Guards dominate Magic Memorial Event Saturday

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CORONA, Ca. – The official title of the event might be a bit cumbersome to wrap your arms around.

But what is very simple about the “Ballislife Magic Memorial Day Festival, presented by Muscle Milk” is this:

There are a whole lot of quality travel squads led by a whole lot of quality high school hoopsters on display at the event fronted by Compton Magic CEO Etop Udo-Ema over Memorial Weekend.

Around-the-clock (or so it seemed on Saturday, when games tipped off at 8 in the a.m.) action was display at three sites in this Riverside County community, two of those high schools (Santiago and Roosevelt) and the third the Players Edge, one of the headquarters, of sorts, for high school hoops in Southern California.

And the latter facility is where the games from the top division – the BattleZONE 17-under – are being hotly (it got a bit toasty at times in the building on Saturday) contested.

The 16-team field includes the Dream Vision squads that are led by Las Vegas Bishop Gorman Class of 2015 members Stephen Zimmerman (Dream Vision 17U) and Chase Jeter and Nick Blair (Dream Vision 16U).

Each split a pair of games on Saturday, the 17U club falling to the Arizona Stars (led by Class of 2014 point guard Gino Littles of Desert Mountain in Scottsdale) while its 16 counterpart fell to Superior Athletes via a jump shot from the left corner by Ron Freeman (a 6-foot-4 junior at Serra in Gardena, CA).

The event is loaded with dozens of high-quality guards who either are, or will soon be, recruiting targets of multiple major college programs.

But far and away the top prospect on display Saturday was – not surprisingly – the 6-11 (or so) Zimmerman.

The left hander scored in just about any fashion imaginable – 3s, pull-up jumpers, jump hooks and, of course, an assortment of dunks – and is steadily becoming a force as a shot-blocking, rim-protector as well.

But, first and foremost, it’s an offensive skill set that separates him – in my humble estimation – from the other players at his size in his class, nationally as well as regionally.

On the subject of guards, the Orange County-based Superior Athletes squad has a bunch of them.

And no program in Southern California has a better trio of Class of 2015 backcourt players than Kendall Small (Huntington Beach Ocean View), Jeremy Hemsley (La Verne Damien) and Stephen Thompson Jr. (Torrance Bishop Montgomery).

Superior Athletes will attempt to wrap up pool play at 3-0 when it takes on the Oklahoma Magic squad at 9 Sunday morning.

Another team going 2-0 on Saturday (in Pool A) was the Compton Magic Elite – largely because of, you guessed it, quality play in the backcourt.

It has two of the better point guards in the Southland Class of 2015 in Justin Bibbins (Bishop Montgomery) and Victor Joseph (Rancho Cucamonga) and each was terrific on Saturday.

Also performing well from the perimeter were wings Kodi Justice (from Mesa, AZ, Dobson; he was one of the better jump shooters in action Saturday), Isaiah Bailey (Compton) and Deontae North (Corona Centennial).

I only caught very brief glimpses of the L.A. Rockfish vs. Compton Magic Select (with some of the better players from the Southland Class of 2015) contest Saturday evening – don’t mock me; there were always three games being played simultaneously Saturday.

But Rockfish cruised in surprisingly one-sided fashion – in large part, I was told by several folks, because of the exceptional performance by Robert Cartwright (La Canada Flintridge Prep), another one of the better point guards from the Class of 2014, not just in Southern California but in the entire western region.

Rockfish (coached by Glenn Marx, a long-time successful prep coach in Southern California) also has two very good front-court performers from the Class of 2014 in 6-10 Thomas Welsh (L.A. Loyola) and 6-6 (or so) Joshua Rideaux of L.A. Westchester.

Other guards that I watched and was impressed Saturday included: the Pangos Elite pair of Tra Holder (L.A. Brentwood) and Devin Watson (San Diego Army-Navy), as well as 2015 member Jeffrey McClendon (Pasadena) of Pangos Silver.