The fall Southern California high school hoops season traditionally is tipped off with Dinos Trigonis’ Full Court Press Fall Showcase and that was the case once again for about eight hours on Sunday, this time at Dominguez High in Compton.
Many of the Southland’s top prospects — from middle-school eighth-graders to high-school seniors –participated in the eight games that were played.
Only one senior already committed to a college played in the final game. And 6-foot-9 Grant Jerrett (La Verne Lutheran/University of Arizona) played just about six minutes in the first half before spending the rest of the evening as a spectator.
The top performances by members of the Class of 2012 who played more extensively were turned in by 6-7 Anthony January (Woodland Hills Taft), 6-5 Victor Robbins (Carson), 6-2 1/2 Kejon Mack (Gardena Serra) and 6-6 Dion Wright (Lakewood Mayfair).
But, for the most part, the Class of 2013 stole the show Sunday evening, in large part because juniors in 6-7 Jordan Bell and 6-5 Roschon Prince (both of Long Beach Poly) played in both the Top 20 Juniors and Top 20 Seniors games (because of a shortage of seniors).
Prince’s ability to develop his back court skills will ultimately dictate his national ratings and the caliber of college program that pursues him. He recently joined the Jackrabbits’ football team and one can wonder how that might impact his hoops’ skills progress.
Bell — the best basketball “athlete” in Southern California — and the 6-3 Isaac Hamilton (recently checked into Bellflower St. John Bosco) were nothing short of spectacular at times Sunday. Any national rating that doesn’t have each somewhere close to Top 25 in the Class of 2013 is to be questioned.
The Southland Class of 2014 is expectional and many of its key members were on display Sunday.
Stanley Johnson (6-5/Santa Ana Mater Dei), Isaiah Bailey (6-4/Compton), Bear Henderson (6-5/Woodland Hills Alemany) and Namon Wright (6-3/recently checked into Palmdale Highland) already had national reputations among recruiters and each showed why.
The name Thomas McLaughlin (6-0/Etiwanda) isn’t on a lot of recruiters’ mailing lists — yet. That will change quickly, however, if his performance Sunday is any indication.
He comes from a program that has produced point guards such as Darren Collison (the Indiana Pacers) and Jordan Daniels (a current freshman at Boston College). McLaughlin is a worthy successor to that legacy and could be the Southland’s best sophomore prospect at the position behind Parker Jackson-Cartwright (the L.A. Loyola flash wasn’t at Dominguez Sunday).
The Top 20 Freshman game may have been the best game of the day, in large part because of the presence of so many quality point guards.
The best of those were Cameron High (6-0) and T.J. Johnson (5-9), both of Playa Del Rey St. Bernard); Sedrick Barefield (6-0/Temecula Chaparral); Kendall Small (5-10/Huntington Beach Ocean View); Ke’Jean Feagin (5-9/Long Beach Poly; Latrelle Franklin (5-8/Temecula Great Oak); and Jeremy Hemsley (6-0/La Verne Damien).
Broderick Jones (6-8/St. Bernard), Mason Shepard (6-5/L.A. Windward), Malik Anderson (6-6/Alemany) and Tyler Dorsey (6-4/L.A. Ribet Academy) came into Sunday already well-known to anyone who follows the high school hoops scene in Southern California.
Dorsey had a rare “off” shooting day while Shepard and Anderson dunked anything that wasn’t nailed down.
As for Jones, I’ll call on a well-worn cliche to tell you what I think about him: He can be as good as he wants and as as good as he is willing to work.
With LAX located just a few long jump shots from its campus, one can only imagine how many college coaches, coast to coast, will be making St. Bernard a “must stop” on their recruiting paths.
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