Frosh/Soph Camp’s best came by way of Saginaw

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LAGRANGE, IL – Day I of the Pangos All-Midwest Frosh/Soph Camp is a wrap.

And consider this:

If freshman Brian Bowen (Saginaw, MI, Hill) has an encore on tap that is anything approaching his opening act on Saturday, there are going to be a whole lot of bedazzled onlookers Sunday at the Park District Recreation Center in this Chicago suburb.

Saturday the slender 6-foot-6 Bowen – who turned down the opportunity to visit Lexington Friday night for Kentucky’s Midnight Madness in order to play at this camp – put on a compelling on-court demonstration as to why his name belongs prominently in any discussion about the best of the best in the Class of 2017 when it comes to high school hoops.

Bowen, who plans to play for the Christian Dawkins-fronted Dorian’s Pride (named in honor of Dawkins’ late brother) grassroots program along with 2016 standout Josh Jackson (Detroit Consortium), displayed immense physical and basketball gifts on Saturday – at both ends of the floor.

He did pretty much anything he wanted to offensively, from slashing nimbly through traffic for layups, bouncing well above crowds for stick-backs, penetrating and dishing for high-percentage attempts by teammates or knocking in shots well beyond the arc.

Until he begins to face (in high school games and on the grassroots camp and tournament circuit) defenders two-to-three years older, the best “defense” against his offense might be in coaxing him to “settle” for long jumpers – allowing him to get into the lane can just damage an opponent in too many fashions.

And, defensively, he made his impressive felt against one of the best scorers in the camp.

He and 6-1 (and change), 170-pound sophomore Josh Thomas (Chicago Simeon) – who did a better job of anyone I watched Saturday in creating space, off the dribble, for his jumper – had a sweet confrontation in the evening sessions of games.

Unlike any other opponent Thomas hooked up with Saturday, Bowen really forced him to dip deeply into his bag of tricks to score.

And sometimes even that wasn’t good enough against Bowen.

Thomas used what seemed to be his pet move – a hard dribble right, a step back for space and then a quickly released (with pogo-like elevation) jumper – once in the second half.

But, instead of getting caught on his heels and Thomas’ jumper ripping the net, Bowen remained on-balance, closed out nimbly and caught the ball with his right hand.

My, oh, my . . .

Despite the something approaching 12 paragraphs you just read, there were a lot of other standouts on Day I besides the aforementioned Bowen and Thomas.

Among those were sophomore point guards in Devontae Lane (6-foot/Class of 2017/Iowa City West), Christopher Duff Jr. (6-1/2016/Mundelein, IL, Carmel) and Charlie Moore (5-9/2016/Chicago Morgan Park).

Lane may be the strongest (physically) player at the PG position in the camp. He got pretty much anywhere he pleased, on the dribble, when I watched Saturday.

Duff isn’t quite as strong as is Lane (but more than strong enough) and hit a few more jumpers than did his Iowa counterpart when I was watching.

Moore, when his high school coach (Nick Irvin) watching from the sidelines, hit both deep- and mid-range jumpers and consistently penetrated with quickness as well as a purpose.

I’m not sure if he’s more “shooting guard” or “point guard” but 6-1 Antonio Williams (2016/Maywood, IL, Proviso West) was among the very best guards – period – in action Saturday.

Thomas made have been in a category by himself Saturday as a jump shooter (at least, via off the dribble) but there was a lot of other fellows who impressed with both their form, quickness of release and accuracy.

Among those were 6-4 Grant Gelon (2016/Crown Point, IN), 6-1 Devon Sams (Bolingbrook, IL), 6-foot Jordan Newman (2016/Chicago Stevenson) and 5-10 Eugene German (2016/Gary, IN, 20^th Century Charter).

Lane wasn’t the only potential standout from Iowa City’s West High in action Saturday.

Six-four Wali Parks was one of the most aggressive and effective rebounders, and also hit a few mid-range floaters.

And two others a have significant University of Iowa roots:

Six-four, left-handed guard Connor McCaffery is the son of Hawkeyes’ Coach Fran McCaffery.

And 6-6 Tanner Lohaus is the son of a former Iowa and NBA 7-footer, Brad Lohaus.

Speaking of NBA offspring, 6-6 Bol Bol (an eighth grader at St. Paul in Olathe, KS) is the son of the late Manute Bol, one of the tallest-ever players (7-7).

Two other possible future elite-level players from Simeon’s Class of 2016, 6-5 Zach Norvell and 6-8 Ben Coupet, also showed off glimpses of terrific potential on Saturday.

Action resumes Sunday morning at 9 o’clock (CT). All-Star games will be played at 1 (Top 50) and 2 p.m. (Top 25), respectively.