Frank Burlison

SAN PABLO, Ca. — Paris Austin missed on a breakaway dunk attempt during each half of the sixth NorCal Clash Sunday afternoon (August 24) at Contra Costa College.

And that’s about the only negative that could be gleaned from the performance of the 6-foot senior point guard, who paced the Class of 2015 Northern California squad to a 114-100 victory over its 2016 counterpart.

The 2015 team was playing without the state’s best prospect in that class in Austin’s 6-9 Oakland Bishop O’Dowd teammate Ivan Rabb (who was resting a sprained ankle that also kept him sidelined Saturday during the nationally televised Under Armour Elite 24 in New York).

[Click to continue reading]

INGLEWOOD, Ca. – The ninth-grade game was anything but competitive.

But, although the team wearing the white jerseys prevailed over its black-shirted opponents, 135-78, in the final game of the event, Saturday’s Pangos Julius V Showcase at Inglewood High proved an ideal vehicle to take a look at some of the best of the very young basketball players in Southern California – and, in one case, beyond.

Julius von Hanzlik did another fine job of assembling some of the best elementary and middle school players in the Southland.

[Click to continue reading]

INGLEWOOD, Ca. – Some of the top elementary- and middle school-aged boys’ basketball players will be on display Saturday morning and early Saturday afternoon at Inglewood High.

Julius von Hanzlik, who has his figurative finger on the figurative pulse of youth basketball in California, is running the five-game showcase event.

Games will tip off at 9 a.m. with players from the Class of high school Class of 2022 (current fifth graders) hooking up in an approximate hour-long contest.

Sixth-graders (Class of 2021) follow at 10, with the Class of 2020 (seventh-graders) competing at 11, eighth-graders (Class of 2019) scheduled at noon and current prep ninth-graders (2018) – some of which are still to attend their first high school classes – wrapping things up at 1 o’clock.

[Click to continue reading]

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – My “The Best of the Spring and Summer of 2014” selections, Part II:

What follows are the choices for my “All-Class of 2016”, based on the way these guys played over the course of the spring and summer, during the “national” events I watched.

It’s the same deal as with my all-2017 choices (and will be with the all-2015 selections later):

These are not ratings based strictly upon “potential” or how I project them as college and (in some cases) NBA players.

[Click to continue reading]

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Ready or not, here I go . . .

Here is the first of my three “All-Spring and Summer” teams, in which I list the players from the Classes of 2017, ’16 and ’15 the most impressed me during the “national” events I watched first-hand during the spring and summer.

These are not listings based strictly upon “potential” or how I project them as college and (in some cases) NBA players.

These choices are all about how they played, and how they contributed to their teams’ performances, in the spring and summer.

[Click to continue reading]