Frank Burlison

ANAHEIM – Some of the depth and quality of the Corona Centennial High basketball program was on display Saturday and Sunday during the Elite Basket Circuit Camp at the Open Gym Premier.

And, no, all-CIF Southern Section selections Jared McCain, Aaron McBride and Devin Williams – members of the Class of 2023 who’ve helped the Huskies win consecutive Open Division titles – were not among the participants.

But junior Eric Freeny and freshman Justice Griffith were, and their play over the weekend showed just two of the many reasons why Coach Josh Giles’ club is the clear-cut favorite to win Sectional and State Open titles next March.

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LYNWOOD, Ca. – Some of the better boys’ basketball players set to enter their freshmen years in a few weeks – if not sooner – were on display Saturday during The Orientation, presented by Beach City Hoops and hosted by the Lynwood High basketball program.

Created by Beach City Hoops founder Alex Carmon (a former standout at Long Beach Poly High and San Francisco’s Academy of Art University), the event showcased 34 players from the Class of 2026 in a variety of competitive drills and three scrimmages each – “won” when the first team hit 50 points.

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ANAHEIM – Ninth-graders to-be Isaiah Rogers and Rider Portela – teammates on the Compton Magics 15U team this summer – were among the many standouts over the weekend during the Ballislife Junior All-American Camp presented by EBC at Open Gym Premier.

Rogers (pictured), who is expected to play on the varsity for Coach Josh Giles on the Corona Centennial High’s defending State Open Championship team in 2022-23, and Portela – expected to play varsity for his coach and father, Ray Portela, on the Phoenix Sunnyslope team in the fall – were terrific in the Top 20 8^th grade all-star game that wrapped things up Sunday afternoon.

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LONG BEACH – The BallerTV/Pangos Premier 80 tipped off a busy, five-day NCAA “live evaluation period” for high school boys’ grassroots basketball in Southern California Wednesday afternoon at McBride High.

The head coaches from the UCLA, Washington State, Fresno State, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and Texas Christian programs were among those that were courtside for the eight-game (players, from across the country, were spread among eight teams that played twice apiece over four hours) event.

And a large contingent of assistant coaches from the likes of USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, New Mexico, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, Oklahoma, Cal Baptist, Grand Canyon, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Utah and Stanford also followed the action as players, in five-minute intervals, shuffled on and off the McBride gymnasium floor that was divided into two courts with two games running simultaneously.

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ORLANDO – Six-foot-nine Gregory “GG” Jackson, who is committed to signing a National Letter of Intent with the University of North Carolina in November, used his immense athletic power and hoops skill to help “Team Suns” past “Team Hawks”, 56-49, in the championship game of the 25h All-NBPA Top 100 Camp playoffs Friday afternoon at the Disney ESPN Wide World of Sports Center.

Jackson, while often pitted, 1-on-1, against Baye Fall (another of the elite “bigs” in the national Class of 2023), scored 13 points – despite missing 12 of 17 shots from the floor – to go with seven rebounds to cap a 7-0 run during the week.

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