LONG BEACH – The BallerTV/Pangos Premier 80 tipped off a busy, five-day NCAA “live evaluation period” for high school boys’ grassroots basketball in Southern California Wednesday afternoon at McBride High.
The head coaches from the UCLA, Washington State, Fresno State, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and Texas Christian programs were among those that were courtside for the eight-game (players, from across the country, were spread among eight teams that played twice apiece over four hours) event.
And a large contingent of assistant coaches from the likes of USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, New Mexico, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, Oklahoma, Cal Baptist, Grand Canyon, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Utah and Stanford also followed the action as players, in five-minute intervals, shuffled on and off the McBride gymnasium floor that was divided into two courts with two games running simultaneously.
After the last of the McBride competition wrapped, most of those of the coaches – and a lot of the players – headed north on the 605 Freeway and east on its 91 counterpart deep into North Orange County, where the first night of the Cali-Live, Summer Showcase was tipping at 5:30 at Orange Lutheran High.
There, eight games – two played concurrently on a gym floor also split into two courts – involved “club” teams were held.
Most of the Cali-Live action resumes Thursday afternoon (at 3 o’clock) at the Momentous Sports Complex in Irvine with the final games (division title matches) that are set to get underway at 2 on Sunday.
Other events set for this week:
*The Marquee Hoops/West Coast Championship (at the Ladera Ranch Sports Center, tipping at 1 Thursday afternoon and also concluding Sunday afternoon);
*The West Coast Elite (WCE) Summer Classic, which got underway early Wednesday evening at the Aims Sports Complex in Seal Beach;
*The Stage: Act 4 (gets underway Thursday, at 6 p.m., at the Open Gym Premier in Anaheim. Games are also held Saturday and Sunday at the Draft Sports Complex in Corona);
*And, in Garden Grove, the Pangos Summer Sweet 16 is the last of the “club team” events to tip, its three days of competition beginning Friday evening at The MAP.
The 7-foot Isaiah Miranda, a member of the Rhode Island Elite program (he’s set to play for the Julius Von Hanzlik-run Southern California Academy program during the 2022-23 season), was the most high-profile prospect on hand at McBride High Wednesday.
UCLA is one of the numerous programs that offered him a scholarship and, with Bruins’ head honcho Mick Cronin and one of his assistants, Nate Georgeton, looking on, Miranda – via his mobility, bounce, shooting touch and advancing handling skill – mostly showed so many coaching staffs, from coast to coast, are in pursuit.
Miranda, playing for a “Bucks” team that also including a quality 2024 guard (Styles Phipps of Phoenix St. Mary’s) and one of California’s top players in the Class of 2026 (guard Kaiden Bailey, set to play for Orange Lutheran in 2022-23), scored 18 and nine points, respectively, during a win over the “Warriors” and loss to the “Spurs”.
The event was especially deep in quality players in the Class of 2025.
And one of those – 6-8 Nik Khamenia of Harvard-Westlake – hit a 3-pointer with four seconds to go for the Spurs in the 83-80 win.
Khamenia scored 18 points in the game vs. the Bucks after hitting for nine in an eased-up, 103-51 smacking of the “Clippers”.
Forget his points (mostly coming from jump shots by way a variety of ranges), though.
A reasonable case could be made that he was the best of the multitude of 2025s in the class, as well as the most versatile of anyone on hand and – maybe – the best long-term prospects among any of the players in the building Wednesday.
Among those joining Miranda as some of the better players in the c/o 2023 there were 6-1 Shane Douma-Sanchez (Albuquerque Del Norte; his rapid-release led to nine 3s in his two games with the Warriors); 6-7 Isaac Garrett (Pleasant Grove; maybe the best basketball “athlete” in Utah and the state’s most versatile senior); 6-4 Drew Kingery (Indianola in Iowa; a standout during the June 5-7 Pangos All-American Camp, he’s one of the best scorers in the Midwest) and 6-4 Parker Strauss (Newport Pacifica Christian).
Strauss (pictured) has seen his recruiting stock sizzle over the spring and early summer while playing for the L.A. Elite Select program and with his high school team during the Section Seven last month in Phoenix.
He’s on a short list (of maybe five or fewer) of the top candidates to be Orange County’s top player in 2022-23.
Miranda and his Rhode Island teammates – which included three other players who were at the Pangos event – lost to SoCal Academy squad later Wednesday night at Orange Lutheran.
That team included one of the better 2023 guards from the San Fernando Valley (Jaqari Miles of West Ranch) as well as a quality 2024 prospect (6-5 Jon Mani of Beverly Hills).
But the two best players I saw at Orange Lutheran were c/o 2024 members Liam Campbell (6-4/Meridian, ID, Owyhee/Idaho Select 17U Black) and 6-11 Austin Mauer (Medford, OR, Cascade Christian/Oakland Soldiers 16U EYBL).
Leave a Reply