Frank Burlison

NORWALK – A couple of Trinity League high school foes turned in impressive efforts for The Arizona Unity/EBYL 17s squad Friday night during one of four showcase games played at Cerritos College during the EHA x MADE Hoops West Mania.

Brandon McCoy Jr. – who helped lead near-by St. John Bosco to a CIF State Division I title in March – scored 17 points and senior-to-be Dallas Washington (Santa Margarita) added a game-high 21 to lead Unity past Jalen Green Elite (which pays on the adidas spring and summer circuit), 71-64.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – Trent Perry and David Rebibo of Harvard-Westlake bagged the last of the 2023-24 BurlisonOnBasketball.com SoCal boys’ basketball honors.

The 6-foot-4 Perry is the SoCal Senior of the Year after leading the Wolverines to a second consecutive State Open Division championship with their 50-45 win over Richmond Salesian in Sacramento on March 9.

Rebibo was the easy choice as the Coach of the Year, after his team’s State, Regional and Sectional championship victory – among the team’s 33-3 finish – improved his overall record (including a six-season stint at El Camino Real) to 337-129 in 15 seasons.

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it  LONG BEACH –  One hundred players – from 18 states – were on hand at McBride High Saturday for the “Pangos All-American Preview” boys’ basketball camp.

How many of those athletes will end up attending The Pangos All-American Camp, set to return to Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas, June 2-4?

Well, that will be up the Pangos/Belmont Shore CEO, Dinos Trigonis.

But here are some of the guys whose play caught my attention over the course of 13 games Saturday (including The Top 30ish All-Star clash that wrapped things up), starting with those who are Southern California-based.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – Deprived of his sophomore season, Brayden Burries was determined to make the most of his 2023-24 junior campaign.

And that he did – to the nth degree.

Burries (pictured, courtesy that fabulous media renaissance man, Greg Stein) is the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Junior of the Year after averaging 28 points per while helping propel Eastvale Roosevelt to a 31-4 finish this past season.

Two of those losses came to CIF Southern Section and State Open champion Harvard-Westlake, in the sectional and regional finals.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – This isn’t going to be a “game-by-game, my pick-by-my pick”-type of NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket overviews.

But . . . here are some observations about the makeup of the 2024 Field of 68, and how I think some things might play out before the April 8 championship game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale (not, no matter how many teams your hear it or read it, “Phoenix”), Arizona.

*First things first: Getting the “pet peeves” out of the way.

1. The four games played in Dayton on Tuesday and Wednesday night are “First Four games” not “play-in games”.

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