Mac Irvin Fire coming up big at Desert Duel and other updates.

Desert Duel

* The Mac Irvin Fire had two squads in the final eight of the Desert Duel in Phoenix. The 17U squad made it to the semi-finals and the 16U squad played up and made the final eight in a brutal field. Several players came up big for the Fire on the road trip out west to Vegas and Phoenix. The 17U squad is led by Ahmad Starks at point guard. Starks is an Oregon State commitment and has been arguably the most consistently good player on the squad this July. Uncommitted super athlete Reggie Smith is being recruited by Marquette, Butler, and Indiana among others. He's a 6'0 point who can jump out of the gym and shoot some. The Sun-Times named him first team all state this year, that is their photo on the right from January of 08. Illinois commitments Myers Leonard and Jerome Richmond are among the Fire's better players and are even better college prospects. Its a pretty loaded team who had a chance to go out to Vegas and answer some critics by playing hard and making their mark on some good tournaments and they did exactly that. No hardware for the Fire on the west coast swing, but coming off fine efforts where they competed very well the Fire are set up well to finish strong at the End of Summer Classic in Merrillville this weekend. They can join the Illinois Warriors, Illinois Titans, Rising Stars, and maybe one or two other squads as the best from Illinois this summer. The Illinois Wolves have a lot of talent and will be at the End of Summer Classic also.

* Here's a nice feature from the Hendrickson Blog in the Sun Times on the Fire, particularly 2011 big wing Wayne Blackshear who is being recruited by Louisville, Illinois, Indiana, and other teams. http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

* Petersberg Elite (Justin Coleman) defeated Nike Team Florida to win the tournament.

USSSA Nationals:

* Team Southern Indiana Red 17U went 1-1 in Pool play, beating Lithuania and losing to Spiece Gym Rats (Tolson). TSI was led by Garret Ross who scored 15. Hoosierhills twittered earlier that the 2012 squad lost to Northwest Ohio basketball Club 64-58 despite 14 from Max Clemons.

* The TSI 2011 squad includes 2013 star Daryl Baker. Jody Demling's blog said he had 28 points in a pool game yesterday. Hoosierhillshoops twittered that an Indiana assistant was on hand for one of his games yesterday. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

* I'll be up in Ft Wayne Thursday morning and afternoon and either back there on Friday or in Merrillville for the End of Summer Classic on Friday depending on the brackets. Let me know if there is someone I need to see. I'll be taking photos for the blog and might get some video.

Double Pump Best of Summer (LA)

* Ohio Basketball Club 17U went undefeated in pool play at the Double Pump tournament in LA per Buckeye Prep twitter. The 17U club is being watched by Akron, Bowling Green, Cleveland State, Ohio, Notre Dame, and other schools.

* Indiana Elite (Fox) is 3-0 in pool play without Ge-lawn Guyn who hurt his ankle. No word on the injury yet other than it is getting x-rayed. Best of luck to a Mongrel favorite. Guyn is a long armed competitive athlete who will be a good player at Charlotte in the Mongrel's opinion. Indiana Elite (Fox) will probably focus more on the inside game with 6'8 Bloomington South forward Eric Fromm. Fromm is versatile and has a little range and will be a lot of fun for Butler fans to watch for four years.

* The Derek Smith All Stars 16U team (Abel, Fant, others) went 3-0 in pool play per Demling blog (link above).

Orlando Nationals:

* Shining Star MacFarland went undefeated in pool play yet again. They did not loose a pool game all summer long, a unique but cool accomplishment. Shiningstarsportsblog has results from several Shining Star games from different squads and age groups. Josh Sewell and Chad Jackson are the two most impressive players on the team in the good Mongrel's opinion. They are both big guards who can score and distribute the ball and both have the athleticism to help a team in a lot of ways. Miami got a steal in Sewell.

* Coach Blevins got a good look at Elisha Justice, he's one of Kentucky's hidden gems at point guard. He is playing for Derek Smith All Stars and the link says he is interested in Morehead State and other schools. Hoopsreport.com has rundown on several players including him. Something is amiss with my cut and paste function so I'll have to remember to come back and edit in the link but chase it down if you have to. Entry is called "Tuesday Morning and Afternoon Notes".

Adidas It Takes Five Wrap Up Reports...

Adidas It Takes Five

DC area power Triple Threat blew out Indiana Elite (Fox) in the 17U final of the Adidas It Takes Five. I'll update if any Triple Threat players are being heavily recruited by any area schools, but the tournament had many good performances in the 17U division and saw some players blow up on the national scene in a hurry. Indiana Elite (Fox) is led by a trio of Mount Vernon (Indiana) probable mid-major prospects in Daniel Turner, PJ Hubert, and DeAndre Davis. Turner is a bulldog small forward type who does a little of everything and gets plenty of rug burns along the way. Indiana Elite got big performances from Butler commit Eric Fromm. Louisville and Kentucky prospect Fab Mello drew a lot of attention, but some reports had Indianapolis 2011 prospect Michael Chandler playing him very well and Fromm doing well against him also. Chandler is also committed to Rick Pitino's Louisville program. Ge'lawn Guyn had a huge tournament fresh off his verbal to Charlotte. And Port Washington, Wisconsin's John Gasser had a huge tournament. Here is a link to Wishoops.net's story on him having a big game in front of Gary Williams and Tony Bennet (if i blog, does that mean this is my only allotted lounge singer wise-crack and I blew it?). http://www.wishoops.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/message.aspx?f=123&id=1041970

Elizabethtown, Kentucky big man Curtis Washington of the Derek Smith West All Stars has had quite a week. After the unheralded player earned MVP of the Bolus Blue Chip camp he showed up on high major radars overnight and was offered a scholarship to Kevin O'Niel's USC program and accepted. Its a long way from Elizabethtown to LA, we hope he brings his own Bourbon and Mammoth Cave Twist though. LA is a bit lacking in culture and things to do. I don't think any log cabin monuments to former presidents are likely to be found there as well. Maybe it won't be so bad... Congrats to Washington, this is the kind of nowhere to everywhere story the Mongrel lives for. Michael Johnston spoke with him after he committed. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-9504-Louisville-High-School-Sports-Examiner~y2009m7d8-ETown-big-man-is-heading-out-to-the-Pac-10

The 16U division was won by Washington's pals at the Derek Smith All Stars. Remy Abel and George Fant have had big performances to lead the way (see past entries for direct links or click on Demling blog on left of page). They beat Indiana Elite Orange in a 78-76 decision. Fant and Abel were watched closely by Rick Pitino and Tom Crean and other high major coaches this weekend. Abel is a 6'3 shooting guard from Eastern (Louisville) and Fant is a 6'6 beast of a small forward from Warren Central in Bowling Green which looks to be a favorite to win Kentucky's beautiful and pure single class tournament with the new addition of Chase Behanon from Cincinnati. Indiana Elite was led by Bloomington South teammates Spencer Turner who had 21 points on 3 pointers and Indiana commitment Matt Carlino who had 13 to go with Princeton forward Rontay Chavis' 14 points along with support from Marshall Plumlee, Cody Zeller, and Justin Gant from Terre Haute North. http://www.hoosierhillshoops.com/2009/07/09/adidas-it-takes-5ive-ie-one-orange-takes-second/ Gant is 6'8 and very skilled and underrated and the Mongrel will be featuring him soon. He has an Iowa offer and has had heavy interest from Michigan and some from Purdue and Indiana. Gant can shoot, pass, handle the ball and can get up and down the court very well.

Other standouts in the 16U division include former USC commit Ryan Boatright who had great reviews for Derick Rose Elite, Jeremiah Davis from Indiana Elite/Team Indiana, Dee Davis from Indiana Elite/Team Indiana, and ... Jeremiah is a wonderful high major prospect with great strength and has a high major handle and impressive passing ability. He needs to become a more consistent decision maker and freelance a little less but he does knock it down. Dee Davis (no relation) was MVP of the Indiana state tournament and has a rare feel for the game as a 5'10 point guard. He's good enough that the high majors will miss him. He is a good defender and is a potential spot of infamy on Crean's recruiting record at IU letting Bloomington's own local hero go if he doesn't have similar or better players at the position actually commit to IU in the next couple of classes.

The 15U division was won by Indiana Elite/Team Indiana. Indianapolis North Central's Devontes Smith-Rivera led the way and is considered one of the elite players in the 2012 class nationally. Indiana, Tennessee, and Purdue are early leaders for Rivera with North Carolina joining the fray recently.

Day 3 evaluation period update...

Hoosier Shootout Updates:


Donnie Hale went for 20 and 9 in an overtime loss for Spiece Indy Heat 17U Felder. Spiece Indy Stars 15U won big. Several Illinois teams won, more notes following in an update soon.


Adidas It Takes Five Updates:

Indiana Elite (Fox) in finals of 17U winner's bracket after defeating Grassroots Canada. Butler commit Eric Fromm with a big game.

Indiana Elite Orange is in a close battle late in the game against outstanding Baltimore/DC area power Triple Threat. Matt Carlino getting great reviews. Highmajorscoop twittering that Carlino runs like a deer and Zeller, Plumlee and Justin Gant looking good.

Derek Smith All Stars 16U with suddenly hot prospects George Fant and Remy Abel beats Indiana Elite (Dee and Jeremiah Davis squad) to make it to the semi-finals of 16U division.

NY2LA Invitational Updates:

Aaron Simpson and Keith Carter having good morning games for Team NLP 15U squad. Coaches from almost every high major program in the country are on hand for 2012 probable top ten national kids Alex Foster from Chicago and Peter Jok, NY2LA's top ranked kid in the class nationally.

Here's a Day 2 report including updates on area players Marcus Crider, Xavier Jones, Alex Foster (who has an Illinois offer) and more... http://www.ny2lasports.com/NextLevelDay2recap.htm

King James Classic:

Twitter is aflutter with Marques Teague praise from his morning game which has been attended by Rick Pitino and Tom Crean among others. Jody Demling's (of Louisville Courier-Journal) twitter feed has been great, Teague says he kind of knows where he will go and will visit Louisville, Indiana, and Kentucky in August. http://twitter.com/jdemling

Other area players of note include Chicago's Reggie Smith, Indianapolis Lawrence North (for now) forward Dominique Fergeson, Ohio State commit Deshawn Thomas, Michigan and Indiana target Moses Morgan, Cleveland Benedictine's Cameron Wright, Purdue target and Gary, Indiana star Brandon Dawson, Chicago's Jermone Richmond and many others. Louisville targets Chicago stars Mike Shaw and Wayne Blackshear in the 2011 class have been touring campuses together and told Jody Demling they want to be a package deal.

This tournament is taking advantage of the rules to get the college coaches in to see the 40 or so college kids invited to the camp in action in a tournament following the camp we've been covering (loosely). They split into 8 teams and they are all stacked with talent.

Twitter Tuesday Summer League Tracker

Bittersweet technology simultaneously confounds and tempts the simple Mongrel and nowhere is the landscape quite so vague, yet rewarding as the Twitter fields. Twittatory can be confusing and often searches turn up more than one fish the Mongrel wishes he could throw back. But some good ball is being played, and gettin twitty wit' it is the only way the good Mongrel can come to terms.

GoldandBlack.com has a twitter page the Mongrel has been following for a while now. Purdue has hosted five team camps and several juicy droplets of update mana have flowed from their free twitter page http://twitter.com/GoldandBlackcom. Several links reveal even more detail, but the team camps at Purdue this June have included Whitko winning the small school tournament behind star junior Zach Van DeWater and coach's son Logan Irwin. Irwin is a 5'9 sophomore to be and is one of Indiana's top scoring returning sophomores. Van DeWater is a 6'5 athletic kid with good driving ability and quickness. Indianapolis Pike won Purdue's most recent team camp behind a strong effort from Khristian Smith who has an offer from IUPUI and strong interest other D1 schools including Brad Brownell's Wright State program and Chris Lowery's Southern Illinois machine. Recent Purdue 2010 commitment Donnie Hale from New Albany was up and down, but had a good game against elite 2011 forward Branden Dawson. Dawson is one of the best athletes in the class and has a little bit of a jump shot but will need to keep developing some wing skills or grow into power forward to keep his lofty position in the class of 2011. His upside is unlimited and he simply outclasses good athletes because he's on another level. Rock Island, Illinois star Chason Randle just made it back from the USA 16U team playing somewhere down where snakes get 50 feet long and they make gas out of sugar in time for some good performances as well.

Forgive the Mongrel some map-bending, but excellent and frequent updates of the (deep breath) Hoop Group Metro Summer Showcase provided by NorthStarBball at http://twitter.com/NorthstarBball deserves a special mention. Kids today. Tisk, tisk, tisk. Ok, now that the authoritative Mongrel has spoken he feels better. Several national level stars who are being recruited by Ohio State, Indiana, Kentucky, Marquette, Louisville, and several other areas closer to the Mongrel's lair participated. This year a brawl broke out between Patterson Catholic and Neumann-Garetti in the semi-final. The Hoops Gods are throwing some moving screens and leading with their elbows this morning after being robbed of a showdown between Patterson Catholic and Saint Benedicts. The aging Mongrel has been kicking around thoughts of spinning a yarn for the blog on the fights which have become an epidemic at Chicago Public League games between players in some cases and fans in other cases. Last year games were cancelled, spectators killed, and some games games were played with no spectators at all. Come on fellas, this is a game. If the other guy is better than you or a little meaner than you, you don't get to win by fighting. In fact it kind of makes you look like a wuss when you can't handle getting slapped around a little by somebody who is better or is willing to work a little harder, you gotta prove it the right way boys. Hoops is hoops, non-hoops is non-hoops. The worried Mongrel will keep a close eye on how CPL officials address this problem, but it is not limited to Chicago unfortunately.

OK, this section is where the tricky Mongrel will confuse you with alliteration aplenty and some words that just sort of sound a little funny which might tell similar stories. Bark bark no shell games please. An outstanding blog the Mongrel peruses from time to time is now twitting away. Hoosier Hills Hoops can be found at http://twitter.com/hoosierhills. They reported that defending 4A Indiana state champion Bloomington South crushed New Albany who ended the season #2 in the state in the same class before the tournament. The score was 94-34, but it was the USSFA runner up game. Bloomington South finished the season undefeated last year but lost Indiana Mr Basketball Jordan Hulls. Butler University 2010 commitment Eric Fromm, Xavier University 2011 commitment Dee Davis, and high major 2011 prospect Spencer Turner return along with newcomers first team All-State (AZ) and 2011 Indiana University commitment Matt Carlino and 2012 Illinois import TJ Bell. Turner was fresh back from the Michigan elite camp and the keen Mongrel believes he has gotten in much better shape than he was last summer. The USSFA championship was won by Mount Vernon, which has benefited from the play of a trio of 2010 stars that Hoosier Hoops Report (different from Hoosier Hills Report, see the tricky Mongrel wasn't pulling your leg) says look to be mid majors. Hoosier Hoops Report's twitter page is http://twitter.com/HHReport and they provided some excellent coverage of the event including 3A Mount Vernon's double digit wins over 4A favorites Bloomington South and Carmel. PJ Hubert was lighting it up behind the arch again and Daniel Turner and DeArmond Davis had big tournaments as well. The good Mongrel has been fond of Daniel Turner's game for a while and is looking forward to seeing the trio play this year. Turner is a scrappy fighter and plays strong and is a pretty good athlete at 6'5.

The good Mongrel retreated from the Twitter fronteir to the blogsphere which his mind has finally embraced, and the relieved Mongrel spent some time just looking at some web sites for some other summer league and team camp news. As always, Chicago Hoops and their e-rival Illinois Prep Bullseye both present a wealth of good free information, not to mention Chicago Hoops' premium content. This time we'll site the good work of the Bullseye http://ilprepbullseye.com/page50.html which reported that at the satellite University of Illinois team camp Foreman HS teammates 2010 LeVonte Dority and 2010 Mike McCall were outstanding once again. McCall has recently returned from the Texas AM elite camp and Dority returned from Indiana University's elite camp and both appear to be on a roll this summer. The good Mongrel loves his Chicago point guards. Dority seems to get a bit more national buzz than McCall but the Chicago media seem to see it the other way.