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PHOENIX – The first-ever NCAA College Basketball Academy – the western version – wrapped up late Sunday morning at Grand Canyon University.

As the case with Session I, which ran Tuesday thru Thursday mornings, one of the dynamics of the assembled group of high school players (mostly in the Classes of 2020 and ’21, with a smattering from ’22) was the presence – and impressive efforts – of so many “non-west” kids.

By my official tabulation, there were 57 players with Florida listed as their home states among the approximately 300 athletes at the combined sessions.

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PHOENIX – From what I gather, players weren’t assigned to the four regional sites of the first-ever NCAA College Basketball Academy strictly based upon where they live.

A major factor, apparently, was in how readily a player could be transported to one of the sites – especially relative to air fare and if direct flights could be arranged for the athlete.

The necessity of athletes having to make one or more connections to flights was to be avoided (to lessen the odds of a player missing one of those changes and the relative chaos as a result).

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PHOENIX – Day I of the inaugural NCAA-front “College Basketball Academy” drew varying number of college coaches to its multiple “camp games” played Tuesday afternoon thru late evening.

At least that was the case for the “western” version of the event, which is being held at Grand Canyon University, in the impressive and well-conditioned campus arena and newly built Canyon Activity Center across campus.

The largest crowds of coaches – and schools they represented – were on hand for the games involved high school players already “identified” as well-better-than-average college prospects.

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LADERA RANCH – The Eyes of Texas shined upon the Ladera Ranch Sports Center Saturday – metaphorically speaking, that is.

The Ft. Worth-based YGC36 club program – fronted by Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart and only in existence for four years – rolled out of the Ladera Ranch Sports Center Saturday evening with a couple of adidas Gold Gauntlet Finale championships.

The YGC36 (“Young Game Changers”; 36 is Smart’s jersey number) 17s flipped the result on its Compton Magic counterpart from the adidas Summer Championships in Alabama the week before, holding off the Magic in a gut-twister, 59-58.

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GARDEN GROVE – The Veritas club program will be represented in the championship games of each of the top 17s and 16s division in the Pangos Summer Sweet 16 Sunday afternoon at MAP Sports Facility.

The “International” squad (made up mostly of players originally from Latin and American countries) had to rally from 10 points down late to edge Arizona Firestone Elite, 54-52, late Saturday via the game-deciding layup from 6-foot-9 Deiman Reyes.

Coach George Zedan’s club also got clutch buckets from 6-7 forward Carlos Rosario and guard Julio Rodriguez in the final couple of minutes.

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