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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Most of the better boys basketball players in San Diego County will participate in a first-ever event Saturday that should prove equal parts competitive, revealing and entertaining.

“The Clash of the Classes” is set to tip off at 11 o’clock Saturday morning with the last game scheduled for 4 in the afternoon at Mt. Miguel High (8585 Blossom Lane, Spring Valley).

Games pitting athletes in the classes of 2015 (seniors), ’16 (juniors), ’17 (sophomores) and ’18 (freshmen) will showcase a lot of players who are already well known to college recruiters, scouting service operators, Internet-based recruiting analysts and the general hoops fans, alike.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Wow!

Now that was tough . . .

The chore of finding 25 deserving players for my “All Spring and Summer” Class of 2015 squad wasn’t difficult.

But the same can’t be said for putting them into a “Teams 1-5” pecking order or adhering to a strict “one player at each of the positions” method.

Doing that was especially tough because of the relative shortage (when compared to the other spots) of “exceptional” point guards after – IMHO – Isaiah Briscoe and Jalen Brunson.

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SAN PABLO, Ca. — Paris Austin missed on a breakaway dunk attempt during each half of the sixth NorCal Clash Sunday afternoon (August 24) at Contra Costa College.

And that’s about the only negative that could be gleaned from the performance of the 6-foot senior point guard, who paced the Class of 2015 Northern California squad to a 114-100 victory over its 2016 counterpart.

The 2015 team was playing without the state’s best prospect in that class in Austin’s 6-9 Oakland Bishop O’Dowd teammate Ivan Rabb (who was resting a sprained ankle that also kept him sidelined Saturday during the nationally televised Under Armour Elite 24 in New York).

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INGLEWOOD, Ca. – The ninth-grade game was anything but competitive.

But, although the team wearing the white jerseys prevailed over its black-shirted opponents, 135-78, in the final game of the event, Saturday’s Pangos Julius V Showcase at Inglewood High proved an ideal vehicle to take a look at some of the best of the very young basketball players in Southern California – and, in one case, beyond.

Julius von Hanzlik did another fine job of assembling some of the best elementary and middle school players in the Southland.

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INGLEWOOD, Ca. – Some of the top elementary- and middle school-aged boys’ basketball players will be on display Saturday morning and early Saturday afternoon at Inglewood High.

Julius von Hanzlik, who has his figurative finger on the figurative pulse of youth basketball in California, is running the five-game showcase event.

Games will tip off at 9 a.m. with players from the Class of high school Class of 2022 (current fifth graders) hooking up in an approximate hour-long contest.

Sixth-graders (Class of 2021) follow at 10, with the Class of 2020 (seventh-graders) competing at 11, eighth-graders (Class of 2019) scheduled at noon and current prep ninth-graders (2018) – some of which are still to attend their first high school classes – wrapping things up at 1 o’clock.

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