The usual suspects, and more, shine at Cypress College

• Tweet

• Tweet

CYPRESS, Ca. – The second annual West Coast Showcase, held Sunday from mid-morning through early afternoon at Cypress Community College in this western-most Orange County city, served as a showcase of sorts for the Superior Athletes Basketball club program.

Of course, there were plenty of quality non-Superior Athletes on display, too, among the 60 or so players who got in two games each in front of prep hoops/recruiting analysts analysts including yours truly, Joel Francisco (ESPN.com), Aaron Burgin (Full-Time Hoops), Ronnie Flores (Cal-Hi Sports) and Devin Ugland (the rising sports-writing star from the Orange County Register).

First and foremost Sunday, naturally, was the presence of the three head-lining members of the Superior Athletes, Don Small-founded and run program, Class of 2015 California – and beyond – standout guards Jeremy Hemsley (La Verne Damien), Kendall Small (Lakewood Mayfair) and Stephen Thompson Jr. (Torrance Bishop Montgomery).

For the most part, each could have scored pretty much as frequently as they wished on Sunday.

But major props are due to the classy trio of young men for playing within a “team concept” throughout, in a environment when a lot of other highly touted players might have spent the majority of the two games jacking as many shots as possible or goofing on inferior defenders.

Hemsley had his nasty crossover working in high gear, capping one of those dandy right-to-left moves in transition with a wicked left (off)-handed slam.

Small played at multiple speeds, on the dribble, and was equally effective at each while delivering the ball – either by dribble or pass – where and when it needed to be delivered consistently.

Thompson hit his usual quota of deep jumpers but also set up teammates, who were either cutting or spotting up, with some terrific passes, as well.

And Thompson also had a transition dunk that would have left his dad beaming but the former L.A. Crenshaw High and Syracuse standout, and current Cal State Los Angeles men’s head coach, wasn’t in the gym Sunday. Mom Amy was, and she had good reason to beam afterward.

Not only was Stephen showing why he is one of the very best juniors anywhere but “little” (but not by a lot these days) brother Ethan Thompson also performed as one would imagine one of the better freshmen in the state should.

One of the post players who started for the Superior Athletes team during its successful spring and summer “seasons”, 6-foot-7 Brad Johnson (Yorba Linda), once again demonstrated that he will be among the more underrated seniors in Orange County during the very-shortly-upon-us season.

Two other Superior Athletes seniors who were very good on Sunday were Small’s Mayfair teammates, 6-5 Dillon Reise (who, like Small, transferred from Huntington Beach Ocean View; the left hander is one of the best “scorers” in all of SoCal, folks) and 6-1 Mike Nwabuzor (who missed most of the summer with injury but became quite buffed via some long hours in the Monsoon’s weight room).

Several other members of the Class of 2015 from Superior Athletes also showed off the goods on Sunday, including:

*Malik Fitts (6-5), another reason why Damien – led by Hemsley, naturally – will be in strong contention for another Southern Section title this spring;

*Chandler Dignam (6-3), a muscular athlete with plenty of range on his jump shot and spring in his step, will help make Anaheim Canyon one of the better teams in Orange County and within its Southern Section division;

*Kyle Davis (5-10), who was one of the quicker players in the building Sunday, should have an exceptional season at Anaheim Savanna and;

*Justin Kam (6-4), on the mainland for the weekend (he attends the Punahou School in Honolulu), was one of the better off-the-catch jump shooters at the event.

The biggest revelation, player-wise, Sunday was a sophomore from Fullerton High.

The isn’t a lot of muscle – or body mass, period – over Gerritt Beestra’s 6-7 frame (and he may be one of the few high school players who seemed taller than what he claims to be).

But the 170-pound – maybe – Beestra had quite the impressive jump shot (with range and a quick release) on display on Sunday, scored fairly consistently in and around the lane (he never brought the ball below his shoulders after an offensive rebounder or after catching a pass) and rebounding aggressively.

He is a very good prospect, folks – in high school and beyond.

Riverside (6-1 Deshon Taylor of J.W. North) and Santa Barbara (6-2 Elijah Johnson of San Marcos) counties were well-represented in the Class of 2014.

San Diego County, it seemed, was out in force in its county to the north.

Among those repping the 619, 760 and 858 area codes were:

*(Oceanside) El Camino 2014 stalwarts of point guard Dakota Orr and wing Chad Morrison. Both are members of the Marshawn Cherry-fronted San Diego All-Stars program that captured the highly competitive Best of Summer Tournament in Anaheim in July.

*Hard-driving and hard-dunking (oh, my!) but smooth-shooting junior forward Brady Twombly (Carlsbad La Costa Canyon), of the San Diego-based Gamepoint program run by Charlie Mercado;

*Six-three sophomore Omajae Smith (San Diego Serra), yet another of the seeming multitude of Superior Athletes members that were very good in both games they played;

*One of the Southland’s best freshmen, 6-6 Robbie Robinson (Kearny), one more Superior Athletes stars-of-the-future, and;

*Six-seven eighth grader J Raan Brooks (Hillsdale Middle School), who is also right-handed pitcher of note, was more than up to the task of tangling with players two, three and even four years his senior on Sunday.