Uncategorized

GARDEN GROVE, Ca. — The teams representing the United States’ Class of 2016 took different paths Sunday night to the Monday night championship game of the adidas Global Nations playoffs.

Team Wall busted out to a 24-point advantage over Class of 2017 Team Lillard and cruised to a 117-73 victory in one semifinal on Court 1 in the Next Level Sports Center.

And, on Court 4, Team Rose led by only four points early in the fourth quarter before pulling away in the closing minutes and knocking off Team African, 105-89.

[Click to continue reading]

GARDEN GROVE, Ca. – At the halfway point of the adidas Global Nations there have been – appropriately enough – standouts from multiple countries.

*Gary Trent, a 6-foot-5 junior-to-be at Apple Valley High in Minnesota, scored 28 points Saturday night to help USA 2017 “Team Lillard” come from 15 points behind at intermission to topple Team Asia Pacific (in reality, Australia), 94-88, to improve to 3-0 in the Next Level Sports facility.

Trent, who helped the USA win a FIBA 16-Under tournament in June, is averaging 23.7 points per game while hitting 11 of 25 shots from behind the arc.

[Click to continue reading]

LAS VEGAS – And, on Day V, the champions were crowned . . .

Well, the “crownings” were figurative things for the top division winners at the Fab 48, adidas Uprising Summer Championships and Big Foot/Las Vegas Invitational events on Sunday.

But that didn’t dull the celebrations for the players, coaches and fans of the 1Nation (Fab 48), Team Loaded/Virginia (adidas) and Georgia Stars (Big Foot) teams that bagged championships on Sunday’s final day of the third – and final – NCAA evaluation period for high school basketball players.

[Click to continue reading]

LAS VEGAS – The proverbial tables – in this case, courts – have been set for Sunday’s climatic day for three major national travel ball tournaments in town the past five days.

*At Bishop Gorman High, the Fab 48 quarterfinals will tip at 8 a.m. and there are four compelling matchups in each slot.

On Court 1, 7-footer Thon Maker and his Canada Elite squad take on the “surprise” member of this group, Pasadena (CA)-based BTI, which has three very good guards in Josh Hauser, Isaiah Brooks and Jordan Cohen.

[Click to continue reading]

LAS VEGAS – Three down and two to go . . . or something like it:

I spent all of Day III of the NCAA’s third July basketball evaluation period in the Bishop Gorman gymnasiums, for the Fab 48, watching players I was already familiar with through previous viewings at multiple venues over the past few years.

*A forward from the Class of 2017 who impressed me considerably during the Nike EYBL spring circuit did exactly that early Friday morning.

Six-foot-seven Kevin Knox (Tampa, FL, Catholic) didn’t start for the Each 1/Teach 1 squad at the Lexington and Houston EYBL stops I watched.

[Click to continue reading]