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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.

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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.

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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.

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LAS VEGAS – Many were still wiping the sleep-webs from their eyes as they filed into the Cashman Center on Thursday morning in time for the 8 o’clock tip-offs.
And then it was non-stop travel-ball hoops for the 15 hours or so, not only in Cashman (for the adidas Uprising) but a few blocks away at Rancho High (the Big Foot Las Vegas Classic) and some 20 miles south, in and around Bishop Gorman High (for the Fab 48).
The big first two-day draw in Cashman was the eight-team “Creators’ Cup” and the second day of the sub-event to the Uprising Summer Championships saw the Team Uploaded squads – the North Carolina and Virginia versions – roll into what was scheduled to be the Thursday night finale with impressive semifinal wins earlier Thursday.

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LAS VEGAS – Dennis Smith and his Team Loaded/North Carolina teammates had a busy – and quite productive – Wednesday evening on the opening of the NCAA’s third July evaluation period.
Smith (16 points – missing just one shot from the field – to go with four assists, three steals and just one turnover, according to my stat keeping) and his buddies burst out to a 13-2 advantage and then coasted to a 101-83 victory over the Big Ballers (based in Chino Hills, CA) in a first-round game of the adidas Uprising Summer Championships’ “Creators’ Cup” tournament in the Cashman Center in the northern part of town.

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