Day I, Pangos All-American Camp XIV

• Tweet

• Tweet

NORWALK, Ca. – Years to come – including NCAA Tournaments and NBA drafts – will give us more perspective on the topic.

But, based upon an opening-Friday evening’s viewing at Cerritos College, this Pangos All-American Camp may stack up with the very best of its Dinos Trigonis-fronted 13 predecessors in terms of depth and top-of-the-class “star power”.

A quick example via this collective group of players:

DeAndre Ayton (Phoenix Hillcrest); P.J. Washington (Henderson, NV, Findlay Prep); Billy Preston (who is set to attend Oak Hill Academy in Virginia as a senior after spending his previous season and a half at Advanced Prep International); Brandon McCoy (San Diego Cathedral Catholic); Charles O’Bannon Jr. (Las Vegas Bishop Gorman); Michael Porter Jr. (Columbia, MO, Tolton but soon-to-be-attending a high school in the Seattle area); Gary Trent Jr. (Apple Valley, MN); Quade Green (Philadelphia Newman-Goretti); Trae Young (Norman, OK, North); Hamidou Diallo (Putnam, CT, Science Academy) and Jared Vanderbilt Houston Victory Prep)

Those are 11 of the 15 or so best performers on the four-stop, Nike Elite Youth Basketball League.

Each of the 11 is a strong candidate for the 2017 McDonald’s All-American team with Ayton probably as the consensus choice right now of scouting services and recruiting websites as the No. 1 prospect in the class.

And each was in one of those spiffy Pangos AA uniforms Friday night and all but McCoy (a minor injury) was in action once games finally tipped at about 8:45ish.

That’s just an inkling of the talent on hand.

Some of the other fellows in the building and playing Friday night in a event that continues Saturday afternoon at the same location (on Alondra, just east of the 605 Freeway – admission is FREE!) and wraps up Sunday afternoon with two all-star games included Trevon Duval (Dallas Advanced Prep International); Ira Lee (Napa, CA, Prolific Prep); Isaiah Washington (New York St. Raymond’s) and Keith Williams (Brooklyn Bishop Loughlin) – each a standout on the Under Armour Association circuit this spring.

And those are just 15 players from the Class of 2017 who were in attendance.

Top-tier underclassmen on display included 6-foot-10 Charles Bassey (San Antonio, TX, St. Anthony), the consensus No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2-019; 6-1 point guard Spencer Freedman (2018, Santa Ana, CA, Mater Dei); 6-3 David Singleton (2018, Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery); 6-2 Cole Anthony (another 2019 standout, he from Archbishop Molloy in New York City); 6-9 Miles Norris (2018, Chula Vista, CA, Mater Dei) and 6-9 Jontay Porter (the Class of 2018 “little” brother of Michael Porter Jr.).

By multiple reputable accounts, Ayton, Michael Porter Jr., O’Bannon, Singleton and Isaiah Washington were particularly impressive Friday night.

But the following observations are based upon strictly the two games on Court 1 (there are three courts), where I parked myself for the duration and zeroed in on: Duke vs. Georgia (Atlantic Coast Conference division) and Cal vs. Stanford (Pac 12 division).

The guys that impressed me most in the first of those games were the 6-3 Duval, 6-3 Eric Ayala (2017/Putnam, CT, Science Academy), 6-4 Jay Jay Chandler (2017/Katy, TX, Cinco Ranch) and 6-8 Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree (2017/Philadelphia Neumann-Goretti/he’s committed to signing with Villanova in November) of Duke, and the 6-5 Trent and 6-7 Hassan French (2017/Springfield, MA, Commonwealth Academy).

Duval is thought by many to be the No. 1 point guard prospect in the Class of 2017 and there was nothing about his performance in his team’s 90-79 to make the first- or multi-time viewer sway sharply from that opinion.

He forced (and misfired upon) on a few passes and shots early but then proceeded to pretty much get anywhere he wanted on his dribble and successfully execute anything he wanted to do with the ball.

Duval and Duke are set to play against Miami and Trae Young on Court 2 at about 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoon.

A lot of “recruiting rankings fodder” could be on stake in that clash for two fellows who, without question, want to eventually be in possession of the consensus national 2017 point guard rating one year hence.

Duval (all stats I’m going to refer to here were kept by the quite “able” – capable, insightful and personable — Gregg Rosenberg of Rivals/Arizona) was credited with 14 points and four assists.

Ayala (a standout for Puerto Rico’s national program and a WE R1 UAA teammate of Duval’s) was far from the most spectacular of “athletes” on hand Friday night but has a feel for the nuances of play on both ends of the floor that far surpass all but a few of the 110 or so kids in the camp.

The left-handed Chandler hit a shot from nearly the sideline in the left corner to start things and never stopped launching – and hitting – from behind the arc the rest of the way.

He hit five 3s in the first half and added three more in the second half (he missed just two attempts in the game, according to Rosenberg) and added a couple of big bangs to finish with 28 points.

He scored with more flair and efficiency in that 50 minutes or so of “real time” (games are played in 20-minute, running-clock halves, with the clock stopping in the first two minutes of the contest) than did Trent (23 points), who many believe is the best of the 2017 shooting guard prospects.

Here are the comments I wrote next to Cosby-Roundtree’s number (84) in my notebook: jump hook; dunk (via Duval pass); pick-and-roll layup (via Duval pass); monster 2-hand follow; bobbled dribble/over-handle in open court; wow! Dunk on pass from Chandler; sprints!).

French, a 230-poundish left hander who plays with Quade Green and 6-11 Mohammed Bamba (a breakout star at this camp a year ago now sidelined for the past few weeks with a severe ankle sprain) for the EYBL PSA Cardinals, bears a striking facial and physical resemblance to Moses Scurry (search for any YouTube evidence via the 1990 UNLV national championship squad and you’ll agree with me).

But his jump shot with a lot more range and accuracy than Scurry did with the Running Rebels (or was allowed to by the late and oh-so-great Coach Jerry Tarkanian) when he teamed with Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony (whose son, by the way, is Cole Anthony).

And he rebounded with something approaching the ferocity in which Scurry snatched basketballs away from overwhelmed opponents.

For those of you who wanted a quick lesson in hoops histrionics, Scurry may have been the first of the high-profile college or NBA players who would offer screams – at opponents or anyone within his eye shot – following a particularly rim-crunching dunk.

OK, I’m off the tangent now . . .

Game 2/Court 1 on Friday night, Cal vs. Stanford, had even more individuals that impressed (at least from my perspective), in particular 6-7 Jordan Schakel (2017/Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery), 6-8 Jarvis Thomas (2018/Long Lake, MN, Orono) and 6-9 Isiah Jasey (a senior-to-be who is from Houston but attends Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita) of Cal, and Spencer Freedman; 6-1 T.J. Starks (2017/Lancaster, TX); 6-4 Keith Williams; 6-4 Victor Bailey (2017/Austin, TX, McNeil); 6-5 Walter Whyte (2018/New Canaan, CT, St. Luke’s); P.J. Washington and Charles Bassey of Stanford.

Schakel is one of three Bishop Montgomery players in the camp (with 6-4 classmate Ethan Thompson, a standout here last year, and David Singleton), and he hit a few deep jumpers, while also scoring on a nice pump-fake, drive and finish, and an “And 1” on a reverse in traffic.

His basketball skills need a lot of refining but in terms of pure “vertical pop”, no one I watched on Court 1 jumped higher or quicker than did Thomas.

Jasey, while often pitted against Bassey or P.J. Washington, scored on some tough turn-around attempts in the low post and showed nice dexterity on open-court “finesse” finishes.

Freedman and Starks, both left-handers, could prove to make up the best set of point guards on any of the 12 camp squads.

Freedman is an exceptional jump shooter but attempted just one shot, and drilled it from about 22 feet away. He also (according to my buddy Gregg Rosenberg) was credited with eight assists and just two turnovers. No one I saw on Court 1 passed it better than Freedman did.

Starks was in more of a “scoring mode” than was Freedman and hit a couple of deep 3s and also showed nice pop on a dunk. His lob pass to Keith Williams was turned into a two-hand by Williams.

Williams was very good at the camp a year ago and was even better Friday night. He hit four deep 3s and there wasn’t a “purer” jump shooter – via form, lift, accuracy and selection – in the building.

Bailey is another left-handed Texan with, a la Chandler, a lot of range and accuracy to go with his jump shot. He hit a couple of 3s (from the top of the key and right corner), and punched a two-handed bang, all courtesy of Freedman passes.

Whyte was pretty much a national “unknown” before coming to Pangos XIII (held at Cal State Dominguez Hills in near-by Carson) a year ago.

He built on that strong effort in SoCal with a solid junior high school season and has been very good with the PSA Cardinals (with French, Green and Bamba) this spring. Is he “small forward” or “shooting guard”? I’m not sure and it doesn’t matter. Just put him on the floor and he produces at both ends, as was the case Friday night.

I’m sure I’m not the first one to write (or say this) but there is a whole lot about P.J. Washington that is beginning to remind me of the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green – minus all of those “inadvertent” kicks to opponents’ body parts, of course.

Finally, but far from least, Bassey – who appears to have grown a couple of inches and put on 20 pounds or so since I last saw him at the Pangos All-South Frosh/Soph Camp in Dallas in October – lived up to all of the “He’s No. 1 in the Class of 2019” hyperbole that has percolated since he arrived in the U.S. from Nigeria in late August with his first-ever SoCal appearance Friday night.

His face-up, pump and drive past Jarvis Thomas from the right short corner that culminated in a two-hand bang was startling in both its suddenness and explosiveness in the first half.

In the second half he showed off both his mobility (despite tooling around in what appear to be something in the range of size 18 Nikes) and well-beyond-his-experience ability to find teammates and get passes to them where they need to be.

The only bummer about Bassey’s performance was that he wasn’t able to match up against another post prospect who is a consensus Top 5 or so in the Class of 2019 – Onyeka Okongwu of national champion Chino Hills High (located about 50 miles east of Norwalk).

Okongwu was listed on the Cal roster but couldn’t attend the camp because of family obligations.

They apparently worked out against one another during an adidas function in Miami a couple of weekends ago, though, and could possibly face off at some point during the adidas Super 64 in Las Vegas next month or during the adidas Nations Camp in Southern California in early August.