Frank Burlison

NORWALK, Ca. – The first stop on the 2016 national Pangos All-Frosh/Soph circuit wrapped up Sunday afternoon at Cerritos Community College, with many of the West’s best in the Classes of 2019 and ’20 on display in a couple of all-star games.

And, after a few hours of deliberation after watching the 180-plus players in action, I’ve pared what I saw over Saturday and Sunday into my perspective on the “Best of the Best” at the event.

Both my top sophomore and top freshman selections could have easily been co- or even tri-selections in each category.

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NORWALK, Ca. – Six states were represented among the 180 or so players who were in attendance during the opening of the two-day Pangos All-West Frosh/Soph Camp at Cerritos College Community College.

But it was the Los Angeles Fairfax High program whose players made the most significant impact on the proceedings Saturday night.

Six-foot Ethan Anderson and 6-4 Robert McRae, who turned in strong performances as freshmen last season for the Lions, and 6-7 Kirk Smith – who transferred to Fairfax from a Los Angeles charter school in the summer – were each outstanding Saturday night.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Trying to designate “most outstanding players” at an event which featured a whole lot of those was quite a task Sunday evening at Rancho Solano Prep following the conclusion of the two-day West Coast Elite/Arizona camp in this suburb of Phoenix.

But, anyway, it had to be done, so – with the help of Gregg Rosenberg of Rivals.com – here goes:

*Grabbing MOP honors for his play during the Top 40 All-Star game was 6-foot senior Elijah Mead (Phoenix Camelback), who scored 24 points to help his team to an 80-69 victory.

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SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Rancho Solano Prep played host on Saturday’s first day of the most recent stop on the West Coast Elite Fall Circuit, this one highlighted by a lot of the very best that Arizona has to offer on the elementary, middle school and high school boys’ basketball scene.

Athletes from the first two categories were in the spotlight on Saturday, with things wrapping up with the Top 20 All-Star Game.

And 5-foot-7 left hander Dominique Newsom (an eighth-grader who attends StarShine Academy, a K-to-12 charter school in Phoenix) used that stage to continue the sizzling shooting that he had displayed in the two camp plays he was a part of in the morning and early afternoon.

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LYNWOOD, Ca. – The third annual, two-day Ron Massey Memorial Fall Hoops Classic will eventually be looked upon as quite the primer for the 2016-17 boys Southern California basketball season.

Twenty-seven teams, including one from outside the SoCal confines (Las Vegas Bishop Gorman), participated in the event that began Saturday afternoon and wrapped up Sunday evening with the championship game of an eight-team tournament.

That field included seven squads that almost assuredly will be part of the 16-squad CIF Southern Section’s Open Division playoff field at the end of upcoming regular season, as well as Nevada- and regional power Bishop Gorman.

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