|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Rounding up summer showcases
Updated: Tuesday August 07, 2001 6:30 PM
In our final contribution, we'll briefly assess the high points of the biggest and most prestigious summer tournaments for club/AAU teams. We're referring to the adidas Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas; the AAU Junior Boys' (17-under) National Championship in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; the Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta, S.C.; and the AAU Super Showcase, also in Lake Buena Vista at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex. Each of these events occurred during the three weeks following the two early July camps, the adidas ABCD Camp in Teaneck, N.J., and the Nike All-America Camp in Indianapolis. All the players mentioned below are rising high school seniors (class of 2002) unless indicated otherwise. We recently rated the top 25 performers at the gargantuan 344-team Big Time tournament but said little about the results of the competition. The champion of the 128-team Open Division was the Long Island Panthers, led by 6-foot-9 tournament MVP Jason Fraser of Amityville (N.Y.) High; 6-3 WG sharpshooter Taquan Dean of Neptune (N.J.) High, who has committed to Louisville; and 6-7 SF Curtis Sumpter of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Bishop Loughlin. The Panthers defeated Tim Thomas Playaz I from Paterson, N.J., by an 84-73 count in the title contest. Fraser, a mobile rejector with rapidly improving scoring tools, was especially impressive, as he blocked seven shots versus the New York Ravens (the Panthers won 76-64) in the quarterfinals and racked up 27 points and 22 rebounds in a 74-68 victory over Baltimore Select in the semis. Fraser likely will choose from among Villanova, St. John's and North Carolina by early September, at the latest. Baltimore Select's Carmelo Anthony, an extra-talented 6-8 SF who is transferring from Towson (Md.) Catholic to Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy this fall and has committed to Syracuse, was arguably the most outstanding player in the tournament. He burned the Panthers for 25 points despite Sumpter's excellent defense and tallied 28 points in a 76-69 quarterfinal triumph over the Michigan Mustangs, who were led by sensational 6-10 future Michigan State PF Paul Davis of Rochester Hills (Mich.) Rochester. Smooth Davis scored 31 in that game, 34 in a Round of 16 win over the strong Raleigh (N.C.) Heat, and 40 of his team's 78 points in an earlier round of the playoffs! In the other semifinal, Tim Thomas Playaz I nipped the Philadelphia-based Hunting Park Warriors 83-80 in overtime. Pacing the Playaz were the inside-outside duo of 6-7, 285-pound Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy C/PF Mario Boggan, who muscled his way to 25 points in this game, and 5-11 lefty PG bomber Elijah Ingram (21 points) of Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony's. Boggan recently verbally committed to Florida over interest North Carolina (which didn't offer a scholarship), Missouri, Ohio State and Wake Forest, among others. He averaged 14.4 points per game and shot nearly 80 percent (!) from the field last season for undefeated and nationally top-ranked Oak Hill. Illinois Warriors take AAU national titleThe Illinois Warriors, who were seriously challenged in the playoffs only by Kappa Magic (from Winston-Salem, N.C.) in the Round of 64 and Memphis YOMCA 17-unders in the semifinals, grabbed the prime hardware at the AAU Junior Boys' National Championship by topping Boo Williams Summer League (Hampton, Va.) 73-56 in the final. The game was close through three quarters (44-41), but extremely athletic 6-6 SF Andre Iguodala from Springfield (Ill.) Lanphier, whose 25-foot 3-point field goal at the overtime buzzer had shocked Memphis YOMCA, stepped up in the last period by scoring 16 of his team's 29 points. Iguodala, also an outstanding defender, had 12 points in the semis and just six in the title game prior to the fourth quarter, when he earned his tournament MVP award. The rebounding of aggressive 6-8 Homewood (Ill.) Homewood Christian Academy PF/C Ricky Cornett was also integral to the Warriors' victory. Iguodala is still considering several collegiate possibilities, while Cornett recently committed to Notre Dame over Illinois, USC and Kansas State. Playing most effectively in the final and semifinals for Boo Williams were 6-2 Virginia Beach Salem PG John Gilchrist, an excellent ballhandler and driver, and 6-9, 250-pound former Newport News (Va.) Warwick C/PF Elton Brown, a Virginia signee who enrolls this fall. Gilchrist and Brown scored 12 and 11, respectively, in the championship game and 18 and 17, respectively, in a 56-55 semifinal win over the Charlotte (N.C.) Royals, who led 34-21 at the half but faltered (with their key big men on the bench!) down the stretch. The markedly subpar shooting by 6-5 Roanoke (Va.) Cave Spring WG J.J. Redick (committed to Duke) hampered Boo Williams significantly in both of its final-day games. Redick, a national top-15 senior and arguably the best long-range shooter in the class of 2002, was 1-15 from the field versus the Royals (while being guarded primarily by 6-4 New Hampton, N.H., School WG/SF Rashad McCants, who has committed to North Carolina) and 3-11 in the title affair. J.J. totaled just 14 points (five and nine) in those two games. Note that Boo Williams won the AAU Senior Boys' (19-under) National Championship in late July by edging Martin Brothers Select (from Iowa) in overtime in the finals. Brown was MVP in that tournament by a slim margin over teammate Jason Clark, a 6-8 PF and rising freshman at Virginia. Startlingly, McCants, who led the third-place Charlotte Royals with 23 points in the quarterfinals (76-66 over the Illinois Wildcats-Gold) and 17 in the semis, was omitted from both the 15-man first-team and 15-man second-team AAU All-America teams. What a travesty! AAU representative Van Johnson, who (giving him the benefit of an enormous doubt) must not have watched the Royals' games throughout the tournament, told our appropriately incensed friend and fellow recruiting writer Dave Telep that McCants "didn't do anything the last two games." Huh?!? Has Johnson ever heard of defense, rebounding and leadership? Or scoring, for that matter. Last year McCants, an Asheville, N.C., native, was tournament MVP as the Royals won the AAU Boys' (16-under) National Championship over Team Florida, whose main man was 6-10 potential super Amare Stoudemire. The Royals, incidentally, slipped past Memphis YOMCA 63-62 at the buzzer of the third-place game this year on a follow-shot by 6-8 southpaw PF/C Donte Minter of Mt. Ulla (N.C.) West Rowan. Hard-luck Memphis YOMCA 17-under (the group also had a 16-under team in this event) got outstanding play from 6-4 Memphis Craigmont WG/PG Jeremy Hunt (23 points versus the Illinois Warriors), who has verbally committed to hometown Memphis, and clutch shooting from 6-7 Memphis Ridgeway SF Derrick Byars. In our opinion, Hunt was among the five most consistently (the key word) impressive players in the entire tournament, along with 6-9 Midwest City (Okla.) High PF Shelden Williams of Athletes First (Okla.), 6-0 Maywood (Ill.) Proviso East PG Dee Brown (committed to Illinois) of the Illinois Wildcats-Gold, McCants and 6-10 Marion (Mass.) Tabor Academy PF/C Torin Francis of BABC (Mass.). Speaking of BABC, the Bay Staters lost here in the Round of 16 to the Charlotte Royals (68-60) after reaching the final (and losing each time to Team Texas) in both the Nike Peach Jam and the AAU Super Showcase. The stars for Team Texas were 6-3 WG Bracey Wright of The Colony (Texas) High and 5-11 PG Bryan Hopkins of Dallas Lincoln. Wright is one of the nation's top dozen rising seniors, while Hopkins ranks among the top 35. Making the 15-man AAU "All-America" first team besides Iguodala, Hunt, Shelden Williams, Dee Brown, Francis, Gilchrist, Elton Brown and Redick were the following individuals: Regional nuggetsA number of commitments by rising prep seniors and a few late signings by players who will enter college this fall recently have been announced. EAST SOUTH MIDWEST SOUTHWEST WEST Brick Oettinger is talent evaluator for the Prep Stars Recruiter's Handbook and recruiting columnist for the ACC Area Sports Journal. For more information on either publication, call 1-800-447-7667.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
