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HAYWARD, CA – OK.

There may be a better 2014 point guard prospect in the U.S. of A than Tyus Jones of Apple Valley High in Minnesota.

You wouldn’t have imagined that possible, however, if you’d watched Jones’ performance Saturday night for the Howard Pulley Panthers during the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in the seven-court, Dream Courts facility in this East Bay town.

Jones – only cleared to play by doctors on Thursday after a bout with mono – directed a decisive victory over the Oakland Soldiers.

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HAYWARD, CA – As is usually the case for the higher profile Nike-front basketball “evaluation” events, the key Friday night was in not getting figuratively intoxicated by all of the on-court talent on display.

The opening session of games during the fourth and final weekend of the Elite Youth Basketball League at the cavernous Dream Courts (and having seven courts in front of you is certainly a “dreamy” proposition) created this dilemma:

Do you sit courtside and watch Chicago-based Mac Irvin Fire (led by the 2013 class consensus No.

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By JAMES KERTI

I had the opportunity to attend the Pangos Spring Spectacular and the adidas VIP Exclusive Run in Las Vegas over the weekend of April 20-22 as well as the Real Deal in the Rock tournament in Little Rock from April 27-29.

While the following players aren’t necessarily the best prospects in the events, they are among those who stood out the most for me.

* Kasey Hill (6-1/Florida Rams/Montverde Academy/ FL/2013)

James Says: He’s the best point guard prospect that I’ve seen in his class.

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  LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – I spent about 27 hours over Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas, most of that stint coming in the Bishop Gorman High gymnasium.

For that I thank my wife, Julie, who kindly offered up a roundtrip Southwest ticket Thursday night and the opportunity to catch a hunk of the Best Buy Basketball Challenge Series/Spring Classic.

I owe you, big-time, baby. But then again you already know that . . .

Here are 10 of the better prospects I watched, listed alphabetically:

*Casey Benson (6-1/16U Arizona Magic Pump N Run/Tempe, AZ, Corona Del Sol)

Frank Says: Here is just another example of why the western Class of 2014 is chock full of quality point-guard prospects.

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  LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – Well, there wasn’t much mystery about who was going to be the national high school Player of the Year.

Shabazz Muhammad was the front-runner going into his senior season, and remained in that position after leading Las Vegas Bishop Gorman to a Nevada state title.

And then Muhammad proceeded to trample whatever competition existed by returning from Chicago (McDonald’s All-American Game), Portland (Nike Hoop Summit) and Charlotte (Jordan Brand Classic) with Most Outstanding Player hardware.

Muhammad is joined on the BurlisonOnBasketball Senior All-American first team by a future UCLA teammate (Kyle Anderson), a soon-to-be shot-blocking specialist for Kentucky (Nerlens Noel) and a couple of guards headed to the ACC (Rodney Purvis) and Big 12 (Marcus Smart), respectively.

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