Frank Burlison

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The 20^th NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp’s competition  wrapped up Saturday evening with a championship game between the teams that had rolled to semifinal victories a couple of hours earlier.

And, ultimately, it was the Celtics that did the rolling in the finale, cruising past the Mavericks, 81-67, in the John Paul Jones Arena on the University of Virginia campus.

Ja’Quan Newton, a 6-foot-2 senior-to-be at Philadelphia’s Neumann-Goretti High, scored a camp-best 32 points – often while another top 2014 PG, Josh Perkins (from Aurora in Colorado but bound for Huntington Prep in West Virginia), was attempting to defend him – to lead the Celtics, who wrapped up their competition 7 and zip.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A camp already laden with quality center prospects in the Class of 2014 picked up another player Friday evening who fits neatly into that category.

Karl Towns, a 7-foot (give or take) senior-to-be from the Dominican Republic – by way of St. Joseph High in Metuchen, NJ — showed up after the other participants at the 20^th NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp had already played three times.

Towns, who committed to the University of Kentucky last season and is expected to sign with the Wildcats in November, got into town with his parents and suited up for the Mavericks for the team’s 8:30 game on Court 1 in the John Paul Jones Arena.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – How many teams will be able to offer a more impressive starting backcourt than the “Mavericks” squad put on the John Paul Jones Arena floor Thursday night during the 20^th NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp?

That’s a rhetorical question.

The answer is, of course, “almost certainly none”.

With James Blackmon Jr. (Ft. Wayne, IN, Bishop Luers) and Josh Perkins (who announced recently that he will move from his hometown of Aurora, CO to attend Huntington Prep in West Virginia as a senior) dominating the proceedings, the Mavericks burst out to a 20-point advantage after a quarter and then coast to a 30-something-point victory over the Thunder to conclude the second session on the opening day of game-action at the camp being held on the campus of the University of Virginia.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The first session of games of the 20^th NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp is history.

And if what took place on Thursday morning was an indication, Thursday night’s action – and what is in store for the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena on Friday and Saturday – should be special, indeed.

Where to begin?

Let’s go to Court 2, where I watched the “Grizzlies” take on the “Heat”.

Each had one of the more high profile point guard, Arizona-bound Parker Jackson-Cartwright (Los Angeles Loyola) and future Florida Gator Chris Chioza (Memphis White State).

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SAN DIEGO – Some of the very best high school hoopsters in San Diego – as well as west and north – were on display Sunday afternoon during the Pangos San Diego Super Showcase in the Canyon Crest Academy gymnasium.

Among the 85 or so players who completed in during the four sets of two games was 6-foot-10 Deandre Ayton.

Is there a better prospect in the Class of 2017 – anywhere – than Ayton?

If there is . . . wow.

Ayton is a remarkably gifted athlete with skills well beyond those usually found in a player his size — much less age.

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