Ok, back in between venues and sorry sorry Spiece Indy Stars for mislabeling you as Heat this morning (2012 anyway, I think the 13 was Heat at least for now)...
I missed the beginning of the 10:30 AM games at Sports of All Sorts so won't be able to offer stats yet. The program with all the rosters was also $125 so forgive me for using some numbers til I can double check a few things. Well, I suppose I'm a blogger and under some sort of organizational code to mess things up a little so I will jump in a little more than I should before I can look up some correct spellings.
10:30 games at SOAS first caught the Spiece Indy Heat (for real this time) Quarles team. They are a little different than last time I got to see them and some of the younger kids are playing up a year now. Purdue commit Raphael Davis, DeJuan Marrero, AJ Hammons, and Yogi Ferrel headline this group. I've been a little lukewarm on Yogi's potential as a high major player because of his size, but he continues to grow on me. The 2012 kids on the team were joined by some older kids. Brad Elam from Ben Davis handled point most of the game. I continue to be more and more impressed with Khristian Smith. He isn't the go for the jugular scorer that Raphael Davis is, but seeing them play next to each other I think Raphael can learn a lot from his game. Smith is about the same size and a good athlete and has good reach. I expect Smith to have a huge year this year for Pike. They won the recent high school summer shootout at Purdue University without Teague. Hammons didn't play at all in the second half, no word on why. Rangy combo guard Steven Jamison also handled himself well. The juniors have a year on the more hyped younger kids, and they played like it today. Bruce Weber and Tom Crean must be riding together because they were there at Arlington this morning and at SOAS later in the morning. They were joined by Mike Lewis from Eastern Illinois and coaches from Lipscomb, Drake, Southern Illinois, and other squads to watch the Indy Heat win this one 82-36 against the Runners.
Team Southern Indiana red beat Minnesota select 68-44, will have a little more on this one tomorrow after digging for some rosters.
The best player I've seen today so far is Christian Kabongo. He's the most talented certainly, I'm hearing he plays for Mt Zion Academy and he was on a team from Toronto and he is a gifted athlete and scored 30 points and had to be close to a triple double. He brought the ball up and has a great handle but goes between his legs constantly and overdoes it some. I heard he has some academic issues but has a Nebraska offer on the table, will find out more about him too.
Team Southern Indiana White beat the Wisconsin Force 60-56. More on this one later.
Over at Warren Central I was able to catch the Atlanta All-Stars dismantle Team Blaze. Team Blaze has hot 2010 recruiting name Crishawn Hopkins who reportedly has a recent offer from Miami (Oh) and was outstanding at Miami and Indiana's elite camps. He was outstanding, a gifted leaper with good range. I didn't catch his point total but he has most of the 30 or so points his team scored. Atlanta All-Stars had several impressive players which I will update later. Wright State, Princeton, North Colorado, Morehead State, and Eastern Illinois coaches were among the crowd gathered for this one.
Peoria Irish beat Camp Daryl 17U. The Irish had a couple of skilled big kids I will be getting back to you on as well.
The Illinois Titans had the most impressive athletes I've seen today as a group. Emanual Ochenje (Illinois offer) was very impressive physically but some of his older teammates were even better and almost as physically gifted. I look forward to seeing this squad again. They dismantled the Kansas Express.
Team Nashville has an extremely impressive player named Robert Wade. I was watching a different game, but I noticed a crowd gathering mostly of other players to watch the display he was pouting on. They were in a good game with the Indiana Dawgs when I left, Cincinnati and other schools had coaches on hand. More on this, you guessed it, later...
Back over at SOAS for the Spiece Select 2011 team (playing up with 2010) and Spiece Select won by 15. I didn't get to see the beginning of the game so I'll update the scores later. Coaches from Michigan and other schools were on hand for this one.
The Nashville Celtics Green had a few impressive players. They were beating the Michigan Mavericks when I left the building. The Mavericks point guard was very impressive and coaches from Vanderbilt and Michigan were on hand for the game among others.
More later, on my way to see the Spiece Indy Stars 15U team one more time at Arlington then back to Warren Central for another round of games before I retire for the evening...
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