Frank Burlison

ALL OVER SOCAL, Ca. – The last day of the NCAA’s first July evaluation will be a busy one, indeed, in Southern California.

Three events, The Asics Double Pump Summer Tip-Off (in Anaheim’s American Sports Centers), the Pangos Summer Sweet 16 (in Norwalk’s Cerritos College) and the West Coast Elite/Under-Armour Elite 100 (Pomona-Pitzer College in Claremont), conclude Sunday.

Highlighting the Pumps’ event will be the 17’s Open Division semifinals and championship game.

The semifinals tip at 10:10 a.m., with the Double Pump Elite squad taking on the Southern California All-Stars/Red on Court B-1 and The Big Ballers VXT Black facing New York-based Black Mambas on Court B-2.

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NORWALK, Ca. – The two-day Full-Court Press All-West (presented by Pangos) offered up a nice mixture of the best of four classes of high school players in Southern California.

And there was a hefty spattering of non-SoCal-based prospects at Cerritos Community College, as well.

The last major “summer event”, prior to the first NCAA July valuation period (Wednesday-July 12) wrapped up Saturday afternoon with Top 50 and Top 25 all-star games.

Six-foot-five Omaje Smith (El Cajon, CA/Foothills Christian) made a strong case that he should have been selected to the Top 25 game while leading the “White” squad to an 82-59 victory over the “Black” team in the Top 50 game.

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SANTA MONICA, Ca. – Even the most casual of basketball fans would immediately recognize the names of the “headliners” at the Nike Basketball Academy that wrapped up Monday night.

After all, I’m sure all of you have heard of fellows like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Paul George, DeMarcus Cousins and DeAndre Jordan, right?

The first three, of course, are three of the four preeminent “faces” of the Nike Basketball “brand” – the fourth, of course, being Michael Jordan, who has his Nike “brand” as those who worship at the Church of “Jordan Brand” will say a quick “amen!”

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SANTA MONICA, Ca. – This is certain:

The Nike Basketball Academy is providing an up-close-and-personal look at a lot of likely 2015-16 preseason college All-Americans.

After Sunday’s second full day of workouts, drills and scrimmages, it remained apparent that it’s going to be difficult to find a better point guard on the college level than Kris Dunn, who will be a junior at Providence in the coming season.

Dunn – from the perspective of the camp coaches as well as the NBA scouts and general managers watching from court-side seating – was clearly the top individual standout on both Saturday and Sunday.

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SANTA MONICA, Ca. – Day II of the first-ever Nike Basketball Academy is a wrap after Saturday night’s action.

Camp staffers, current and former NBA players, NBA scouts (including some general managers and scouting directors) and an assortment of Internet recruiting analysts got their first looks at the 53 current high school players and 26 college players in the event that is an offshoot of the camp formerly known as the “LeBron James Skills Academy”.

Full disclaimer: I’m one of the individuals invited to help “evaluate” the athletes for Nike’s grassroots wing during the competition that concludes Monday night.

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