Daniels Finally Decides; Moment of Truth
For “Bad Basketball” Arrives in Vegas
(June 29, 2011)
After a long process of evaluating all his options, 6’8” wing forward DeAndre Daniels (IMG/Bradenton FL) – the highest ranked player still on the board – finally decided to end his recruitment when earlier this month he committed to the national champions UConn Huskies, picking Jim Calhoun’s squad over the likes of Texas, Kansas, Duke, Oklahoma State and Oregon. Daniels has real pro potential at the small forward position due to his immense scoring prowess (range extends past the 3-point line) and his underrated athletic ability.
DeAndre is also an underrated rebounder and passer and should be a welcome addition in Storrs CT this fall as the Huskies hope he can help offset the loss of Huskies leader and 2011 NBA 1stround draft pick Kemba Walker………….……With the recent announcement fromNY2LA’s Antonio Curro that his ill-advised Final Chapter tourney (scheduled to be held July 22-26 in Las Vegas) had been cancelled – leaving several teams he had duped into thinking that he could successfully compete with the more established adidas Super 64 and Las Vegas Fab 48 scrambling – the “moment of truth” for “bad basketball” in Las Vegas has officially arrived. That leaves three major events now scheduled for “Vegas week” in July: adidas Super 64 (headquartered at Rancho HS), Las Vegas Fab 48 (headquartered at Bishop Gorman High School) and Hal Pastner’s inaugural Las Vegas Live (headquartered at Durango High School). In 2010, just two – the adidas Super 64 and Las Vegas Fab 48 – existed side-by-side and the verdict by the overwhelming number of grassroots teams, college coaches, media, scouts and fans was that it was a
gigantic improvement from past years where coaches and media had to navigate three and sometimes four tourneys within that 4-5 day period. Prior to 2010, coaches and media often spent as much time in their cars, traveling in the hot desert sun from gym to gym as they did watching games in those gyms. This over-saturation of Vegas tourneys caused many teams to re-evaluate the value of spending thousands of dollars traveling the long haul to Sin City and started a slow exodus of club teams from Vegas to events closer to home in the South, East and Mid-West. 2010 was by all accounts a huge improvement and a realization for the best teams as to what the “new” Vegas could look like. After cashing out his Vision Sports enterprise to MaxxAthlete five years ago, Hal Pastner is now back under the “Big Foot Hoops” moniker and looking to bring back his brand of “bad basketball” to the masses. If his Las Vegas Live is anything like his two recent April 2011 events in Vegas, participating teams might end up kicking themselves in the pants wondering how they were able to fall for Pastner’s snake-oil sales pitch! While the adidas Super 64’s super pools consists of the likes of top national teams like Dream Vision, Atlanta
Celtics, DC Assault, Connecticut Basketball Club, Indiana Elite, New England Playaz and Compton Magic and the Las Vegas Fab 48’s loaded 48 team Invitational Division includes traditional powerhouses like the New Jersey Playaz, Oakland Soldiers, Belmont Shore, Mac Irvin Fire, New York Panthers, Team Loaded, Team Detroit, Team Breakdown, Juice All-Stars, Team Philly, Seattle Rotary, Long Island Lightning, World-Wide Renegades, Southern Kings, D-I Sports, Philly’s Finest, TX Bluechip, Texas D-I Ambassadors-Houston and Grassroots Canada, Pastner has managed to snag only a handful of top teams other than his in-house Houston Hoops team. With minor exceptions, it seems that most of the top grassroots squads have rejected Pastner’s brand of “bad basketball” and prefer quality over size when it comes to Vegas week. It will be very interesting to see if Pastner can even come close to generating the same turnout of coaches and media that are expected to flock to the adidas Super 64 and Fab 48 in July despite having a much weaker field of quality teams……………….Speaking of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Fab 48, a special event will be held on Thursday night July 21stat Bishop Gorman HS (Las
Vegas NV). While not a “live” event for college coaches, the Las Vegas Fab 48 Tip-Off Showcase should attract herds of media and fans to watch eight Las Vegas Fab 48 teams square off against eight adidas Super 64 squads as a prelude to Vegas week. Las Vegas Fab 48 teams scheduled to take part include Playaz (NJ), Oakland Soldiers (CA), Belmont Shore (CA), Mac Irvin Fire (IL), Juice All-Stars (NY) and Long Island Lightning (NY) while adidas Super 64 squads expected to participate include Dream Vision (CA), Connecticut Basketball Club (CT), DC Assault (MD), Compton Magic (CA) and Colorado Hawks (CO). Exact match-ups and more detailed information will be forthcoming soon at: www.lasvegasfab48.com.....................One of the fastest rising players on the West Coast and in the nation has been 6’8” senior Zena Edosomwan (Harvard-Westlake/North Hollywood CA). After a slow start this spring, Edosomwan has been on a tear since Memorial Day weekend – earning all-tourney honors at the Bob Gibbons Tourney of Champions in North Carolina (had 27 points in a game there) and being selected to the Top 25 Game at the loaded Pangos All-American Camp in Carson CA (June 3-5). Zena’s strong performance at the Pangos Camp got him an invite to this month’s NBPA Camp in Charlottesville VA and to the inaugural Reebok Breakout Challenge camp in Philadelphia PA (July 6-9). Over the past 10-plus years, Harvard-Westlake (one of the top academic high schools in the nation)
has produced a plethora of top Division I talent including the likes of the Collins twins (Stanford/NBA), Bryce Taylor (Oregon), Alex Stepheson (North Carolina/USC), Renaldo Woolridge (Tennessee) and Damien Caine (Colorado). Zena (an excellent student) looks to follow in their footsteps and his list of high-major suitors will get longer before it gets shorter. Colorado, Oregon, USC, Harvard, Fresno State, Penn, San Francisco and Cal Poly have offered with UCLA, Washington, Washington State, Cal, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Marquette, Texas, Pittsburgh, Arizona State, Vanderbilt and Stanford expected to take a long look this July……………………….6’9” senior Grant Jerrett (La Verne Lutheran/La Verne CA) has had a “frequent-flyer” type month of June. After racking up Top 25 honors at the Pangos All-American Camp on June 3-5, Jerrett also tripped to the NBPA Camp (Charlottesville VA) and Nike Amare Stoudamire Skills Camp (Chicago IL) this month. The Arizona-bound forward also garnered invites to the prestigious LeBron James Skills Academy (July 5-9 @ Akron OH) and the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Game to be held August 27that Venice Beach CA………………..While California’s 2012 class of lead guards appears to be relatively weak overall, 2013 appears to offer many more high-major prospects including 6’1” Ikenna Iroegbu (Franklin/Elk Grove CA), 5’10” Jahmel Taylor (Sierra Canyon/Chatsworth CA), 6’3” Chance Murray (Price/Los Angeles CA), 6’3” Eric Cooper Jr. (La Verne Lutheran/La Verne CA) and 6’3” Alessandro Alberto (Taft/Woodland Hills CA). Iroegbu is considered by national scouts as the West Coast’s top 2013 PG prospect and will be headed to Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson VA) this fall. Taylor was impressive this spring and his stellar effort at the recent Pangos All-American Camp firmly established him as a top-notch national floor general. Murray is a smooth and skilled playmaker that was recently offered by UCLA and has attracted college interest coast to coast while Cooper (coming off a knee injury that sidelined him most of his freshman year) is a poised lead guard with legitimate three-point range who committed to Arizona last Fall and has played very well for his Belmont Shore club team so far this year. Alberto (the sleeper of this group) has a nice package of quality size for the position, passing ability and court vision……….…Las Vegas native 5’9” point guard Pierre Jackson had an outstanding sophomore year this past season at Southern Idaho Junior College – leading his squad to the National Junior College Championship in Hutchinson KS and signed a spring letter of intent with Baylor. Look for him to be an important part of Baylor’s incoming recruiting class which includes All-American HS studs Quincy Miller and Quddus Bello………….6’5” shooting guard Mervyn Lindsay (Canyon Springs/Moreno Valley CA) has decided to enroll at Kansas as a very late addition to the Jayhawks 2011 recruiting class. Lindsay (a long-range lefty marksman) committed to Kansas on the heels of the Jayhawks landing 6’8” Loyola Marymount transfer Kevin Young – an athletic “run-and-jump” forward that played for the same Inland club program Lindsay suited up for………………Elite 2012 big man Brandon Ashley has made official what many “in the know” had been aware of for quite sometime: that the 6’9” Bishop O’Dowd post forward will be leaving the Oakland CA high school for Findlay Prep (Henderson NV) for his high school senior season…………………Underrated 2011 prospect 6’5” Brandon Jawato (El Segundo/El Segundo CA) is headed toHawaii this Fall – giving Gib Arnold a strong and physical wing forward……… An emerging name in Southern California’s 2014 class is 6’5” rising sophomore swingman Razhaun “Bear” Henderson (Alemany/Mission Hills CA). While he hasn’t yet received the acclaim that other top SoCal 2014 prospects like 6’5” Stanley Johnson (Mater Dei/Santa Ana CA), 6’6” Shaqquan Aaron (Mater Dei/Santa Ana CA) and 5’9” Parker Cartwright (Loyola/Los Angeles CA) have, Bear served notice this week at the Fairfax Summer Tourney (Los Angeles CA) that he will be somebody we also will be hearing a lot from in that class. Henderson scored 28 points in Alemany’s opening round win over defending CIF champion Orange Lutheran and its Top 50 national rising senior Gabe York. Bear is a strongly built swingman with an improved perimeter shot and is very active around the basket……………In the “rich get richer” department: Mater Dei (Santa Ana CA) returns four starters off last season’s CIF State Division I championship squad plus several quality reserves but got additional good news recently when 6’3” rising junior combo-guard Elijah Brown transferred in this month from St. Edward (Lakewood OH). Brown is a deceptively athletic player with solid basketball savvy and the ability to play both backcourt spots. Elijah also has an excellent basketball pedigree: he is the son of new Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike Brown (formerly of the Cleveland Cavaliers)……………..
A new July event that will be a must stop for college coaches this summer will be the GBOA Challenge of Champions being held July 27-29 at Cabrillo HS (Long Beach CA). Teams scheduled to participate include Dream Vision (CA), Drew Gooden Soldiers (CA), Belmont Shore (CA), New York Panthers, Compton Magic (CA), Colorado Hawks, Team Detroit (MI), Team Loaded (VA), Texas D-I Ambassadors-San Antonio, Las Vegas Lakers (NV), Team Superstar (CA), Colorado Chaos, San Diego Magic (CA), Sports U Elite (NY), New Jersey Gym Rats and Arkansas Hawks.
