Frank Burlison

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Any sort of preseason All-American selection is always dicey, at best.

Should the weight of the selection come mostly from the side of “college achievement” or of “potential – what you think a guy will do in the coming season”?

I lean toward the “what a guy has already done” with a dash of “what he is likely to do” tossed into the mix.

I’m presenting 25 players, with five from each of the three perimeter positions and 10 in a combined “post” category, since post play is often so interchangeable for most programs – or something like it.

[Click to continue reading]

CYPRESS, CA – Sunday at Cypress Community College, 24 hours before first “official” day of practice for the 2012-13 season, the first-ever West Coast Showdown Showcase proved to be quite the preview of some of the very best players Southern California has to offer.

As anticipated, three of the standout members of the Southern California Class of 2015 – guards Jeremy Hemsley (La Verne Damien), Kendall Small (Huntington Beach Ocean View) and Stephen Thompson (Torrance Bishop Montgomery) – were in attendance and each was terrific.

Of course, that’s been the case the entire fall at every event that Hemsley, Small and Thompson – teammates on the Superior Athletes travel program – have participated.

[Click to continue reading]

BELLFLOWER, Calif. – For those amongst us who just can’t wait the month or so before the start of the real season gets underway, events like the St. John Bosco Catholic School Showcase will have to do.

And, Sunday, it did quite nicely, thank-you very much!

The host St. John Bosco Braves wrapped up the six-game schedule (one of which junior varsity squads) by cruising past Montebello’s Cantwell-Sacred Heart, 86-64, as senior Isaac Hamilton and sophomore Tyler Dorsey led the way with 26 points apiece.

Full disclosure: I had left the building before that final game.

[Click to continue reading]

GILBERT, Ariz. – High-scoring in-state Pacific 12 Conference football games were being played to the west and southeast of the spiffy Inspire Courts facility where the 14^th Arizona Preps Fall Showcase was held from at 11 a.m. to about 9 o’clock Saturday.

But, for the true hoops-heads among the locals or visitors, even the orgy of touchdowns – and turnovers – and other heroics produced in Tempe and Tucson could not have topped the performances of some of the very best Arizona basketball players just two days for the “official” start of practice for the 2012-13 regular season.

[Click to continue reading]

CORONA, Ca. – The best high school fall hoops league in Southern California is, befittingly, called “The League”.

And its teams and games lived up to its lofty reputation Sunday.

Among the many outstanding Southern California high school programs in action at the Players Edge facility were Long Beach Poly, Pasadena, Corona Centennial, L.A. Cathedral, Long Beach Jordan and San Juan Capistrano JSerra.

Also in action – and impressive – Sunday were Las Vegas power Bishop Gorman and Southern California travel program Superior Athletes.

As is always the case, there were a multitude of individual standouts as well at the event that is the brainchild of the Compton Magic’s Etop Udo-Ema.

[Click to continue reading]