is just going to be a junior, meaning that he's pretty physically mature and very strong, with great quickness. If Dominguez is looking for a point, at least someone to share the point responsibilities this season, they could do a lot worse. We've known it for a long time, but big time potential from this combo guard.

Bakari Altheimer (5'-11" Sr. PG) from St. Elizabeth in Oakland, had his game going yesterday as well. Pushed the ball extremely well in the open court, great passing, and scored mostly by driving to the rack. Defensive intensity was also first rate and he's demonstrating that he's going to be one of the top point guards in the class of 2000 on the West Coast.

Robin Hood (6'-1" Sr. PG) from Wheatland, in NorCal also did some great stuff from the point position, and he too should be getting some major looks this summer before things are done at the end of July. Robin has good size, and great mobility, is a great passer and very quick. He also gets up and can dunk and finishes very well.

Justin Burns (6'-7" Sr. SG/SF) from Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas came out late yesterday afternoon and played very well, shooting the ball effectively and using his long arms to get inside and he even blocked a couple of shots. Great lineage, his dad played in the NBA and he's Jason Carter's cousin. Agile, runs the floor very well.

Anthony Davis (6'-2" Jr. G) from Inglewood showed that there is more than just one AD who will be pursued pretty heavily by some of the mid-majors this summer. Runs very well, great lateral quickness and a nice shot from outside, Anthony made up a great backcourt combination with Altheimer and Hood on Phil Bryant's Iowa team yesterday.

Richard Roby (6'-2" Fr. SG) from San Bernardino has now been reclassified as an incoming freshman and will, along with his brother, attend prep school at the Lawrence Academy. He's young, but has that look which suggests he'll stretch out some. A good ball-handler, he also can shoot it very well from three point range. Will need to get a lot stronger, but with four more years ahead of him to do that, he's got great potential.

Dale Graham (6'-3" Fr. G/F) from Fresno Washington Union was also a pleasant surprise. Big body, nice court instincts, runs well and can shoot out to three. Vonn Webb will have four more happy years with some of the guys we saw at the camp, and Dale is going to be one of those who will please many.

Fernando Sampson (6'-1" Jr. PG/SG) from Fairfax was on the same team with Keion Kindred (New York) so he didn't get the chance to run the point a lot, but he still showed good ball-handling and excellent passing skills, and he hit a couple of big three pointers. Definitely one of the top juniors in attendance.

Louis Amundson (6'-6" Sr. F) from Boulder is someone we almost forgot about from last year, but watching him certainly got our attention. Very deceptive looking, he can get way up and loves to jam. Athletic and strong, with great quickness, he can just jump out of the gym and is a tough banger inside as well. Very impressive.

Marques Crane (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) from Ocean View wasn't playing especially hard, but then he was just back from his trip to the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival where he proved he's one of the best players in the country, and certainly one of those elite-level guys who should have been invited to either ABCD or Nike but didn't get to go because of the numbers crunch this year. Marques hit his usual quota of great shots, and he just makes it look easy.

Kris Maxey (6'-2" Jr. PG/SG) is another young player who makes it look really easy. Over-handled the ball a lot (an observation shared by his club coach Keith Howard who watched his game with us) but undeniably talented. Probably won't grow to be as big as his brother Erron who is playing D-I at Providence, but the same great instincts and court saavy. Drives, twists and somehow manages to find the basket on seemingly impossible shots, he is also a smooth, but not overly quick player who manages to score. If he doesn't try to do too much he'll be a great prospect in the class of 2002.

David Gale (6'-0" Jr. PG) from Buckley, another in the class of 2002 prospects also played very well yesterday, alternately crossing guys over early in the backcourt to lead the break or working with the spin dribble in the front court effectively and showing good passing skills as well as a nice ability to drive and finish. With increased size and strength he's now containing much more effectively on defense, and picked off three or four steals in the process.

CJ Richardson (6'-1" Sr. G) from Murrieta Valley showed some nice shooting touch and good ball handling, but will need to step up the defensive intensity. Good first step, and court vision. Played alongside Ike Williams (6'-4" Jr. G) also from Murrieta, who is thin but shoots the ball well from out to three, and who looks like he will be an excellent prospect too if he can put some muscle on over the next year.

Mike Carpenter (6'-1" Sr. G) from Surprise Valley in Modoc is a surprise from what we had expected. We thought we were going to see a scoring point, but he's more of a scoring combo, very active, athletic and good skills. We don't know who his team plays up in NorCal but we can see why he scores about 25 ppg. An able finisher around the basket, quick first step and decent shot out to about 15' (at least that's what we saw yesterday).

Kevin Bell, Jr. (listed at 6'-1" but that's a typo. . .he's about 5'-10" if that), a sophomore at Fairfax, showed why he's one of the best point guards in SoCal in the rising sophomore class. Excellent ball-handler, very quick, heady player, rarely makes a mistake, but will need to learn how to finish with his left hand, which right now is a glaring weakness. In fact on drives, he had the left side wide open several times, but chose to move the ball to his right and finished straight on or by moving to the right. He's still young and other than a lack of size, he's going to be a great prospect.

Corey Belser (6'-6 Sr. G/PG/F) from Bethel in Washington was truly outstanding. Corey plays with Friends of Hoop and he's got excellent court sense, very long arms, and there's not much he can't do with his size and skills, including running the point or slashing from the wing. A very versatile player, lanky, can block shots, and shoot it out to three. How highly he gets recruited will largely be a function of how well he's able to defend other big guys, since we don't see him getting recruited as a point. He reminds us a lot of Jonathan Sanders (6'-6" PG/F) from Colorado who played some games with the Pumps last year on the Double Pump squad before returning to his dad's travel team, and who will play at Colorado State next season (by the way, Jonathan was also at the camp yesterday just visiting LA to see his dad for a day or two). Corey is an excellent player, definitely Big West, and maybe even higher.

We'll have more later. . . . time to run down to Dominguez Hills again for today's games.