Plenty of Nike EYBL Day II standouts on display

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SACRAMENTO – Fifty-eight games down with 30 more on tap for Sunday.

That’s how Session One of the 2014 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League stood after Saturday’s second day of play at the Jackson Sports Academy during the first week of the Nike EYBL spring “season”.

I did my very best to zero in, from courtside – from start to finish – on seven of those games Saturday.

Here are some of my observations – often of the “random” variety:

*The “Lawson Brothers” put on a nifty display while helping Team Penny (with players from in and around Memphis) the St. Louis Eagles during one of the 9 o’clock games Saturday morning.

Six-foot-eight Dedric Lawson has been rated a lot nearer the top of the Class of 2016 national “ratings” (be that as they may) than has older sibling Keelon Lawson (all 6-7 or so of him) in the Class of 2015.

But Keelon’s “national” shine is sure be enhanced rapidly if the next three EYBL sessions (in Dallas, Hampton and Minneapolis) prove to be every bit as fruitful for him.

They’ve been teammates at Hamilton High in Memphis (where their dad, Keelon Lawson Sr. has been their coach) but apparently will be transferring to Arlington County Day in Jacksonville, FL for the next school year and basketball season.

Also turning in impressive efforts for the Eagles were two of the better players from the Midwest in the Class of 2016, forward Jayson Tatum (St. Louis Chaminade) and guard Quentin Goodin (Taylor County in Campbellsville, KY).

The 6-6 Tatum already has a lot of national “cache” among the recruiting “analyst-types” and Goodin should be on that level pretty soon, as well.

*Six-four King McClure (by way of Triple-A Academy in Dallas) hit a pull-up jumper from the left baseline at the buzzer to give the Texas Titans a one-point victory over Alabama Challenge.

McClure is one of the better “small forward/shooting guard-types” in Texas and his team also need the long-range jump-shooting accuracy of 6-1 Grant Troutt (The Episcopal School in Dallas) to knock off a squad with a least a half-dozen low- to high-major college prospects that include one Florida-based prospect from the Class of 2016 in Landon Trent Forrest (Chipley High in the city of the same name).

Forrest was one of the better point guards I saw Saturday.

*Leo Papile – as good a coach as there is on the national “travel ball” – has another strong Boston Area Basketball Club (BABC) squad, as was quite apparent as it improved to 3-0 in this event with wins over Howard Pulley (Minnesota) and The Family (Michigan) on Saturday.

Papile has two of the better eastern-based prospects from the Class of 2015 in pick-and-pop forward Jeremy Miller (New Hampton School in New Hampshire) and 6-4 combo guard Terance Mann (the Tilton School in; all in New Hampshire).

*Jalen Brunson (Chicago Stevenson) is as nationally respected as any point guard prospect from the Class of 2015.

But the standout for Chicago-based Mac Irvin during its victory over Houston Hoops Saturday afternoon was one of the best jump shooters anywhere on the EYBL circuit – 5-10 Luwane Pipkins (Chicago Bogan).

He knocked in 28 points against Houston Hoops, hitting five of nine shots from behind the arc.

*Spiece Indy Heat has one of the better post combinations in the EYBL this season and if you don’t buy into the declaration you didn’t watch 6-7 Deyonta Davis (Muskegon, MI) and 6-8 Caleb Swanigan (Ft. Wayne, IN, Homestead) pound the team to wins over Team Takeover and the Arkansas Wings Saturday.

Swanigan (Class of 2016) averaged 15.0 points and 10.5 rebounds in the wins while Davis – who has committed to sign a letter of intent with Michigan State in November and is as quick a jumper as there is in this event – averaged 22.5 and 10.5, respectively.

*Six-four DeJounte Murray (Seattle Rainier Beach) played well in the Northwest Xpress loss to Athletes First Friday night and I watched him score 25 points Saturday night in his team’s victory over the Travelers Basketball Club.

*I didn’t see either game Saturday but the best perimeter player in the event – 6-4 Allonzo Trier (Rockfield, MD, Montrose Christian) of Athletes First – was proving that statement correct once again.

Trier, who scored 35 points Friday night, scored 29 in his team’s win over Jackson Saturday morning and 24 – including the buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer – Saturday night against New York Lightning.