LA GRANGE, IL – The Pangos All-Midwest Frosh/Soph Camp wrapped up Sunday afternoon exactly the way most anticipated it would before it had even tipped off some 24 hours before:
Patrick Baldwin Jr. proved once more than he is among the very best of the best – as in, perhaps, the best – players in the national high school class of 2021.
The sophomore at Hamilton High in the Milwaukee suburb of Sussex picked up the overall Most Outstanding Player honor for event that was a showcase for some 200 or so players in attendance (the bulk of those coming from Illinois).
It was the second consecutive time he’s bagged that designation. He also played int eh camp’s Top 30 Crème o the Crop Game two years ago as an eighth grader.
Baldwin scored 11 points with five rebounds, three assists and two steals in Sunday’s Top 30 clash, although his black jerseys-wearing squad fell to its white-wearing counterpart, 85-79.
Ahamad Bynum, a sophomore guard at Simeon High in Chicago, led the white squad with 30 points via 11 of 17 shooting from the field (including six of eight from behind the arc).
Anton Brookshire, a sophomore point guard from Kickapoo High in Springfield, MO, added 12 points with six rebounds, five assists and two steals in support of Bynum (whose uncle, Will Bynum, was a standout at the University of Arizona).
Brookshire would have matched up against the other top sophomore point guard in the camp in Kobe Bufkin (Grand Rapids, MI, Christian) but Michigan high school rules forbid players from participating in “all-star” games during the school year and prior to the start of the regular season.
Freshman Jaylen Drane (a Simeon teammate of Bynum’s) had 17 points, five assists and five steals for the black jersey-wearing club while sophomore center Chase Courbat (Cedar Falls, IA) added 17 points with a game-high nine rebounds.
Drane (PICTURED) is, with Richard Isaacs Jr. (Henderson, NV, Coronado), one of the two best freshmen point guards I’ve seen during the Pangos Frosh/Soph stops in Southern California, Dallas and Chicago this fall.
The last of the four stops, for the All-East Camp, is next weekend in Thorofare, NJ (just outside of Philadelphia).
Here are my selections for the top performances (not necessarily the “15-best prospects”) this past weekend at the Park District Center in this Chicago suburb:
Most Outstanding Sophomore:
Patrick Baldwin Jr. (6-9/Sussex, WI, Hamilton)
Most Outstanding Freshman:
Jaylen Drane (6-2/Chicago Simeon)
Top 30 Cream of the Crop Game Most Outstanding Player:
Ahamad Bynum (6-2/So./Chicago Simeon)
Top 60 Cream of the Crop Game Most Outstanding Player:
Isaac Haney (6-0/So./Dora, MO)
The rest of the Top 15 camp performers:
Anton Brookshire (6-2/So./Springfield, MO, Kickapoo)
Kobe Bufkin (6-3/So./Grand Rapids, MI, Christian)
Andre Casey Jr. (6-8/Fr./Chicago Simeon)
Chrishawn Christmas (6-4/So./Gary, IN, Westside)
Chase Courbat (6-9/So./Cedar Falls, IA)
Sekou Gassama (6-9/So./St. Louis DeSmet)
JR Konieczny (6-6/So./South Bend, IN, St. Joseph)
Khamari Lands (6-6/Fr./La Porte, IN, La Lumiere)
Grant Newell (6-6/So./Chicago Whitney Young)
Jalen Washington (6-7/Fr./Gary, IN, Westside)
Brandon Weston (6-6/So./Lake Forest, IL, Academy)
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