Talented and bright youngsters show skills at Pangos

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REDONDO BEACH, Ca. – Some of the players will have major impacts on the high school scene as soon as nine or so months from now.

Others may not make their marks as preps until two, three, four or more years later.

Whatever the case may be for the 200 or so players, currently in fourth to eighth grades, on display Saturday and Sunday, the first-ever Pangos Junior All-American Camp was mostly a terrific playing and viewing experience for those who showed up at Redondo High either or both days.

Evaluating high school and even college basketball players in order to project their potential success on the “next level” (be it college or professional hoops) is always an iffy proposition at best.

Doing so for players who are barely teen-agers, or younger, borders on something approaching an impossible – some might suggest “pointless” – exercise.

That conceded, here are some of the players whose on-court performances most consistently got my attention over the two days:

As far as eighth grade “big men” (and, at that level, anyone at least six-foot in stature qualifies as “big”), some of those performances impressed me would be considered big regardless of their age.

Among the noteworthy of those were (heights are my estimates) 6-foot-9 DeAndre Ayton (San Diego), 6-8 Jacob Hughes (Yorba Linda, CA), 6-3 Matt Bender (San Diego), 6-3 Malik Jackson (Moreno Valley, CA), 6-6 Robbie Robinson (San Diego), 6-3 Ryan Kiley (Las Vegas), 6-3 Travis Friar (Los Gatos, CA), 6-1 Adam Hess (Westlake Village, CA), 6-3 Kale Baldado (San Diego) and 6-4 Luke Lundin (Marina Del Rey, CA).

Guards (or the generic “perimeter players”) among eighth graders that showed a lot of skill and savvy included 5-8 Spencer Freedman (Pacific Palisades, CA), 6-2 Chris Popoola Jr. (Las Vegas), 5-10 Marcus Shaver (Honolulu, HI), 6-1 Charles O’Bannon Jr. (Las Vegas), 6-1 Jalen Harris (Los Angeles), 5-11 Michael Curley (Temecula, CA), 5-8 Jamal Hartwell (Inglewood, CA), 5-9 Isom Butler (Fontana, CA),5-10 Ethan Thompson (Torrance, CA), 6-2 Scooter Smith (Los Angeles), 6-1 Justin Hemsley (La Verne, CA), 5-6 Kyle Small (Anaheim, CA), 5-9 Robert Young (San Diego), 5-8 Calvin Fugett (Denver, CO) and 6-1 Ryse Williams (San Pedro, CA).

Among the most advanced seventh graders I watched were 6-7 Jordan Brown (Sacramento), 6-4 J’raan Brooks (San Diego), 6-2 Cassius Stanley (Chatsworth, CA), 6-0 Payton Moore (Los Angeles), 6-2 Scooter Smith (Los Angeles), 5-4 Kameron Small (Anaheim, CA), 5-5 Bryce Zephir (Long Beach CA), 5-11 Deven Nelson (Fountain, CO) and 6-4 Paul Bingham (Los Angeles).

I was also impressed with some of the young gentlemen off the court, as I had nice conversations with eighth-graders Cassius Byethwood (Inglewood, CA) and David Vasquez (West Linn, OR) and seventh-grader Anthony Chavez (Arcadia, CA).  Each of the three seemed quite sharp, focused and sincere.

I’m sure their families are very proud of them.