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LA GRANGE, IL – It’s billed as the Pangos All-Midwest Frosh/Soph Camp.

And this version of the event, which wrapped up Sunday afternoon in the Park District Athletic Facility the Chicago suburb of La Grange, delivered the goods for the high school classes of 2025 and ’26.

And Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin more than held up its end of the “Midwest” part of the equation.

Those teams combined to land 14 spots on the 30-player Crème of the Crop All-Star Game.

The Badger State’s five reps included the athlete who bagged the camp’s overall “Most Outstanding Player” tag, 6-foot-6 sophomore Xzavion Mitchell (North High in Oshkosh).

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LA GRANGE, Ill. – Approximately 220 players, from 18 states and lands from outside of the continental US of A, were on hand for Saturday’s first day of the two-day Pangos All-Midwest Frosh/Soph Camp at the Park District Athletic Facility in this Chicago suburb.

And, while there wasn’t, say, something approaching a definitive top 3 or so players during the two games each of the 24 camp teams played, there were dozens of players who played well to very well when I watched them.

Among those were a bunch of freshmen “point guard-types” from within and around Chicago.

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DUNCANVILLE, TX – Seven states were represented among my choices for the Top 15 performers during the two-day Pangos All-South Frosh/Soph at wrapped up mid-October 2 afternoon in the Duncanville Fieldhouse.

Six-foot-seven freshman Phoenix Woodson (pictured) – selected as the event’s overall Most Outstanding Player – was one of four Oklahoma-based athletes chosen to the camp’s Top 30 Cream of the Crop All-Star Game.

And he was joined on the list of the players that most impressed me on Saturday and Sunday by another Oklahoma freshmen, 6-6 Jalen Montonati.

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DUNCANVILLE, TX – The second stop on the annual fall Pangos regional Frosh/Soph schedule tipped off Saturday.

And it was quite the day, indeed, for the frosh portion of the All-South camp version of the camp in the Duncanville Fieldhouse in this Dallas suburb.

A flock of sophomores from throughout the southern region of the country were superb Saturday, among those being the New Orleans Isadore Newman trio of Christopher Cenac Jr.  (6-foot-8), Christopher Birden (6-7) and Kobe Butler (6-4).

Also in that category were the likes of Ethan Carter (6-7) of Fairburn (GA) Arlington Christian; Kentrell Martin (6-5) of Dover (FL) Strawberry Crest; Christopher Lindo (6-6) of Baton Rouge (LA) Madison Prep; Jaylon Dean-Vines (6-3) of Mesquite (TX) Poteet and Patton Pinkins (6-4) of Wolfforth (TX) Frienship – as well as a kid who came from the not-quite-so southern high school of Peoria (IL) Manual, 6-5 Dietrich Richardson.

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LONG BEACH – A hefty portion of the better western-based high school basketball players from the Classes of 2025 and ’26 wrapped up play September 25 afternoon at McBride High during the Pangos Frosh/Soph West Camp.

And, from the minute he walked into the building Saturday evening until he left Sunday afternoon, Tounde Yessoufou was on a different plateau than any of the other 200-plus players who participated.

The 6-foot-6 sophomore scored 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the team wearing dark jerseys to a 119-113 victory over the white jerseys in the Top 30 Cream of the Crop All-Star Game.

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