Frank Burlison | High School Basketball | College Basketball
LAS VEGAS – Day II of the NCAA’s third basketball evaluation period of the July is in the books.
And I spent it – Thursday – in the massiveness that is the Cashman Center and its seven-court set up that, in essence, made the place quite a kaleidoscope of sorts for the adidas Super 64.
I’m starting to get a bit groggy so I don’t have the usual energy needed to hack out some witticisms to entertain prior to my rundown on what I watched during a given day.
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LAS VEGAS — The third NCAA basketball evaluation period tipped in force off at 5 o’clock at three major venues Wednesday night, each swarming with college coaches galore.
The Cashman Center (adidas Super 64), Spring Valley High (Big Foot Classic) and Bishop Gorman High (Fab 48) were the gathering points.
My first stop of the period (that wraps Sunday evening at 5) was Bishop Gorman where I watched eight games (split between two adjacent courts in the school’s “main” gymnasium) that were part of the “Fab 48 Tip-Off.”
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ANAHEIM, Ca. – Week II of the NCAA’s summer basketball evaluation period gets underway Wednesday at 5 o’clock.
The Asics Double Pump Best of the Summer – annually one of the better “evaluation events” of the summer – gets underway at 5 p.m. (per NCAA rules) at the American Sports Centers (1500 Anaheim Blvd., in Anaheim just a few blocks from Disneyland and the Honda Center).
The competition wraps up with championship games in four divisions (17 Open; 17 Gold; 16; and 15) on Sunday.
Also opening on Wednesday evening is the Battle at the Beach, held at Redondo High in Redondo Beach (1 Sea Hawk Way), with four games played beginning at 6 o’clock, in the school’s auxiliary gymnasium.
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LAS VEGAS – As the final game of the four-day camp was getting set to tip off at about 7 o’clock Saturday night, the LeBron James Skills Academy was as noteworthy for the players not playing as it was for the guys about to play in the championship game.
Stephen Zimmerman, Isaiah Briscoe, DeAndre Ayton, Eric Davis, Malik Monk, Mickey Mitchell, Malik Newman and Ben Simmons – eight of the upper-tier prospects who were in uniform the players begin working out in the Cashman Center late Wednesday morning – were among the players who didn’t play Saturday because, a) they were injured; b) they were fatigued and “resting” for the Nike-front EYBL Championships (Peach Jam) in Savannah next week or, c) had already flown home.
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LAS VEGAS — Friday’s Day III of the LeBron James Skills Academy became, in essence, “Day II 1/2” of the event.
With injuries and fatigue shrinking the number of the “healthy, rested and rarin’ to go” players on hand, Nike grassroots officials made the administrative call to cancel the evening session of four games.
As of early Friday afternoon, Saturday’s “playoff schedule”, set to tip off with quarterfinal action (there are eight camp teams) at 9:30 a.m., is still a go.
So that left the four games that tipped off at 2:30 PT from which to cull my witty and insight comments and evaluations – more or less — that you’re about to peruse.
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