Frank Burlison

PARKER, Co. – Based upon the quality of players in attendance Sunday – and the caliber of play by those athletes – five words are all that are needed to describe the first-ever West Coast Elite Scouts Camp/Colorado at Legend High:

“It was a smashing success.”

Many of the best high school players in Colorado were on hand, with a healthy heaping of quality players from California, Nevada, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska sprinkled in, as well.

First and foremost from among the in-state participants was one of the elite post prospects in the national Class of 2016.

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PARKER, Co. – Day I of the West Coast Elite Scouts Saturday at Legend High looked a lot like the opening day of the All-Colorado Camp held by event director Ryan Silver of the Earl Watson Elite program back in early November.

And that’s a good thing.

That session featured a lot of the best basketball players that Colorado has to offer in the current eighth-, seventh-, sixth- and even fifth-grade classes.

And that was case again Saturday when many of those same athletes showed up Saturday morning.

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The last three games of the 2014 NCAA Tournament are going to have to be dandies, indeed, to equal the best of the first 64 games of the event played over the past two weeks.

*Seven games needed overtimes to determine winners.

*Non-OT games included 13 decided by five or fewer points –six of those by two points and one by a single point.

My, oh, my . . .

Here is one person’s – mine – choice for the Top 10 most entertaining, well-played and compelling (often with difference doses of each) of the 64 already on the books:

 

1. Kentucky 78, Wichita State 76 (Midwest Round of 32/St.

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ONTARIO, Ca. – The Santa Ana Mater Dei High Monarchs didn’t have a lot of wiggle room during their State Southern Regional action last week.

But, apparently, having Stanley Johnson in one of your uniforms helps you maneuver your way through a lot of tight squeezes.

Johnson, four evenings after scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter and two overtimes as his team overcome a six-point deficit to knock off Etiwanda, 67-64, in a semifinal, fell behind by six points with a little less than three minutes to go in their regional final with L.A.

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SANTA ANA, Ca. – Stanley Johnson had what will certainly be remembered as a very fine “farewell” performance in Mater High’s Meruelo Athletic Center Tuesday night.

Yeah – and then some!

The University of Arizona-bound Johnson continued to build upon what is becoming a peerless resume among all-time Orange County hoopsters, scoring 38 points – 28 of those in the fourth quarter and two four-minute overtime periods – while leading the Monarchs to a 67-64 victory over Etiwanda during a State Southern Regional semifinal played in front of nearly 3,000 spectators.

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