Frank Burlison

LONG BEACH, Ca. – Stephen Zimmerman, via his on-court play over the first two days of the weekend, has spoken clear and succinctly as to why he has been considered one of the very best of the Class of 2015 for seemingly so very long.

The left-handed senior-to-be at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas put the entire litany of his immense set of skills on display during the 12^th Pangos All-American Camp at Cabrillo High

His performances invoked the names of two similarly sized (6-foot-10 and change) NBA players by three interested observers Saturday.

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LONG BEACH, Ca. – Day I of the Pangos All-American, Version XII, was like the other 11 first days:

It’s a time for scrambling to peruse the numerical roster and makeup of each camp “team”, determining which players on the rosters were actually in the building and in uniform and then deciding where to plop one’s butt in order to have the best viewing vantage point for a few hours’ worth of games.

For yours truly Friday night in the Cabrillo High gymnasium it was “check, check and check and then was I seated against the south wall, facing Court 3 for the 8:30 “ACC Division” clash between “Miami” and “North Carolina State”, and the 9:30 “Pac-12” contest between “USC” and “Washington”.

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LONG BEACH, Ca. – Summer basketball – club ball and camp-wise – is officially upon us on Friday night.

The 12^th Pangos All-American Camp will be held over the weekend at Cabrillo High (2001 Santa Fe Ave.), beginning with instruction and skills work at about 7:15 and camp games at 8:30 on Friday night, and wrapping up with the “Cream of the Crop Top 25” all-star game Sunday afternoon at about 1:15.

The camp has produced numerous college and NBA standouts, including the likes of James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Brandon Jennings, DeMar DeRozan, Andre Drummond, John Wall, Anthony Davis, Chandler Parsons and Harrison Barnes.

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THE WOODLANDS, TX – When the going was the toughest for Team Charlotte Sunday morning and early afternoon during 17-under division of the Under Armour Association Invitational at the Legends Sports Complex, so was Ty-Shon Alexander.

*The 6-foot-3 freshman from Concord High knocked in the outcome-deciding free throw with 2.4 seconds to go to give his team a 58-57 quarterfinal victory over New Heights of New York.

*Less than an hour later a semifinal game against Michigan-based 1 Nation tipped off and he was up to that “game-winning task”, as well, hitting a pull-up jumper at the buzzer for his team’s 70-68 win.

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THE WOODLANDS, TX – The bracket in the 17-under division of the Under Armour Association Invitational was whittled to eight Saturday night in the Legends Sports Complex.

And it will take only something approaching six-plus hours Sunday to determine the event’s champion.

The four quarterfinal contests are each scheduled to tip off at about 8:30 Sunday morning in the building (which has four courts), with the semifinals to follow at 10:50 and the championship set for about 1:15 in the afternoon.

Each of the seven games should be nothing if not entertaining.

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