SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Fullcourt Press 2000 Fall Hoops Classic:
Player Notes & Roster Speculations--(Sept. 7, 2000)

We received the pool play assignments and it was the first time we'd actually seen the official list of teams which will be participating this weekend at the Fullcourt Press Fall Hoops Classic.  So we did a little digging and managed to find out a bit of news on some of the teams participating.   Here's what we know:

Belmont Shore will have 4 teams competing:  Belmont Shore, Belmont Shore/M&M, Belmont Shore/Dunk.net and Belmont Shore East. Belmont Shore (just called Belmont Shore) is Dinos' own team, and it will feature the usual suspects, including Cody Pearson, Dijon Thompson, Harrison Schaen, Wesley Washington, and several of the other guys Dinos had this summer.  Belmont Shore/M&M is going to be a mix of some of Belmont's younger guys like  a couple of Crenshaw kids, including  Jamaal Walls and Marcus Williams, and several Mayfair guys like Josh Childress and Edwin Draughan,  and it will also feature Brian Baker, and Marcus Freeman and Marcus Dove from Long Beach Millikan. . . we're guessing that the "M&M" really stands for "Mayfair & Millikan" but that's just a guess. . .  Belmont Shore/Dunk.net is the team whose roster we've already posted: Anthony Naylor, Craig Smith, Evan Burns, Ruben Sanchez, David Hungerford, Omar Wilkes, Matt Llewellyn, Matt Wallman, and Alex Lloyd. Belmont Shore East is the Upland HS team, featuring Kirk Snyder, Sheldon Pace, Jesse Pruitt, Eric Hoppe, Jason Harris, Jason Hathaway, Prentice Harris, Brett Williams, Tye-Juan Hatter, and Lionel Davis.  At least that's who we think it is right now.

Pump N Run has one of its top players from the summer and spring returning, as Torin Beeler from Ocean View will rejoin David Gale from Buckley, Dustin Villepigue from Simi Valley, Jamaal Williams from Corona Centennial, Quinn Hawking from El Dorado, Andrew Moore from Crespi, Rasheed Oliver and Marko Mihailovic (both from Pacific Palisades), and junior sensation Travis Neisen from Mission Viejo who played with High Five this summer on the Nike circuit.

The Hood is Compton Dominguez HS in different shirts, and will/should include Tyson Chandler, and the rest of the returners, and likely a few new faces too.  Regulars will include Bobby Jones, Darius Sanders, Samir Hernandez, Keion Kindred, Saul Langston, and Minugs Murray. Whether Steve Moore shows will be interesting, since he's still trying to get a 5th year of eligibility from what we hear.

Inland is, of course, Kool Aid Perry's squad, and it will feature Richard Cobbs, Jason Braxton, Alex Acker, and probably quite a few guys from the Inland II roster from Vegas given the fact that most of the prep school guys (line Antonine McGee, Lawrence Carrier, Antoine Wright, Jared Knox and Fabian Bean) have all gone back east by now, so look for guys like Jason Burrell from Fontana, Leon Rosborough from Canyon Springs, Royal Taylor and Howard Taylor, Grayland Walter, and perhaps Chris Stallworth and Tron Smith.  They will be quick, tough and athletic.

Rockfish will have three teams, including the LA Rockfish (their #1 team), the Orcas (their #2 team) and the Dolphins.  About the only team we can be fairly certain of is their No. 1 team, and of the players on that roster, we can probably guess at who is not going to be at this tournament on that roster:  Julian Sensley, Solomon Brown, Jermaine Harper will (should) all be back at prep school, so you'll likely see Rory O'Neil (who will play notwithstanding that he's already committed to USC), Alex Graham, probably Nick Curtis, Tim Drisdom, Josh Dunaj, Donald Wilson, Bryant Markson, and probably David Newkirk and maybe even Patrick Haddon, who played with the Orcas in Berkeley, but who is likely going to be a No. 1 team guys next summer if he stays with the Rockfish.  The Orcas and Dolphins will likely have guys like Peter McCaslin, Will Sheslow, Jimmy Goffredo, Chris Tarne, Steve Graybill, Daniel Knott, James Jenkins, Jon Todd, Thomas Shewmake, Kevin Stacey, James Shoup, Kevin Gardner, Nashid Beard, Derrick Williams, Ryan O'Hara, Michael Wilds, David Patten and Matt Salinas, among others (at least those are the ones we're guessing will be there).

Arizona Slam will feature a huge team with 6'-8" Brian Freeny, 6'-8" Mike Phillips, 7'0" Maurier Indui, and some of the other local young guys from Arizona, like Shawn Moore, Brandon Nelson, Bryson Kruger, and possibly even seniors Antonio Griffin and Jason Johnson, but we doubt that they will have Sani Ibrahim (who was listed with them on their Big Time roster) and we are 99% certain that Dennis Lattimore who was listed on their BT roster, but who played with the Pumps, won't be coming at all.

Total Impact is Sam Alipio's team and it will have a lot of guys from St. Monica's like Jamayne Potts, Robert Rakestraw, Marcus Shelby, Sean Cole,  and Hampton Nunley, as well as players like Andrew Yim from Peninsula, Alex Elliot from Rolling Hills Prep, Davdi harris from West Torrance, Loren Wade from Gardena Serra, J'marc Perry from Ayala, Armand Ivory from Lakewood and perhaps even Evan Kline and Lester Clay who played with Sam in Vegas at the Big Time (although we'd expect Kline to be with Level One or some other team, and Clay played with a mostly Crenshaw group at the Best of Summer, so who knows). . .

Compton Magic is essentially the Compton Centennial team, which will feature, notably, Anthony Davis (the one who was at LA Cleveland HS in the Valley and who was formerly with the LA Rockfish, but who is also supposedly listed on the LA Paladins roster. . . .we're so confused), and returnees Jamal Barnes, Corey Burrell, Sterling Byrd, Richrd Chaney, Jonathan Smith, Jason Goodman, Jamarr Sloan, Donald Pierre (who might play though with AZ Slam from what we heard), Gabriel Pruitt, Aaron Afflalo, Sarl Smith, Tini Eli, Max Fakahafua, Eric Ratleff and Harold Lafal. . . . whew. . .

The OC Players is a team we know literally nothing about, but they will have some guys from El Toro and Woodbridge as well as Tony Melum from Newport Harbor.

IASAA is a team consisting mostly of younger guys, like Redondo's Wendell White, but other than him, we have no idea who will be on this team.

BWBA is Bob Gottlieb's program, and Bob hasn't sent us any of the rosters for the three teams he's brining, so we have no real idea who is on which of his teams.  We've heard that he's been busy running around to the airport bringing in tons of guys from out of State, so who shows up will be a big surprise, as always.  We do know that he's got Marques Crane playing with him again, but that's as much as we know right now. . . . we'll find out tomorrow.

Las Vegas Stars is essentially the Durango HS team with a couple of others from around Vegas, essentially Al La Rocque's picks, including guys like Martrel Johnson who impressed many at the Big Time, Frank Brown, Jay Sterrod, Tywain McTyer, and Brian Young, all from Durango, along with Dinard Taylor from Bishop Gorman, Jose De La Renta from Paradise, Brandon Weaver from Western and Sam Jackson from Valley.  We spoke with Jason Carter's brother this evening and neither Jason Carter nor his cousin Justin Burns will be making the trip this weekend and we'd expect them to again be playing with one of the Pump N Run teams in two weeks at the Double Pump Fall Premier Tournament.

Oakland Hot Shots is Gary Kelley's team featuring a lot of guys from in and around Oakland, like Tim Fenning from Bishop O'Dowd, Darrius Parker, Troy Williams-Parker, and Mosn Said from Oakland HS, Kris Fleming, Jeff Robertson, Josh Seidenfeld and Jeff Jones from San Ramon, Levar Halsell from St. Elizabeth, and Jason Mitchell and Joe Columb from Benicia.  A team with a lot of height with two guys 6'-11" they could be a real surprise.

The Orange County Lakers is a team of, you guessed it, Orange County guys, including Robert Abreu, Geoff Clayton and Omar Amaral, and others we'll find out about.

CABC will bring two squads, and we'd expect them to be the same teams that played up in Fresno in the spring, and intermittently at various sites during the summer.  They will likely have on the I team, Lenny Collins, Tashaun Forehan-Kelly, CJ Hubbard, Danny Lambert,  Daniel Quijano, Brandon Rohe, Santa Margarita, RJ Socci, Adam Tancredi, and Derek Wheeler.   CABC II had these guys on their roster when we last saw them: Alex Al-Sabah, Jacob Collins, Jed Collins, Matthew Fournier, Jarod Jackson, Matt King, Adam Roggero, Jeff Shafer, and Hayden Socci.

Level One is supposed to be a lot of players from LA Chatsworth, so we'd expect to see, at a minimum, Shane Berry.    We didn't see Chatsworth this summer at any of the tourneys (we missed them at the War on the Floor), so they will largely be a pretty big surprise to us.

FBS Long Beach is a team coached by Marlon Calhoun, and if it's the same group from the Big Time, we'd expect to see guys like Robert Terry, Jay Arizabal and Loren Brown from St. Anthony, Ryan Love, Markee White, Donald Williams and Carlos Rivers from Long Beach Poly, Malcohm Heron, Tony Roberts from Artesia, MJumbe Williams from Crenshaw, Rashawn Child and Joshaw Estrada from Long Beach Jordan and Leland Dodd from Bishop Montgomery.

ICAN is Rock Johnson's team, and it will probably be a combination of the teams that played this spring at Mats' EBO and the Pump's Best of Summer, featuring guys like Calvert Wright,  Travon George, Hassan Adams, Michael Greer, Deon Marcus, Amani Daanish, James Mathews, Ekene Ibekwe, and Onye Ibekwe as well as Khali Young, Harold Toomer, Daimon Commy, Dwayne Gilliam, Cory Lowe, Marlon Brisco, David Barclay, Anthony Lewis, Marques Calcote, Martel Waller, and possibly Gary Hamilton (although we've heard he's going to prep school).

The Bay Area Ballers will likely have the same I and II teams from up in Berkeley, so if you want to see their rosters, just check back through our archives from the end of July to find their roster (to save you some time though, their top players will be Hakeem Gilliard, Lawrence Metz, David Chiotti, Patrick Gaolos, Jermel Gilliard, Matt Short, Ryan Fabio, Aaron Hines, Gary Smith and Isreal Torres, but many of the younger guys could also show up thi sweekend, guys like Rickey Lampkins, Ari Warmerdam, Darryl Burton, DJ Brewer, Kevin Neveau, Bret Rubin, Ryan Oliver, Jordan Couch, Robert Rothbart, Mike Nash, Brian Hicks, Hamadi McIntosh, and Taylor Manuma).

Next Level will also be one of those teams from the Bay Area that will probably have guys from their I and II teams from the summer, including Hassan Houston, Andrew Costello, Brandon Worthy, Jasyson Obazuage, Jason Norman, Anthony Williams, Daniel Logan, Steve White, Glenn Turner from the I team, and Marlon Nunley, Derek Alcantara, John Montgomery, Marcus Martinez, Steve Cotton, Brandon Sligh, Rogdrig Crag, Caleb Pitts, Aquil Hall-Bey, Marchaune Armon, and Robert Parish (although Parish should be back at prep school).

And there are several teams we know literally next to nothing about, among them B& P Sqaud which we hear is the Barnes brothers (Julius' brothers Jamaal and Jeremiah) as well as a couple of guys from Glendora like Shane O'Conner, Michael Mehana and others.  SF Smart Set is a complete mystery.  Really we don't know a thing about them, and the same can be said for the OC Players .  At least with Philly Elite they have one guy we know about, Hakeem Ward.

The truly interesting story in all of this though is really what's been going on between and who will be play for TPI, ABC and the Paladins.  TPI has in the past featured a lot of the Westchester kids (e.g., Keith Everage, Brandon Heath, etc), and this time we hear theres been a battle going on for players like Fred Washington, Travonte Nelson, Trayvon Williams, Ray Reed, DeAngelo Collins, i.e., most of the former SCA 13-U & 14-U national champ team.   DeAngelo has been playing for the Paladins with the rest of his Inglewood teammates and that's where we'd expect to see him, but with Derrick Clark getting most of the minutes at point, the word is that TPI is listing Westchester-transfer and Inglewood-enrollee Jason McKinney on their roster.  Basically, the bottom line is that Paladins should still feature most of the Inglewood players, but we'd expect that with Compton Magic in this tournament, each team will only have one Anthony Davis on their rosters.

 
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