Just a glance at 13 EYBL weekend standouts

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SACRAMENTO – Forty teams combined to play 79 (give or take) games during the first weekend of the 2014 season of the Nike-fronted Elite Youth Basketball League.

Anyone who suggests that they can offer a concise rundown on the bulk of the players who showed up in the Jackson Sports Academy is either prone to considerable exaggeration or is a bald-faced liar (as opposed to a “full-bearded fibber”, I suppose).

I feel comfortable is suggesting that I don’t fall into either category.

So there will be no pretense of a complete rundown for the time being.

What I will offer up, though, is a list – say, 13 deep – for the guys who did the best job of impressing over the weekend, either based strictly on how well they played or my reaction upon watching them, in person, for the first time.

Let’s get started with the top players I witnessed on the perimeter and the post.

And they were:

*Allonzo Trier (6-foot-4/Class of 2015/Rockville, MD, Montrose Christian/Athletes First) gets the very enthusiastic nod on the perimeter for the way he scored so easily and efficiently (28.5 points per game/54 percent from the field, overall, including 48 percent from behind the arc) while leading his team to four victories in as many games.

There are those who continue to cling to the notion that Malik Newman (Jackson, MS, Callaway High) is the No. 1 shooting guard prospect in the national Class of 2015.

Newman might have sold me on that concept had he, in fact, been in Sacramento playing for the EYBL Jackson (MS) Tigers instead of a team in the Under Armour-sponsored event in Pittsburgh over the weekend.

A Trier vs. Newman head-up matchup could have been one of the only highlights of the spring “live NCAA evaluation period event”.

*Cheick Diallo (6-8/2015/Centerreach, NY, Our Savior/Team SCAN) needs to expand his offensive repertoire from dunks and the occasional jump hook or turn-around jump shot.

But no one rebounder more spectacularly or played any harder than he did while – IMHO – demonstrating that he was the best of the post players in attendance, regardless of class.

And, 11 more:

*The Lawson Brothers from Team Penny (Hardaway), 2015 Keelon Jr. (6-8/Jacksonville, FL, Arlington Country Day) and 2016 Dedric (6-8 and ditto) played hard and unselfishly – a pretty cool combination – over the weekend.

*Spiece Indy Heat is another club that went 4-zip on the first weekend, largely behind the post play of Michigan State-committed Deyonta Davis (6-8/2015/Muskegon, MI, Muskegon) and Caleb Swanigan (6-8/2016/Indianapolis Arsenal Tech).

They combined to average 36.7 points and 18.8 rebounds per game as their team won its four games by an average margin of 13 points.

*This was my first opportunity to see 6-6 Jayson Tatum (St. Louis Chaminade High) and he more than delivered on the hyperbole while averaging 21.2 points in the St. Louis Eagles’ four games.

I might prove to be more than just a tad conservative on this assessment but he’s at least somewhere among the 10 best prospects in the national Class of 2016.

*Canadian players, largely via the Nike CIA program, have made a major impact on college hoops of late.

Soon to join that group is 6-4 guard Jamal Murray, by way of Toronto.

Another Class of 2016 standout, Murray was terrific over the weekend two weeks after playing well for the World Select squad in the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland.

*Six-eleven Udoka Azubuike (Jacksonville, FL, Potter’s House Christian) used four games with Nike Team Florida over the weekend to show all in attendance why he is one of the very best centers in the Class of 2016.

His skills are still very raw – he came to the U.S. from Nigeria a little more than a year ago – but there is no doubt that, at about 260 or so pounds, he is going to be dominating force on the high school ranks for the next two years.

*Eric Davis (Saginaw Hill) and Jalen Brunson (Chicago Stevenson), doing their respective things for The Family and Mac Irvin, put their point guard skills on display over the weekend.

Brunson may be the consensus choice as the best PG prospect in the Class of 2015 and Davis might not be too far behind.

Another exceptional 2015 PG – although he could also be called a “combo” at his size (6-4 plus) – over the weekend was Terance Mann, a BABC standout who attends the New Tilton School in New Hampshire.

*Jump shooter-deluxe Malik Monk (Bentonville, AR) was outstanding when I watched him on Saturday with Arkansas Wings.

And then the 2016 standout dropped 59 points (including 10 3s) Sunday morning in a loss to All-Ohio Red (caveat: I didn’t see the game).

Just guessing: That’s a single-game EYBL record.

There were dozens of others who impressed me to various degrees over the weekend.

I’ll re-visit them in two weeks when I’m in Dallas for Session II.