Weber Invitational losing its luster

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The Charlie Weber Fall Invitational was once the crown jewel in what used to be a fairly busy month of traveling team tournaments. Now, because of an NCAA ruling that essentially takes college assistants off the road for team events in September, the Weber has lost a little luster.

It’s difficult to convince traveling team coaches and parents to send their children to an event during the school year, pay for travel and expenses and possibly miss a day of school when no college coaches are in the building. Who could blame them?

Instead of national power teams, which used to routinely make their way to College Park for the event, Weber now attracts mainly programs from the Mid-Atlantic region of the country. A lot of high school coaches will enter a team so that their kids can get in a weekend of playing together before the season starts.

With that said, the event was broken down into two equally strong divisions. Last year, the Tim Thomas Playaz entered two teams and captured both titles. This year, playing as the Vince Carter Playaz, they brought just one team and captured the National Division championship behind the strong play of juniors JR Smith and David McClure.

Over in the American division, D.C.’s Team Assault had it rolling after a first round scare. Keith Blanks knocked down a 3-pointer in the title tilt against the Green Wave to give Assault the 59-58 win. Blanks scored 26 points in the championship game as was his team’s top scorer for the event. LSU-bound small forward Regis Koundjia saved the day for Assault when he made a pair of free throws to win a first round game.

Charlie Weber Tournament Notes

Montrose Christian power forward Linas Kleiza raised his status another level with his Weber performance. Kleiza is clearly a warrior and at 6-7 1/2 he has no fear. Overall, his skill package will lead to a successful college career. … Point guard Mustafa Shakur played with Positive Image at the Weber. However, he was intentionally quiet in dealing with the media. Shakur was set to make his college decision at a Tuesday press conference. N.C. State and Arizona were in the finalists. … The top junior prospect at the event was power forward Brian Johnson of the DC Stars. He tallied 19 rebounds in his first game of the tournament. … DC Blue Devils guard Isaiah Swann turned in a great weekend but had to bail before the playoffs started in order to get back to Oak Hill Academy for classes. His team couldn’t recover from his loss and was upset in the semifinals. … Patrick Ewing, son of the former Georgetown star and NBA All-Star, had a super tournament. While playing with National Christian Academy, Ewing upped his stock by demonstrating increased range on his jumper and he’s worked hard on the weights to fill out his body.

-- Dave Telep, TheInsidersHoops.com

Fofana Picks Maryland

Hargrave Military Academy center Hassan Fofana became the early candidate to replace Lonny Baxter at the University of Maryland when he committed to the Terps early Saturday morning.

Late Friday night news began to spread that Maryland would land Fofana sometime in the next few days. Well, it took even shorter than we were told to expect for the commitment to happen.

Fofana is a key recruit for the Terps in our opinion. The big bodied post player can score in the paint, is tough to move around and will eventually cause some matchup problems on the inside.

Maryland, however, is not finished. The Terps are still actively pursuing Terrence Roberts and Ekene Ibekwe. Roberts is actually on Maryland's campus this weekend for the Charlie Weber Invitational. He'll visit Maryland for Midnight Madness next weekend.

-- Dave Telep, TheInsidersHoops.com

Body Changes, Intensity Help Ewing

Folks, Patrick Ewing has done some work on his game and his body. The 6-8 forward from National Christian Academy has added upper body strength and he's really starting to fill out. With his long arms and increasing athleticism, he's on the rise.

"Once we got him running, getting on track, putting up shots and working on his ball handling he's been on a tear," National Christian coach Trevor Brown said.

Prior to the Charlie Weber event, we had heard the whispers that Ewing was revamping his game. As it turned out, those whispers were true.

At the Weber, we saw a much more aggressive Ewing. In the game we watched (spotlighted in the shot chart) he scored 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting. He connected on 3 of his 4 3-point shots and that's an area he's obviously improved tremendously on since the spring. He ran the floor and finished plays with dunks when possible. He had 6 rebounds against the Vince Carter Playaz.

Ewing really seems to have a better understanding of playing to his strengths. He's rebounding on a consistent basis and this just wasn't a one-game wonder in College Park.

"He did it all weekend," Brown said. "That's how that kid's been playing. I took him to Team Assault practice and they couldn't touch him. His toughness, his shot and his knowledge of the game ... he's gotten better."

-- Dave Telep, TheInsidersHoops.com

FSU On A Major Roll

Until about a month ago, Florida State was one of the schools just starting to get mentioned with Vakeaton Wafer. Well, they are in there strong now. According to Wafer's high school coach Jerome Tang, the recruiting process is over.

"He committed to them last night," Tang said.

FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton will be in Cleveland on Friday to see his new prized prospect.

Wafer, the darling of the spring AAU circuit and star on the July scene, had been considering a number of schools. Then, he started the high school year out by switching high schools three times before settling in at Heritage Christian.

Florida State is starting to look really good on the wings with the athletic Anthony Richardson in the program and now Wafer on the way. Hamilton is taking the program's recruiting up a few notches. Wafer has a chance to be the school's second McDonald's All-American in three years. Hamilton also received some key juco commitments this week from Antonio Griffin and Diego Romero.

Academic questions have surround Wafer, but Tang says that he's doing well. "He's a great kid. As a student he's doing well and going to class. He's working hard."

-- Dave Telep, TheInsidersHoops.com

Oregon Lands Top Power Forward

Jeff Williams (6-8 SR PF from Portland (Ore.) Roosevelt) verbally committed to Oregon State, according to the coach of his AAU team, the Portland Elite Legends Red, Marc Niebergall.

Williams is a raw athlete who hasn't played organized basketball for a couple of years. He told us this last summer that he actually intended to get into professional wrestling before taking up basketball again seriously.

But Williams visited Oregon State this last weekend and committed to OSU head coach Jay Johns.

- Tracy Pierson, PrepWestHoops.com

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