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LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – Before offering a rundown on three days of some very high-quality high school hoops that I witnessed, up close and personal, I’d like to thank the clear sailing I had on the west-bound 22, north-bound 405 and north-bound 605 freeways, as well as my smooth trek east-bound on Alondra Boulevard in Norwalk on Sunday morning,

That mix of freeway good fortune – courtesy the fact that I was traveling during a the narrow window of day and time when such a thing is possible – enabled me to go from the Next Level Sports Complex in Garden Grove to the new-look Cerritos College Gymnasium in Norwalk in about 15 minutes, give or take.

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GARDEN GROVE, CA – Day 1 – or, more accurately Night 1 – of the first weekend of the fourth year of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League got underway at the Next Level Sports Complex in this Orange County City Friday night.

By the way – you read Orange County, didn’t you?

Not Los Angeles County, so why is it being referred to as EYBL Los Angeles instead of Garden Grove or, simply, Orange County?

 I guess the there must be the assumption Los Angeles is the only city in Southern California people outside the region have heard of – or something like that.

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PORTLAND – Andrew Wiggins led the World Select Team to an upside victory over its United States counterpart a year ago during the 15^th Nike Hoop Summit in the Rose Garden.

Based on the way the squad has looked over the first two days of practice at the Trail Blazers’ practice facility, Wiggins and his teammates – none of which played with him on the World club a year ago – could be primed to make it two in a row Saturday night.

A case could be made that Wiggins, who is from Toronto but attended Huntington Prep in West Virginia for two years, is not only the top high school player in the Class of 2013 but also the top individual hoops talent in the world that is not already on an NBA payroll.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – There were four major high school club/travel ball events on tap in Southern California this past weekend.

Time and travel – and scheduling; naturally, there was a whole lot of overlap – meaning, unfortunately, that I could only attend two of them.

But I’m sure I’ll see most of the teams and players that participated in the Muscle Milk Shootout (at Redondo High in Redondo Beach) and the Compton Magic/Hall of Fame of Fame Classic (at the Players’ Edge facility in Corona) multiple times during the rest of the spring.

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ATLANTA – Early last summer – for Lindy’s Preseason Magazine – I picked Rick Pitino’s Louisville squad to win the 2013 national championship.

I did so for a variety of reasons, including – of course – Pitino’s Hall of Fame-caliber coaching and a roster that included five of the top seven players from a team that lost to eventual national champion Kentucky in a semifinal of the 2012 Final Four in New Orleans.

But those reasons didn’t include the expectation that a transfer from George Mason, who was redshirt a year ago, would be the Cardinals’ best player during two come-from-12 points-behind victories in the Georgia Dome.

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