SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Fullcourt Press 2000 Fall Hoops Classic:
Friday Game Results & Notes--(Sept. 9, 2000)

The 8th annual Fullcourt Press Fall Hoops Classic got going yesterday and there was a ton of really excellent play and some really sloppy, ugly stuff going on too as players managed to shake off the cobwebs of a month-long layoff from this level of basketball, players in many cases met their club teammates for the first time, and others didn't show at all, busy with home visits that will occupy most of the still uncommitted seniors throughout the next 30 days during the NCAA fall open exposure/contact period.  Still, there were a lot of really excellent players.  Here are the raw scores and then some notes:

Friday First Round Pool Play Results

Some notes on some of the top players we saw:

We didn't arrive until about 5: 30 p.m. so we didn't see the first three games of the day, but we saw just about everything after that and some of what we saw was fairly impressive, including several very stacked teams with a lot of young guys who are maturing very nicely. . . guys like Harrison Schaen (6'-8" So. PF) from Mater Dei who combining with new teammate Wesley Washington and former teammate Patrick Haddon and another current Mater Dei standout, Brian Baker cruised to a win over the Orange County Lakers.  Harrison had a couple of really nice dunks, including a monster dunk late in the second half which started out more like a layup, and he then just rose, turned and cocked his wrist and threw it down, and it seems that with each year, he is putting on more muscle mass and gaining critical strength which will make him one of the most highly sought after big men in his class.  Baker and Haddon also make a potent backcourt combination and given the seeding this team has (it is, after all, Dinos' tournament and his own team :^) ) we'd expect them to do very well the rest of the tournament.

We were really impressed with the Arizona Slam and Inland, not for either teams' ability to put points on the board (their halftime score was 17-17, and the final was only 41-35) but the sheer athleticism of both teams was impressive.  Brian Freeny (6'-8" Jr. PF) from Mesquite HS in Gilbert AZ probably is just beginning to learn how scary good he is, and he's also joined by Antonio Griffin (6'-6" Sr. F) from McClintock AZ, who was, along with Inland's Antoine Wright (6'-6" Jr. F) from Lawrence Academy, the most athletic set of opponents we saw late in the evening.  Griffin is long, powerfully built, strong and runs exceedingly well.   Wright didn't shoot a lot from the outside, but he did manage to throw down several nice dunks on slashing drives to the hole.  Richard and Paul Roby, who will soon join 'Wright in prep school themselves, played adequately, but not spectacularly.  Perry's team was down to only 5 guys, but they managed to hang tough the entire game, even in the loss.   Arizona had some other nice players we hadn't seen very much of this summer, including Marurier Indui who was originally listed at 7'-0" but who seems even decidedly shorter than the 6'-11" he is listed at in the program.  Indui is very thin, and as a result, doesn't get inside too much and needs to really work on his footwork and his hands, as he doesn't seem very comfortable with the ball, but he's got another two years of high school to do that. Jon Wilkens (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) from Hamilton also played very well and he's a tough, strong kid who really didn't display any shooting ability but he's one solid rebounder.  Harry Ramirez (6'-0" Jr. G) sometimes played the point for Arizona and sometimes didn't, and if he can control his tendency to want to make the no-look pass (several sailed out of bounds or beyond their intended targets who often didn't know the ball was coming either) he has the ball handling skills and the ability to dribble penetrate which should take him to the next level.

The Las Vegas Stars-Oakland Hotshots game also revealed some really stellar play and some not so stellar stuff too:  Stellar were Oakland's Jeff Jones (6'-7" Sr. F) from Monte Vista in Alamo and Darrius Parker (6'-0" So. SG/PG) from Oakland HS in Oakland.  Jones had a lot of coaches asking "who is that" and Clark Francis of HoopsScoop declaring him to be at least a Top 250 national-level player.  Parker also managed some really nice play and he's young, lean and wiry but really fast and has a great handle and a nice shot.   Antonio William-Parker (5'-10" Sr. PG) also demonstrated excellent quicks, pushing the ball, driving, penetrating and kicking really effectively.   We also liked Joe Colomb, who is listed at 6'-10" but who seems a bit shorter than that (are all the measurements done, if at all, wearing platform shoes?).  He reminds us a lot of . . . well, we can't remember who he reminds us of, but he's very strong, has a well developed upper body, good footwork and best of all he can handle the ball in the open court and inside. For Las Vegas, the real standout, as he was at the Big Time in July, Martrel Johnson (6'-4" Jr. F/G) from Durango.  He doesn't overwhelm anyone, but he's tough, takes the ball to the rack with intensity and a fiierceness that is sometimes awe-inspiring.

B&P Squad was another surprise as they and the Pump N Run team had one of the best games of the evening, a 66-71 overtime thriller that saw several players really standout. For B&P, the name "Barnes" should sound familiar, and for all you Stanford fans out there, just know that there are two more Barneses besides soph point guard Julius (who according to dad Barnes is ready to have a breakout season):  Jamaal Barnes (6'-3" Sr. G)  and younger brother Jeremiah from Rowland Heights.  Along with Mike Mehanna (6'-2" Jr. G) from Glendora, Shane O'Connor (6'-6" Jr. F) from Claremont and Spencer Foster (6'-6" Jr. F) from Glendora and Glenn Phillips (5'-11" Jr. G) from Rowland    B&P were particularly effective, but mostly in the second half  as it took them some time to get going.  The last time we saw Jeremiah was two years ago at the end of Rockfish, and since neither of the Barnes brothers plays much club ball (Jamaal was injured this past summer and didn't play at all), we only remembered a skinny kid with a nice handle who might or might not be a promising player. . . what a difference two years can make, as he's really grown, put on some lean muscle-mass, and gotten stronger and quicker, particularly on the defensive end of the floor, and the fun battle was watching him and Pump's David Gale driving at one another.  Jamaal has perfected his baseline move and can power to the basket fairly effectively, but for B&P, their best moves were left for Michael Mehanna who ran some really nice isolation drives to the basket.  For Pump N Run, which was missing Dustin Villepigue (home visit with UCSB),   Jamaal Williams (home visit), and Rasheed Oliver (hospital emergency with a possible appendicitis), the clear standouts were Torin Beeler, Travis Niesen, David Gale and the shooting combinations of Marko Mihailovic, Andrew Moore and Quinn Hawking, as well as some help from temporary standin Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-4" Sr. SG).     Niesen is a sort of Casey-Jacobsen style of player, who prefers to take the ball on the wing, jab-step and clear the ball and either turn  and shoot or drive to the basket, and if his game (and his looks) somewhat resemble Casey (even Dinos admitted that "he looks like Casey's younger brother), there's a reason for that:   Travis trains and works out with Mike Rangel and Vonn Jacobsen at Plyo-City (ok, it's a shameless plug) down in South Orange County.  Travis is a strong player who can shoot the three, drive or play inside (where he was really needed with Villepigue and Williams absent. . . they will be there today though, and will certainly be needed against the Arizona Slam and Inland which will have Lawrence Carrier as well today according to Kool Aid).   Beeler really impressed a lot of people as well with great slashing drives and some huge dunks too.  Torin's recruiting is sort of puzzling to a lot of people, including us:  He's being pursued by only an eclectic handful of schools, like DePaul, UCI, and Liberty, but a school like Pepperdine which should be all over him (Torin is not only interested in a strong basketball program but is looking for the WCC-type small, Christian-affiliated environment that a Pepperdine, USD, Gonzaga, or other WCC school features) just don't seem to either know about him or are not following.   Hey, our view is that if Van Breda Kolf or Holland don't get in on this kid, they're really missing the boat.

We also saw a bit of the BWBA game between Belmont Shore/Dunk.net and BWBA.  Anthony Naylor was not in attendance (having already left for prep school at Mt. Herman in Northfield, MA), but Craig Smith and Evan Burns were the real standouts for BS/DN last night, with Burns putting on a dunking exhibition which clearly eclipsed anything with young Harrison Schaen or anyone else demonstrated last night (and there was a lot of dunking going on. . . hey, we'd settle though for a lot more fundamentally sound passing, fewer no-looks, and a simple bounce pass every now and then instead of the dunks).  Burns is, no matter what anyone says, one of the top 10 players on the west coast in the class of 2002, and perhaps even nationally.  Along with Amare Stoudamire, Anthony Roberson, and a handful of others, he's a potential McDonald's player and showed it last night with excellent ball handling, great rebounding and smooth transition play.  Smith struggled more often than not under the basket, missing some easy layups, but some Big West school will be very happy with a commitment from him no doubt.  Ruben Sanchez, who is getting attention from a lot of mid-majors as well played a solid game, with a minimum of turnovers and some deft passing, while his high school teammate David Hungerford hit some key outside shots as well.  Matt Llewellyn played his usual solid style of play, pushing the ball and shooting his high, arcing quick release-shot.  We continue to be impressed by Omar Wilkes, and while he doesn't yet have his dad's height (and may not reach 6'-6" or so by the time he graduates), he's a very solid player, skilled and smooth (just like his dad).  Matt Wallman from Camarillo played solid and steady down low for this team, stepping out when Smith was inside (which was most of the time) and rebounding effectively.  As for BWBA, we didn't know a lot of the BWBA imports, and this time Bob Gottlieb has gone to his Missippi and Louisiana connections again, featuring a team made up entirely of guys from those two states with the exception of Marques Crane from Ocean View.  Marques is being pursued, along with Marko Mihailovic by Cal State Fullerton and a handful of other Big West-type schools and if he's in the right environment, Marques will be a big-time player.

We saw a lot of guys yesterday, some better than others, and there's a lot more to see throughout the weekend, including the six teams we missed seeing by not catching the first set of three games from 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. yesterday, meaning we didn't see the OC Players, Total Impact, The Hood, BWBA White, Belmont Shore M&M or FBS-Long Beach.  Likewise, we also want to get a better look today at some of the other top teams like the Paladins, LA Rockfish (we saw the Rockfish, but only briefly, and were somewhat surprised to see that they had Jeffrey Berokoff, but on second thought, it's not that surprising at all. . . Jeffrey has re-opened his recruiting, has two more years of college eligibility after transferring out of San Diego State, and he'll be at Fullerton JC this year, but won't play to preserve those two years), TPI Express and the Compton Magic (which surprisingly, or not surprisingly, depending on your expectations)  lost last night to the Bay Area Ballers.  We can confirm though that Anthony Davis (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF), formerly of LA Locke HS, formerly of LA Cleveland HS, formerly of the Rockfish, formerly of the Paladins, who is now at Compton Centennial HS, was playing for the Compton Magic.  Likewise, in the battle (or non-battle if you talk to some of the club coaches involved) for players, we can also confirm that Jason McKinney, the talented, but often overshadowed point guard who transferred from Westchester to Inglewood, has also "transferred" from the Paladins (who continue to be ably-led by sophomore Derrick Clark), back to Top Prospects Express, where he played with some familiar names, including Ray Reed from Inglewood, and that's one team we really want to get a closer look at today. 

The schedule for Saturday has already been posted, and once again, we want to remind everyone who might be thinking of coming out that the alternate site for some of today's games has been moved from Compton Dominguez HS to LONG BEACH MILLIKAN HS.  See the accompanying text at this link for the details of those games.

And, as always, see you there.

 
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