AAU Tourney Update Friday

Here are a few Coach Tracking Tidbits (twitter unless otherwise mentioned):

* Setty1333 says UK watching Rakeem Christmas in Orlando.
* Dayton watching Clarkston Michigan's Matt Kaminiecki. http://dayton.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=968134
* Illinoishsbball says Oregon State watching Abdul Nader (Full Package), Jay Price also watching them (Ill asst), they also say Wainright and an assistant at a Mac Irving Fire game,

* Mike Brey all over Alex Dragecevich according to illhsbball twitters

* Ball St and Indiana St watching Iowa Barnstormers 6'11 Will Artino and others

* Rick Pitino watching JJ Moore and Quincy Miller per Demling twitter also says Crean in KC watching Teague

* Northstarbball says IPFW and Bowling Green at Ohio Prep Cavs/Showtime Ballers game

* CoachBlevins spoke to Sterling Gibbs from NYC who plans on visiting IU and UK

* rumbaughd1 says Dominique Fergeson to visit UK and AZ in August, also says Capel and Donovan watching him closely, UK, UL, and Duke watching Quincy Miller who plans on visiting UK and UL in August,

* Demling blog entry on day 1 http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html says UK and UL watching Damien Leonard, Joe Jackson says he is UK's #1 pg target, Pitino watching JJ Moore,

* The scores below show most of it, but 15U Indiana squads are fairing very well. Eric Gordon All Stars went undefeated in pool play at the Main Event, Spiece Select 2012 went undefeated in pool play in KC playing up a year, and Indiana Elite Team Indiana won their two matches yesterday (Devontes Smith-Rivera pictured above from a Courier-Journal shot).

Some Results and Scoring Numbers:

Adidas Super 64:
* 17U Chicago Elite won their final pool game, beating Bay Area Hoosiers 61-58. Dukan had 18 points.* 17U Full Package Elite beat LA Stars 74-53. Dragecevich had 28. 17U Full Package Elite beat Belmont Shores 62-47. Mikalous had 13.* 17U Detroit Stars beat Pump N Run 77 -52. Long had 18. 17U Mass Rivals beat Detroit Stars 74-49.* 17U Derek Smith All Stars West beat Los Angelas Rockfish 90-64. 17U Derek Smith All Stars lost to Gateway Bball Club 86-59.* 17U Playaz beat Michigan Mustangs 77-65. 17U Michigan Mustangs beat Dallas Mustangs Blue 70-68. Appling had 26 points.* 17U LV Prospects beat In Elite Red 87-80.* 17U Ohio Basketball Club beat Compton Magic Black 78-67. Parker had 19.* 17U Eric Gordon All Stars beat Houston Select Black 60-50. Terone Johnson had 15.* 17U Indiana Elite (fox) 74-65 over Colorado Select Blue. Guyn had 19. 17U Indiana Elite (Fox) beat IEBP All Stars 65-59. Hubert had 16.

* 16U Michigan Mustangs beat Grassroots Canada 63-58. Mustangs also beat Arizona Premier Black 61-42.* 16U DC Assault White beat Full Package (Preston) 70-60.* 16U Ohio Basketball Club beat Houston Hoops 61-54.* 16U Indiana Elite One beat Nashville Celtics 65-60. KC Pump N Run beat In Elite One 76-42.* 16U Derek Smith All Stars beat D Harris All Stars 69-65. DS All Stars beat Omaha Crusaters 64-49.* 16U Indiana Elite/Team Indiana beat Utah Pump N Run Red 68-57.* 16U Southern Kings Gold beat Aim High 79-35.* 16U Indiana Elite (Garland) beat Southern Kings Red 46-44.

* 15U Eric Gordon All Stars 65-49 over Valley Stars Pump N Run. Ingram had 21. EG All Stars then beat Utah Pump N Run 52-31. R Johnson had 10.* 15U In Elite/Team Indiana 53-30 over IEPB White. Devontes Smith-Rivera with 14. IE Team Indiana then beat Southern Kings 54-44. Smith-Rivera with 20.* 15U Ohio Basketball Club 76-52 over Idaho Select. Crays with 18. OBC over DC Assault White 65-50. Cuzzini with 26 points.

Hoops City Classic (KC):

* 17U Illinois Wolves, Spiece Indy Heat (Downs), Mean Streets, Common Bond, Spiece Indy Stars (Betts), King James Shooting Stars, and The Family are all alive in the top 20 bracket. Queen City Prophets are alive in the gold.* 16U Queen City Prophets are alive and will face Spiece Gym Rats (Matura) on Friday in gold bracket.* 16U King James Shooting Stars, NW Ohio Basketball, Illinois Wolves, Spiece Indy Heat (Felder), Spiece Indy Heat (says so on bracket, might mean stars) are also alive in the gold bracket on Friday.* 15U Derek Smith over Xplosion 46-43. Foster with 13.* 15U D Rose All Stars 59-56 over Conn Elite. Reacher with 20.* 16U Chicago Elite lost to Bay Area Hoosiers 64-34.

Reebok Summer Championships:

* Team Detroit 70 NY Panthers 52, MI Hurricanes 57-40 over Idaho Select Black, MI Hurricanes 80-74 over Wi Playground Warriors, Grand Rapids Storm 76 over Idaho Select White 52, Gr Rapids Storm 55-56 losers to IAD Select in 2 overtimes, Gr Rapids Storm (Whymer) 67-62 over Salt Lake Metro Prospects, Gr Storm (Whymer) 72-60 over Hawks, Dallas Mustangs 74-44 over Camp Daryl White, W Mich Lakers 66-40 over E Wash Elite Blue, W Mich Lakers 83-50 over Houston Cougars,

7/22 AAU Tourneys, Coach Tracker and Twitter Updates

I'll be updating this post several times during the day. I'll be doing some coach tracking and be keeping an eye on NBE Blog and Demling's live blogging and doing a few twitter searches throughout the day. In Orlando the Super Showcase got underway with the 15U squads yesterday and 16U action heats up today. In Vegas the Supershowcase gets underway today. GrassrootsTV is set up for watching games for free from the Main Event as well but I most likely will not be catching any of that until late at night so any updates from my own observations will likely be tomorow. I'll publish this early but by the end of the day expect it to have been updated several times.

Adidas Super 64 Updates:

Scout.com apprentice recruiting guru Evan Daniels is watching 15U Atlanta Celtics vs Shabazz Muhammad who some say is top player in the class. Roy Williams and Ben Howland were there to greet Evan so you can assume that 2012 Muhammad is at the top of their wish list.

I'll also keep a close eye on Scout.com recruiting guru Dave Telep who is twittering updates from Vegas. He has had some nice things to say about Michigan and Purdue target Carson Desrosiers.

Northstar Basketball is doing twitter updates and starting off with a Rising Stars Gold game against the Central Jersey Hawks which is being watched by Michigan among other schools. Rising Stars won 57-38, I'll watch their website for updates on individual performances because they have a 15U team playing in Orlando and others to watch. Next game up for northstar is a 16U game with Chicago Demons vs NJABC, Michigan once again spotted in the crowd. They also have spotted Wright State, Evansville, Penn State, Lafayette, Creighton, and others in a Martin Brothers Select vs Garner Rd game (probably also 16U but not sure). Martin Brothers Select won 60-53. Northstar is watching a 15U playoff game between the Georgia Ballers and Garner Road Bulldogs. Not many coaches there but he loves 6'8 Chris Walker an incoming freshman in Georgia had at least 4 blocks and game went to overtime very close but Garner Road pulls away in the end. Walker ended with 19. TJ Warren and Mario Nixon with big games for the winners.

Cooper HS (KY) Coach Blevins is there twittering and liked what he saw from 2011 Compton Magic player Wes Saunders as his Magic squad are playing up a grade and out-classing abyssinian New York in front of Missouri coach Mike Anderson. He is watching the game with rumbaughD1 who reports John Calipari and assistant Antigua showed up to watch Grassroots Team Canada (Joseph, T Thompson, Kabongo, Powell) against the loaded Atlanta Celtics (Golden, David Williams, Mobley, Cothran, McRae, Harrow). Grassroots Canada wins by 8 and Harrow impresses Coach Blevins.

Mike Pegram of Peegs.com is also at the event and says J-Smoove is on the bench chatting up fellow Indiana commitment David Williams (remember Mike Davis saying J-Smoove will always be in the Indiana family?). Indiana assistant Tim Buckley is at the game. Williams had at least 6 points and several steals helping get the Celtics back in the game in the second half but wilted down the stretch guarding Corey Joseph. Its hard to believe Harrow and McRae aren't guarding Joseph. Crean was spotted again at a close Indiana Elite Team Indiana loss. Purdue also had an assistant there and Devontes Smith-Rivera scored 15.

Here's a Garry Parrish article on the Selby decommitment, Worldwide Wes, Calipari, Pearl, and how coaches see this event. Selby will be playing at the Adidas 64 this evening. http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/16182431

Full Package Elite 17U has beaten the KC Cowboys 67-58. Atlanta Celtics 16U (Ware) beat the SF Rebels 92-55. 43 Hoops 16U (Carr) beat Galveston Hornets 72-57. Michigan Musting 16U beat NoCal Outlaws 50-32. Full Package Elite 16U (Preston) beat Mass Rivals 69-67. Net Gain Sports 15U beat Joe Ward All-Stars 52-39. Eric Gordon All Stars 15U beat the DTA All Stars 62-44. 14U Aim High lost to as Vegas Prospects 69-64. 14U Ohio Basketball Club beat the Bay Area Hoosiers 66-37. 14U The Ville and Daryl Hicks is about to go big time as they tip off soon.

Some of the most well known kids nationally at the Adidas Super 64 will be: Tarik Black, Memphis Magic; Allen Crabbe, Compton Magic; Fabricio de Melo, Florida Rams; Trae Golden, Atlanta Celtics; Joshua Hairston, DC Assault; Joe Jackson, Memphis Magic; Bryce Jones, Compton Magic; Cory Joseph, Grassroots Canada Elite; Jordan McRae, Atlanta Celtics; Shabazz Muhammad, Dream Vision Basketball; Tristan Thompson, Grassroots Canada Elite

Star Vision Sports Main Event (Vegas):

Evan Daniels has jumped venues and is watching I-5 Elite star Terrence Jones have a big game against D-1 all-stars. Said Coach K had his whole staff in to watch Quincy Miller.

Some of the bigger name players in this event are: Tim Hardaway Jr., Mac Irvin Fire; Crandall Head, Mac Irvin Fire; Terrence Jones, I-5 Elite; Meyers Leonard, Mac Irvin Fire; Josh Smith, Seattle Rotary; Anthony Wroten Jr., Seattle Rotary; Royce Woolridge, Arizona Magic

Reebok Summer Championships (Vegas):

Jody Demling is starting off twittering and blogging from this event. He has spotted Roy Williams, Tom Crean, ?Florida assistant Richard Pitino, Matt Painter, and Bo Ryan among others watching Indiana Elite One (Carlino, Plumlee, Zeller, Gant). Demling says Plumlee and Zeller playing well. Demling said Indiana Elite won easily and he got to catch some Nashville Celtics 16U and Mason County's Treg Setty played well. Demling wathed Derek Smith 16U team (Abel, Fant) and said Jerry Eaves was on hand.

Some nationally well known players to watch in this one: Kyle Anderson, Playaz Basketball Club; Dominique Ferguson, Team Detroit; Gary Franklin, California Supreme; Deion Houston, Texas Blue Chips Navy; James Johnson, California Supreme; Tyler Lamb, California Supreme; C.J. Leslie, Worldwide Renegades; Ray McCallum, Team Detroit; Moses Morgan, I-Can All-Stars; LeBryan Nash, Dallas Mustangs; Godwin Okonji, Belmont Shore; Dwayne Polee, California Supreme; LaQuinton Ross, MBA Elite; Ben Vozzola, Branch West

Orlando Super Showcase Updates:

Highmajorscoop is in Orlando twittering updates. Rising Stars 15U started out pool play with a win over Team Takeover Orange. He is now watching All Ohio Red 16U.

Speice Select coach Jim Reamer has tweeted that his Speice Select 2011 are 2-0 including a good victory over the Richmond Squires.

Setty1333 is a Phog.net writer and she'll be updating on twitter from Orlando as well. The KC Cowboys (Ismail Wainright seems to be a Kansas target) are on their way to another pool victory. She spotted Kansas assistant Joe Dooley watching Martin Brothers 2012 beat Nike Team Florida 2013 to go 3-0 in pool play. Dooley was later seen watching Alabama Challenge.

Shining Star Sports (Grote) lost game one to MB Nation 51-34 and will play Nike Team Florida tonight at 7:50. Shining Star Sports (Moman) lost 34-31 to the Birmingham Storm.
http://www.shiningstarsports.blogspot.com/

Team NJABC has won their first game as well.

Team Pride 15U is in the finals in the gold bracket (Kaminski) and Team Pride's 16U squad lost to Grandy Glaze and Team Takeover.

Hoops City Classic:

This event will be attended by as many coaches as the Vegas tourneys. Arguably the top prospect in 2010, 2011, and 2013 will be attending. Harrison Barnes is there with Howard Pulley Black, Marques Teague is there with Spiece Indy Heat, and Peter Jok is there with All Iowa Attack Red. Spiece Indy Stars 2012 will be one of the favorites in the 2012 division.

Eric Bossi is doing some twitter updates.

The bballreport is there and says Chasson Randle of the Illinois Wolves is playing well.

Other Updates:

MILive.com had an article yesterday that caught my attention. Steve Bell is an excellent writer who covers Michigan prep hoops and he had a list of ten kids from Michigan in the 2010 class who have elevated their stock. He has comments on recent Iowa commitment Roy Marble Jr, the next in line of LeBron-in-your-face-dunking Crawfords in Oak Park's 6'0 Jalen Crawford, Detroit Pershing's 6'6 Juwan Howard Jr, 6'4 Inkster star Jerry Jones, 6'7 Granville Christian forward Tyler Kruis, 6'0 Dewitt star Andrew Lerg, 6'4 Detroit Southeastern star Johnnie Lindsey, 6'5 Aaron Olson from Traverse City West, 6'6 Julian Plummer from Muskegon Heights, and 5'11 Travis Schuba from Kalaska.

Speaking of Jalen Crawford (photo at top from dailytribune), big brother Jordan's now famously secret dunk on Lebron is supposed to surface today at 6:45 on TMZ!

Mark Miller's courtside blog is reporting Vander Blue didn't travel with the Milwuakee Spartans to Vegas and is planning on narrowing down to a top five in August. Wisconsin and Marquette are favorites among at least 20 schools being considered. I had fearlessly (and foolishly perhaps) predicted Blue would make it down to Arizona during his Vegas trip but once again, pay very little attention to the Mongrel when talking about where kids will end up. Its too much fun to avoid but not my strength...vbg. Now if Blue winds up at Zona later I'll still feel like crowing about my supernatural powers of prognostication.

Miller also reports Eastern Kentucky offered Racine Central Catholic 6'2 guard Steve McWhorter who is also being pursued by UW-Milwuakee.

All Ohio Purple, Indiana Elite 15U big week at AAU Nationals

Clarksville hosted over 70 of the nation's finest 15U AAU programs for the AAU Nationals this last week including the Atlanta Celtics, Indiana Elite, All Ohio Purple, All Ohio Red, SYF Players, Dayton Metro, Cincinnati Hurricanes, and many others.

All Ohio Purple have been dominating their age group in Ohio for years and have had huge contributions from Cincinnati's 6'8 Adolphus Washington, Thomas Kreyenhagen, and Orlando Berry Jr. Washington is considered one of the top players in Ohio in the 2012 class and just transfered from Roger Bacon to Taft High school. The Purple defeated Indiana Elite/Team Indiana in yesterday's semi-final 50-45 and Washington led the Purple with 20 while Indianapolis North Central's Devontes Smith-Rivera added 20 also. Today Indiana Elite faces the Drew Gooden Soldiers in one semi-final while Ohio Purple plays for the title. Photo is from Spirit of Sports Website.

The Leaf Herald has provided excellent coverage of the event. http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20090716/SPORTS/907160341 Here are some results from teams of interest during tournament play.

* All Ohio Purple 58 - Ga Stars Gray 51 Adolphus Washington with 25 pts

* Louisiana Bayou Flames 51 - All Ohio White 46 Jakyl Cornley, Adam McCall 13 pts for AOW

* Illinois Wolverines Black 61 - Minnesota Southside 58 Lajavius Johnson with 20 for the Wolves

* SYF Players 57 - Pg Bulls 53 Glenn Robinson Jr with 13 for SYF

* Indiana Elite/Team Indiana 49 - Southeast Elite 48 Devontes Smith-Rivera with 17

* Colorado Hawks 66 - Illinois Wolverines Black 53 Armani Stephens with 17 for the Wolverines

* Granger Hurricanes 57 - Cincinnati Royals 53 (2 OT) Jake Cummings with 15 for the Royals

* Dayton Metro 75 - Stars Basketball 69 Kendrick Williams 18 and Brad Hall with 17 for the Metro

* SYF Players 70 - Louisiana Magic 66 Solomon King-White with 21 for SYF

* Dayton Metro 80 - Titans 75 Matthew Cash and Taylor Decker with 14 for Metro

Tourney/Recruiting Updates and Link-O-Rama 7/16

Eric Gordon All-Stars won the Best of the Midwest tournament and Purdue commitment Terone Johnson won MVP as he continues turning heads this July. Here is a Monday notebook on the tournament from Hoosier Hills Report, I will recap the tournament's later action in other updates. http://www.hoosierhillshoops.com/index.php

Jorddan Myrick of the West Michigan Lakers got an offer from Ernie Zeigler's Central Michigan program. http://www.westmiallstar.com/tag/grand-rapids-storm/

According to Coach Chris Hawkins the Spiece Indy Stars 2012 players continue to get new offers after winning the Kentucky Hoopfest, Hoosier Shootout, and making the finals in the 16U division at Best of the Midwest. Sullivan's Rhett Smith was offered by Deleware and 6'6 Indianapolis wing Jeremy Hollowell received offers from Illinois and Xavier. Photo is from GoldandBlack.com's Brian Neubert 7/8/09.

Club Ohio Purple and Indiana Elite Team Indiana were in the semi-finals of the gold division at the 15U AAU nationals in Clarksville.

Hoop Dreams is in the 15U semi-finals in the West Virginia Mountain Jam according to Jody Demling. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html Scott County's Tameron Manning and Jaylen Beckham are playing for them.

NYC point guard Sterling Gibbs plans on taking August unofficials to five schools and decide this summer. Two of the schools are Kentucky and Indiana. Kentucky target Doron Lamb is also close to a decision and wants to visit Oklahoma and Kansas before deciding in the next couple of weeks per Zagsblog. http://www.zagsblog.com/2009/07/15/sterling-gibbs-may-decide-this-summer-team-njabc-wins-joe-brown-memorial-tournament/#more-19245

Tom Crean released his travel list on Twitter and we can deduce he was in Clarksville likely watching Indiana Elite's Devontes Smith-Rivera and company during their run to the semi-finals in the loaded 15U national tournament. Other Indiana targets at the event include SYF Players (they played their last game at 12 on Tuesday right before a 1:15 Indiana Elite). SYF's Edward Seay and Smith-Rivera are along with Ron Patterson, DeJuan Marrero, and probably Jeremy Hollowell top Indiana targets for 2012.

Alex Jesswain from Marquettehoops.com was twittering from the NY2LA Summer Jam and was clearly blown away with performances from Cleveland's Cameron Wright and Gary's Xavier Jones. Here is a link to his recap from last week's NY2LA Invitational, and we look forward to updating this article if he recaps the Summer Jam. http://marquette.scout.com/2/878421.html

Players getting buzz from this event include Vander Blue, Flavien Davis, Moses Morgan, Branden Dawson, Jay Harris, John Gasser, Jalen Kendrick, Dominique Fergeson, and many many others. If not for being run at the same time as the Peach Jam this event would likely jump out as one of the most loaded of the year. Team Detroit won the 17U bracket but look for some wrap ups from this event coming soon.

Here is a link to a wonderful article by the Indianapolis Star's Nedenmeier.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20090715/SPORTS0615/907150326/1361/SPORTS0615/Shorter+prospects+try+to+measure+up He strikes a blow for the little man. He updates the recruiting picture of Yogi Ferrel (Butler offer), Kellon Thomas, Nic Moore, Michigan target DJ Ballantine, Ronnie Johnson, and PJ Boutte. These kids are sooo good in the Mongrel's opinion that a small growth spurt between now and next year will put any of them with high major offers. Some of them will make it anyway.

March Madness Strikes in July. (AAU-link-o-rama)

Indiana being a little hoops crazy is not exactly news to observers of the sport or the state. Standing room only crowds at different venues on July 6th is a dirty pleasure for basketball fans in the middle of summer. Since coaches had no April evaluation period, face time was at a premium and has never been more anticipated and recruits wanted to see just how serious the pillow talk they'd been hearing really was (at least the good Mongrel was chomping at the bits).

And just a couple of hours away in Cincinnati the Adidas Takes 5 tipped off. A hoops pulsar exploded in Naptown and the Queen City and the bloggers, twitter, the rivals and scout team sites, and yes my friends, our good friends in the newspaper industry appear to be noticing the baby hoop ripples drifting through the galaxy. Here are a few of the first links I've come across for other people's impressions of some hoop action from today and recent activity from Rick Bolus camps as well.

Rick Bolus' 30th Blue Chip Camp was held at Georgetown College last week. Jody Demling from the Courier-Journal has an exception blog which the Mongrel has hyped before. He reported yesterday that Curtis Washington, a 6'9 forward from Elizabethtown was named camp MVP. His Derek Smith All-Stars West team was in action at the Adidas Take 5 today in front of a host of coaches. Camp runner-up is someone the Mongrel will have to track down because I hadn't heard of him. 6'7 Colt Barnhill from East Carter, Kentucky the Mongrel will be googling you within the hour. Jerian Hunt (2011) from Michigan was named top underclassman. Hoosier Hills Report loved the performances of East Central's 5'9 point guard Kevin Kidd who was in the top 30 all-star game. HHR also reports Corydon's Garrett Ross and Jennings County's 6'8 sophomore center Sam Hunt were in the second thirty all-star game. South Spencer's brilliant coach Rob Schulte had two young players in the event in freshman Josh Schulte and sophomore Tyler Harper, watch out Pocket Athletic Conference if Coach Schulte gets a few horses to run with. The Mongrel told you first...http://www.hoosierhillshoops.com/2009/07/04/blue-chip-high-potential-camp-report/ I got to take a look at Garret Ross today and love his toughness, can't wait to see him again and get a better feel for his game.

Here's a link to the Adidas It Takes 5 from an Indiana University perspective on Insidethehall, an excellent IU blog. Notice the mention of Indiana interest in Ken Kaminski (2012) that the Mongrel blogged on last week. He is not to be confused with another 2010 recruit named Kaminicki who is also a good player but not the type of athlete Kaminski is. http://www.insidethehall.com/2009/07/06/it-takes-5ive-opens-july-evaluation-period/

The Indianapolis Star has discovered Hoops recruiting with a vengeance after seeming to think it was nothing more than an annoyance for the longest time. Check out this report on the 2012 Indiana Elite/Team Indiana and 2012 Eric Gordon All Stars starting off well. North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, and Virginia Tech were on hand to see DeVantes Smith-Rivera and company go 2-0 today and DJ Ballantine fresh off a standout performance at the Michigan Elite Camp also started off hot for Eric Gordon All-Stars who are also 2-0. http://blogs.indystar.com/recruitingcentral/2009/07/north-carolina.html Even better than this blog entry is the new web page from the Star ranking state of Indiana players to 20 by class and listing Purdue and Indiana recruits. Its a great tool, and we will revisit it in the near future and take a look at individual state rankings by different sources. You don't get the depth from a pay site like Rivals or Scout, but its free and gives you a new perspective so it will catch things those guys miss and vise versa. http://www.indystar.com/section/SPORTS0615

Another Indiana Elite player is gaining offers. Roy Williams and Billy Donovan were on hand to see Cody Zeller from Indiana Elite One (2011). Purdue, Iowa, and Butler have joined Indiana with offers for Cody. He teams with twin tower Marshall Plumlee to give Indiana Elite a dynamic front court. Zeller is more skilled with the ball and has outstanding speed and runs the floor extremely well at 6'9. He can shoot and has a nose for rebounds and appears to be on track to be an elite player in the class of 2011. Plumlee is just as elite a prospect at 6'11 with strong post fundamentals and a good motor. Both of these guys will keep getting better. Howard Kellenberger of the Hoosiertimes had this to say about Zeller. http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=3859

More tomorrow after some work on the Hoosier Shootout Day One report.

Ken Kaminski 2012 Ohio Star in the Making

One of the best players I've seen in the 2012 class is without a doubt Ken Kaminski. This is a kid who is so good he's not going to be able to be referred to as overlooked or underrated for very long so the Hoops Mongrel wants to strike while the iron is hot.

The Mongrel watched Kaminski for the first time this spring playing for Team Pride. He's about 6'5 or 6'6 and extremely athletic. He not only can leap, he also has a little grace to it and some hang time which stands out at this age. And wow, the kid just throws up nice looking 3's with a quick release and Kaminski can flush the ball with authority. He plays with intensity and is really smart. Its hard to be more impressed with a kid in this age group the first time you see him play.

The forthcoming Mongrel is far from the only one noticing, however. The good gentleman the Mongrel sat next to during one of Kaminski's hoops explosions would interrupt stories about his top-secret inside information on Butler basketball's coming ascendency with secret recruits already locked up like Ben Brust and Austin Etherington with several compound words that began with "holy" but ended in ways best not described in such a friendly environment. Kaminski belongs in the same class as other elite 2012 players nationally that the good Mongrel has been fortunate to see such as D'vonte Smith-Rivera, Ron Patterson, Jaylen Beckham, Raphael Davis, Elijah Macon, and AJ Hammons.

Kaminski is from Medina, Ohio and plays AAU ball for an impressive Michigan AAU program by the name of Team Pride. The resourceful Mongrel found google very kind when looking for ooh's and aah's describing Kaminski's game. Saginaw area hoops guru Lou Dawkins is one of the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to Michigan hoops. Tubby Smith fans might remember Dawkins as a star for Tubby's Tulsa squads. He has a blog at http://www.botbscouting.blogspot.com/ that does some great event recaps and scouting and the grateful Mongrel will return to this well a time or two at least when doing our Michigan hoops homework. Look for Dawkins' event recaps in the May archive and you'll find an entry from the IPS Border Battle in which he refers to Kaminski as a "potential McDonalds All-American" and comfortably suggests he might be the best player in Ohio's 2012 class including Macon and (at that time) Behanon. Take a look at Kaminski and you'll be a fan. Quickness, skill, intangibles, range, hops, this kid has it all.