Langford shows why college coaches love this Romeo

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SUWANEE, Ga. – Romeo Langford was selected National Sophomore of the Year by MaxPreps last week.

And his used the two adidas Gauntlet games he played with the Eric Gordon All-Stars Saturday to show the large gathering of college coaches, media and assorted other interested on-lookers in the Suwanee Sports Academy why the honored was bestowed upon him.

The 6-foot-5 and oh-so-smooth Langford scored 20 and 29 points, respectively, to help his team knock off Team Fast of Oregon (56-54) and Team Loaded of North Carolina (77-72, in overtime).

Langford took a handoff near the top of the circle and scooted easily into the lane for the go-ahead layup with 14 seconds to go against the Oregon squad.

Team Fast had an excellent opportunity to send the game into overtime but a jump hook from massive (6-10 and 250-plus pounds) Kolby Lee was just off the front of the iron at the buzzer.

FYI: Lee (a senior-to-be at Meridian, ID, Rocky Mountain High) has better low-post footwork than any other post I’ve seen in Georgia this weekend.

And Team Fast has a couple of electric “wing” prospects in the Class of 2017 by way of 6-7 Khalid Thomas (Salem, OR, South) and 6-5 Rylan Bergersen (Boise, ID, Borah) – who both banged on and shot over the top of defenders when I watched the team Friday and Saturday.

But back to Langford, from New Albany High’s Class of 2018 . . .

Langford, who scored 23 points Friday night in a win over New Orleans Elite, has been a model of offensive efficiency over the weekend, hitting 23 of 35 shots from the field (.657) including four of nine from behind the arc – and 22 of 28 from the free-throw line.

He’s also averaged 10.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists in the three games.

Langford and his teammates wrap up the Suwanee portion of the adidas Gauntlet spring circuit when they try to improve to 7-1 on the season with a 10:30 game Sunday morning on Court 5 in the SSA.

I started the morning with three games in the 16s Division, the first two of those at Berkmar High in Lilburn and the third at Peachtree Ridge High in Suwanee.

The 8 o’clock clash (played in quite-the-impressive, approximately 3,000-seat venue at Berkmar) was played between two very good programs from the west (the Colorado Hawks) and the east (the New England Playaz).

The Hawks, behind two exceptional left-handed players from the 2018 class in 6-3 point guard Sam Masten (Highlands Ranch, CO, Rock Canyon) and 6-4 “wing” Daylen Kountz (Denver George Washington), led for about three-quarters of the contest.

But the Playaz tightened up their defense and got exceptional jump shooting out of 6-2 Ethan Wright (Newton, MA, North) and offensive board-crashing from 6-5 left-handed Jorge Vizcarrondo (Springfield, MA, Central) to pull out a 63-60 win.

Wright, who was a standout at the Pangos East All-Frosh/Soph Camp in Philadelphia in October, is a junior-to-be who doesn’t turn 16 until Aug. 14.

Vizcarrondo, currently a freshman, just turned 15 five days ago.

The next game, played in the Berkmar “auxiliary” gym, located upstairs in the same massive building that houses that snazzy “main gym”, saw the (Dante) Exum Elite Utah Prospects topped the Mississippi Basketball Academy (MBA), 55-46.

Lynn Lloyd’s program has a large percentage of the very best players in Utah across all grade levels.

And his 16s team has a lot of quality prospects in the Class of 2018, most notably 6-7 Emmanuel Akot and 6-6 DeSean Eikens, both of which attend Wasatch Academy.

Ironically, neither is originally from Utah as Akot is from Winnipeg and Eikens spent his first year and a half of high school in North Dakota.

Then, after a 15-minute or so drive to Peachtree Ridge High, I watch Compton Magic’s 16s overcome a 13-point deficit out of the chute to overtake and beat Team Loaded of Virginia, 66-62, largely because of the jump shooting of juniors-to-be Scooter Smith (Cerritos, CA, Gahr), Harrison Butler (Santa Ana Mater Dei) and Rylan O’Brien (Tucson, AZ, Salpointe) and overall play of 6-3 sophomore-to-be Jarod Lucas (Hacienda Heights, CA, Los Altos).