Frank Burlison

NORWALK, Ca. – The second day of the 14^th Pangos All-American Camp couldn’t have wrapped up in any more spectacular fashion.

Jose Alvarado found DeAndre Ayton and put the pass into his hands that immediately led to what proved to be the game-winning dunk with seven seconds to go as the Arizona camp team knocked off its Washington counterpart, 89-88, Saturday night in the last of the 12 games played in two sessions on the three full courts that the Cerritos College gymnasium has been configured into for the event.

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NORWALK, Ca. – Years to come – including NCAA Tournaments and NBA drafts – will give us more perspective on the topic.

But, based upon an opening-Friday evening’s viewing at Cerritos College, this Pangos All-American Camp may stack up with the very best of its Dinos Trigonis-fronted 13 predecessors in terms of depth and top-of-the-class “star power”.

A quick example via this collective group of players:

DeAndre Ayton (Phoenix Hillcrest); P.J. Washington (Henderson, NV, Findlay Prep); Billy Preston (who is set to attend Oak Hill Academy in Virginia as a senior after spending his previous season and a half at Advanced Prep International); Brandon McCoy (San Diego Cathedral Catholic); Charles O’Bannon Jr.

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ORANGE, Ca. – All in all, it was quite the memorable Memorial Weekend for the Dante Exum Elite basketball program.

DEE (formerly – and still –  known as the Utah Prospects, captured the 17U and 15U “Battle Zone” divisional titles within a minute of one another Monday afternoon at Orange Lutheran High to cap the three-day Compton Magic/adidas Magic Memorial Tournament.

Taking the 16U Battle Zone crown, about an hour later, was the Urban DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) Elite.

Trevin Knell, a 6-foot-5 jump-shooting specialist who will be a senior at Wood Cross High in the Utah town of the same name in the fall, scored 19 points in the 49-48 victory over San Diego’s Gamepoint in the 17U game.

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GARDEN GROVE, Ca. – The final weekend of the Under Armour Association spring competition proved a nice Southern California showcase for the caliber of high school talent – from classes to 2017 to 2019 – that is under the sports’ apparel grassroots’ umbrella.

The two-day competition wrapped up late Sunday afternoon at the multi-court MAP Sports Complex and the UAA’s two best point guards from the Class of 2017 were again on display, front and center.

Paul Scruggs (Indianapolis Southport) directed things from both ends of the court as the Indy Hoosiers won each of its four games to improve to 8-4 on the season.

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ORANGE and GARDEN GROVE, Ca. – It was a very long Memorial Weekend Saturday of high school basketball in the region of Southern California known as “Orange County”.

The collection of cities got that tag from the orange groves that were once so abundant in the area.

In fact, Anaheim used to be lined with them before this cartoonist/visionary named Walt Disney bought up large parcels of land in the city for which he planned to build something beyond an “amusement park” in the mid-1950s.

The rest is a history lesson that I’m sure most of you are familiar with.

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