Frank Burlison

HAMPTON, Va. – Volume III of the 2016 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League tipped off Friday evening at the eight-court, Boo Williams Sports Complex.

Twenty-one games were contested and I watched all of two of them and healthy portions (aka, “large amount”) of three others.

And, for those of you keeping score – or tabs on me – I watched them in this sequence and on these courts . . .

*Court 6, Team Final (PA) 83, The Family (MI) 60: Team Final and MOKAN Elite are each 7-1 in the D Division.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – If the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal all-Class of 2018 looks familiar, it should:

Ten of the players 12 first-team selections were on the squad a year ago – when the Class of 2018 was made up of freshmen.

And there is one more thing this squad has in common with the one selected after the 2014-15 season:

There is the same player of the Year.

And Riley Battin was even better as a sophomore than he was a year ago, when he averaged 21.9 points and 10.5 rebounds for an Oak Park team that was beaten in the second round of the CIF Southern Section IAA playoffs.

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RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Ca. – The first “Inland’s Finest Spring Showcase” was touted as providing some of the best high school players in and around the Inland Empire of Southern California an opportunity to demonstrate their hoops skills against one another.

And about six or so of hours of action in the Chaffey Community College gymnasium Saturday proved that it was definitely a case of “truth in advertising”.

The event, put together in fine fashion by Keith Howard and Julius Patterson of the Inland Empire Basketball Program, brought together quality high school players with definite futures as college players, as well.

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RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Ca. – Many of the Inland Empire area’s best high school-aged basketball players will be on display today at Chaffey Community College during the first Inland’s Finest Spring Showcase.

The event, hosted by Keith Howard and Julius Patterson of the Inland Empire Basketball Program but open to players affiliated with any travel/club program in the region, begins at 1 o’clock with a game involving freshmen.

Four games follow: Contests involving sophomores at 2 and 3; one for juniors at 4 and a seniors contest at 5 o’clock to wrap up things.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – The 2015-16 Southern California high school basketball season was an extremely impressive one for freshmen.

It was so much so, in fact, that it was difficult to limit the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal all-Class of 2019 squad to just a dozen members.

Some players I believe to be NCAA Division I prospects didn’t make the cut.

How collectively good are the 12 players I selected?

The list is so good that it would surprise me in the least if four or five – or more – of the players prove to be McDonald’s All-America selections three years from now.

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