By Rob Bodenburg and Jon Mahoney, Special to SI.com, SchoolSports.com
TEANECK, N.J. -- Here were the players and stories everyone was buzzing about from the Reebok ABCD Camp on Saturday.
Kevin Love, Lake Oswego (Lake Oswego, Ore.) We featured Love in this section on Thursday, but his continued brilliant play makes it impossible not to include him again. The 6-foot-10 rising senior center is making a strong case for being the No. 1 player in the Class of 2007 with his play this week at ABCD. Through the first six games, he leads the camp in both scoring (19 ppg) and rebounding (10 rpg) -- a rare and impressive feat considering he plays only 16 minutes per game. He has registered three double-doubles, hasn't scored fewer than 14 points in any game and has even added six 3-pointers on 13 attempts.
James Harden, Artesia (Lakewood, Calif.) Harden didn't really stand out the first two days of camp, averaging just seven points per game in four contests. But Saturday was a different story. The 6-foot-5 rising senior small forward tallied 22 points, four boards and three assists in the first game of the day, and 12 points, two boards, two assists and two steals in the night session.
Blake Hoffarber, Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.) This kid can flat-out shoot the rock. Want proof? Through Saturday's games, the 6-foot-4 rising senior shooting guard leads all campers in 3-point percentage, hitting on 18 of 29 attempts for a 62.1 percent clip. But Hoffarber is far from a one-trick pony and showed that with 12 points, seven boards and three assists in Saturday night's session.
Taylor King, Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) Going into Saturday's play, one of the big questions at ABCD was: Where is Taylor King? Sure, the 6-foot-8 rising senior small forward was in attendance -- he just struggled mightily the first two days. After making only 12 of 38 field-goal attempts in his first four games, the Duke commit went off Saturday by scoring 25 points and grabbing eight boards during the day and then tallying 19 points and six rebounds in the night game. Those performances bumped King up to the camp's seventh-leading scorer (13.3 ppg) while also ranking second in rebounds (7.5 per game).
DeAndre Jordan, Undecided Jordan, a 6-foot-11 rising senior center who is still unsure where he'll attend high school next year after spending last year at Episcopal (Bellaire, Texas), is leaving no doubt that wherever he ends up, he'll be one of the nation's best big men. Jordan had a rough outing in the night game on Saturday but was phenomenal during the day session, scoring 18 points, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking three shots in a showdown against Love. Jordan is long and athletic and looks to dunk everything when he gets in the paint. He has the potential to be a special player if he improves his post moves.
• Day 3 of the O.J. Mayo Commitment Watch came and went Saturday with again no official college announcement. When and how he'll make his announcement continue to be the biggest questions of the camp, but so far all he's done is prove that in addition to being arguably the best player in the country, he's unquestionably the best player at avoiding the media.
• UCLA coach Ben Howland was front and center to watch Love on Saturday, even going so far as to stand closer to the court and away from the crowd during the night session so his presence was easily noticeable to his prized target. Love is down to UCLA and North Carolina but says he's 50-50 between the two and won't make a decision until the fall.
• Saturday's injury report: Simeon (Chicago) rising senior point guard Derrick Rose missed his second straight day with a left ankle injury. Artesia (Lakewood, Calif.) rising sophomore forward Renardo Sidney missed Friday's night game with a foot injury but was back in action on Saturday, scoring eight points in the day game and 15 points in the night session. Mayo caused those in attendance Saturday to hold their breath when he rolled his ankle during the day session, but he walked it off and was OK. Meanwhile, Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.) rising senior point guard Edwin Rios suffered a twisted ankle on Friday, but he hasn't missed any games.
• One of the most interesting players in high school basketball is in attendance at ABCD and making his presence felt. Alexis Wangmene, an underrated and tough 6-foot-8 rising senior big man out of Central Catholic (San Antonio, Texas), has been playing extremely well, scoring 18 points and grabbing seven rebounds in the day session on Saturday. But here's the interesting part of Wangmene's story: None of this would have been possible if the native of Cameroon hadn't been discovered by San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford while playing in South Africa and brought over to the United States. "He's basically my dad," said Wangmene of Buford, who has had an eye for foreign talent with the Spurs. "This is the best thing to happen to me in my life." Wangmene, whose stock should rise with his play this week, said he won't be back at Central Catholic next year and is in the process of looking for a prep school.
• ABCD has turned into a southpaw convention. Rios, Harden, Hoffarber, King, Jordan, Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) point guard Brandon Jennings and Curtis (Tacoma, Wash.) point guard Isaiah Thomas are just some of the stud left-handed players strutting their stuff this week.
• For the first time in recent memory, this year's ABCD Camp has been devoid of the kind of signature one-on-one showdown that has been a trademark of ABCD over the years -- matchups like LeBron James vs. Lenny Cooke, Sebastian Telfair vs. Shaun Livingston, and Greg Oden vs. Derrick Caracter. This year's showdown was supposed to be Mayo vs. Rose on Friday night, but Rose's ankle injury prevented that from happening.
• Rapper Master P was in the crowd during Saturday night's session and came over to say hello to Mayo. Master P's son, Percy Miller, a rising junior point guard at Windward (Beverly Hills, Calif.) and better known as rapper Lil' Romeo, is one of the players at ABCD.
