LAS VEGAS – Many of the top community college basketball players from the west – and beyond – were on hand Friday night at Bishop Gorman High for the four-game, Jerry Mullen Legacy JC Showcase.
It was also the first day of the NCAA first’s Division I “evaluation weekend”, with Cal Baptist, Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Oregon, Pepperdine, Saint Mary’s, San Jose State, UC Irvine and Utah among the programs represented by coaches in attendance.
Players were spread across four teams (Jazz, Lakers, Suns and Warriors), with each team playing twice and the Warriors and Lakers winning both of their games.
Among those who stood out for the Warriors were 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Edwyn Collins (Riverside City College in Southern California) and 6-foot-10 freshman Oscar Cluff from Cochise College in Douglas, AZ.
Collins (pictured), who led his 23-7 team with a 13.2 scoring average while shooting 39 percent from behind the arc, scored 32 points in the Warriors’ first game, 85-77 over the Jazz, while scoring 32.
Twenty-four of those came by way of eight 3s – seven of those in the second half.
Cluff, originally from New Zealand and in possession of a lot low-post footwork and savvy, scored nine and 11 points in the team’s games and was a forceful rebounding presence as well.
After scoring just seven points in the Warriors’ first game, 6-6 freshman Isaiah Skinner (Mt. San Jacinto College in Southern California) turned it up considerably in the final contest of the evening.
Skinner, who attended Xavier Prep High in SoCal, averaged 14.1 points and 4.8 rebounds this past season while earning all-Inland Empire Conference honors.
Skinner, also a quality student (3.2 GPA and 980 SAT in high school and a 3.6 GPA the first semester at Mt. San Jac), scored 21 points in the 62-52 win over the Suns including four 3s – some of those via penetration and passes from Collins.
The Suns (who lost their first game with the Lakers, 62-53), got quality efforts from sophomores Dennis Cash and Jalun Trent in the game with Warriors.
The 6-6 Cash, who played as a senior in 2019-20 at California powerhouse Centennial in Corona and attends Harbor College in San Pedro, still has the ability to rebound and score well above the rim that was a high school trademark.
But he’s become a much better jump shooter and hit a couple of deep jumpers among the 13 points he scored in the second half against the Warriors.
The 6-4 Trent (one of four Cochise players at the event and originally from near Philadelphia) demonstrated a “point guard’s sensibility” and did a lot impressive things at both ends of the floor Friday night while scoring 10 and 15 points, respectively.
The Suns also had a 6-9 freshman with intriguing “upside” in John Jenkins.
Jenkins, who attends near-by College of Southern Nevada, is quite slender but is a quick jumper and hit a couple of 3s Friday night.
Another Suns player was one of the SoCal standouts this season, by way of Cerritos College in Norwalk, in 6-6 sophomore Dorian Harris. He packs a 3.6 GPA on a resume that also includes and quality jump shot.
The Lakers (62-53 vs. the Suns and 93-91 in a buzzer-beater with the Jazz) got a variety of quality contributions, notably from sophomores Jahloni Mitchell and William Bailey (teammates at San Diego Mesa) and freshmen Koron Davis (Paris in Texas) and Ray Daniels (Miles Community College in Montana).
The 6-2 Mitchell was a steadying influence on the ball while scoring 11 and 15 points, respectively.
The 6-4, left-handed Bailey was one of the more vertically explosive players on hand Friday night and also hit several pull-up jumpers from mid- and deep-range.
Davis (originally from Gary in Indiana) and Daniels (Las Vegas), each about 6-6 and wiry, were a couple of the compelling freshmen prospects on hand.
Daniels went for 18 and 25 points, scoring on a drive for the game-decider against the Jazz in a game during which he hit several 3s and converted a couple of spectacular finishes, notably a one-hand catch and slam from well above the iron.
Davis (12 and 21 points), started the second game by nailing a set shot from close to 30 feet out and knocked in three other attempts from well behind the arc.
The Jazz lost both of its games but got a couple of powerful, low-post efforts from 6-8 Chuol Deng.
Deng (who is from Tukwila, near Seattle but is a freshman at Hill College in Hillsboro in Texas), scored 15 points in his first game and then went house – for 36 points – in the buzzer-beater with the Lakers.
A couple of Deng’s Jazz teammates are impressive NBA “lineage”.
Six-seven Daylen Williams (who teamed with Ethan Anderson to lead Fairfax to an L.A. City title in 2020), is a strong and skilled left hander with a 3.8 GPA who had a quality sophomore season at Southern Idaho College after playing as a freshman at Cleveland State.
His father, who was courtside to watching his son, is John Williams – one of the legendary players to come out of Los Angeles (Crenshaw, c/o 1984) and helped take LSU to the Final Four in 1986 before going onto to the NBA.
And 6-6 freshman Dallas Rider (San Diego Mesa/he attended Moreau Catholic in Hayward in California and at near-by Coronado as a senior) is the nephew of former UNLV and NBA guard J.R. Rider.
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