Frank Burlison

LAGUNA NIGUEL – NaVorro Bowman was a four-time, first-team all-pro during his eight seasons as an NFL linebacker and is into his second season as the linebackers’ coach for Jim Harbaugh and the L.A. Chargers.

His namesake son wasn’t anything close to as physically imposing – at 6-2 and 160 pounds – during his recently completed sophomore season for the Sherman Oaks Notre Dame basketball team as his 245-pound pops was while manhandling NFL running backs and quarterbacks.

But Junior terrorized plenty of opponents while helping the Knights win 28 games – with two of those losses coming to eventual State Open champion Eastvale Roosevelt in the CIF Southern Section and State Regional Open finals.

[Click to continue reading]

LONG BEACH – Some of Southern California’s – and beyond – better high school boys basketball underclassmen were at McBride High for the Pangos All-American Preview Camp Saturday.

The Top 30 Crème of the Crop All-Star Game Most Outstanding Players were sophomores Mahamadou Diop (who led San Gabriel Academy to the State D-III championship in Sacramento on March 14) and Siincere Hudson (Inderkum High in Sacramento).

The 6-foot-9 Diop – who is expected to play for Mali’s national team this summer – scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 21 minutes for Team Blue, which fell to Team White, 103-98, in the all-star game.

[Click to continue reading]

LONG BEACH – Some of Southern California’s – and beyond – better high school boys basketball underclassmen were at McBride High for the Pangos All-American Preview Camp Saturday.

The Top 30 Crème of the Crop All-Star Game Most Outstanding Players were sophomores Mahamadou Diop (who led San Gabriel Academy to the State D-III championship in Sacramento on March 14) and Siincere Hudson (Inderkum High in Sacramento).

The 6-foot-9 Diop – who is expected to play for Mali’s national team this summer – scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 21 minutes for Team Blue, which fell to Team White, 103-98, in the all-star game.

[Click to continue reading]

LAGUNA NIGUEL – Tyran Stokes made his first “real” high school season a memorable one – even if he and his Sherman Oaks Notre Dame teammates couldn’t quite get over the “Roosevelt hump”.

The 6-foot-7 Stokes, who played at Prolific Prep School in Napa as a freshman and sophomore before relocating to the San Fernando Valley in the fall, is the BurlisonOnBasketball top SoCal junior for the 2024-25 season.

He heads a group of players in the region’s Class of 2026 that could prove as deep and gifted as anywhere in the country, including Jason Crowe, Jr.

[Click to continue reading]

LAGUNA NIGUEL – Here’s the first cache of individual, BurlisonOnBasketball Southern California honors for the 2024-25 boys high school basketball season.

Got a firm grasp on your seats?

OK, here goes . . . Eastvale Roosevelt gets a bunch of them!

Brayden Burries capped a remarkable, two-season run with Roosevelt by scoring 37 and 44 points, respectively, in the Mustangs’ South Regional (79-76, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame) and State Open (80-60, San Francisco Riordan) championship victories.

A year after leading the Mustangs to runner-up spots to Harvard-Westlake in the CIF Southern Section and South Regional Open finals to take the BurlisonOnBasketball top junior honor, Burries (pictured) adds the senior prize to his ever-growing bag of kudos, that includes McDonald’s All-American and California Player of the Year by Cal-Hi Sports and MaxPreps.

[Click to continue reading]