Illinois Wolves, All Ohio Red End Strong

* The 16U Illinois Wolves won the 17U division at the End of Summer Classic in Merrillville. Nana Egwu and Chasson Randle were co-MVP's. The Wolves had to pull a rabit out of their hat to defeat a strong Terone Johnson game for Eric Gordon All Stars 17U team and were down six with a minute left but some Jacob Williams and Chasson Randle heroics clinched it for them. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/endseason10.html


* The 16U title was won by the Queen City Prophets featuring Xavier, Indiana, Ohio State, and Cincinnati target Aaron Thomas, seen here in a Courier Journal picture. The Prophets were coming off a tournament win in Mississippi last week according to the link. 15U was won by Prymetime as Rockville's Jacob Van Vleet was impressive. They beat the Eric Gordon Central Stars 15U in the semi-finals and then beat the Meanstreets 14U playing up a year (Alex Foster). The 14U tournament was won by another Meanstreets 14U team, the Wilbur squad who defeated Mac Irvin Fire. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/endseason11.html

* All Ohio Red won the 15U, 16U, and 17U division at the Orlando Nationals. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/eventreports/allohioredwin16unationals Elijah Macon, Traevon Jackson, Trey Burke, and Raphael Carter had excellent performances for the 16U squad according to the link. 17U defeated New York Gauchos for the championship sweep.

* The 17U All Ohio Red did beat an impressive Old Gold squad from Illinois in the round of 16 at nationals. This Illinois Prep Bullseye story discusses the Old Gold, RisingStars, and Illinois Kings squads who had a nice showing in Orlando. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page26.html

* The MVP of the state tournament in Kentucky has received an offer from Central Michigan. 2010 athletic 6'5 wing Ricardo Johnson has offers from Central Michigan, Bradley, Ohio, and Marshall along with interest from several high major schools. http://www.hoopsreport.com/news/eventreports/ricardojohnsonpickingupoffers

* Michigan and Kentucky made the final seven for Casey Prather of the Nashville Celtics. http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/2009/08/uk-on-prathers-final-list.html

* Courtside blog has updates on a few Wisconsin kids who are being recruited by schools of note. Buzz Williams and a Wisconsin assistant took in a Wisconsin Playground Warrior game with JP Tokoto. Wisconsin and Iowa also had an assistant on hand for a Paul Jesperson game. Valparaiso is among the schools involved with Wisconsin Force 6'8 forward Robert Gilchrist. Josh Cameron is being recruited by UIC, SIU-Edwardsville, and Ball State.
http://www.wissports.net/sports/hoopsb/blog/blog.aspx?f=123

Illinois Wolves Champs in KC, Other Tourney Updates

Hoops City Classic Completed

* The Illinois Wolves 16U squad came away from the Hoops City Classic as champions. They are one of the most talented squads in the age group nationally. Purdue, Illinois, and Wisconsin are among the many schools pursuing Chasson Randle and Nana Egwu who both made the all tourney team. Rock Island point guard Chasson Randle was MVP. http://ilprepbullseye.com/page11.html Photo is from QC Times article.

* Spiece Mokan out of Kansas City won the 15U division.

Adidas Super 64 (Vegas):

* The D1E Derek Rose Elite 17U squad is the only team from the Mongrel's radius (Ky, In, Il, Oh, MI) still active in the gold bracket. They play the Compton Magic Saturday evening to make the semi-finals.

* Indiana Elite/Team Indiana made it to the quarter-finals on the backs of a 24 point effort by Austin Etherington to beat DC Triple Assault per Mike Pegram twitters. They then beat 43 Hoops (Carr) by 1 to make the semi-finals.

* The above link from Illinois Prep Bullseye also mentions Chicago Elite sharp shooter Duje Dukan of Chicago Elite getting an offer from Loyola. Chicago Elite lost

* The Derek Smith All Stars 16U squad is in the semi-finals after beating the Michigan Mustangs. They'll meet the Southern Kings Gold squad for a chance to play in the championship at 1:00 Vegas time.

* Indiana Elite/Team Indiana 15U lost in the semi-finals against the Atlanta Celtics. Peter Jurkin had 15 points in an afternoon victory.

* Ohio Basketball Club 15U lost to Team Philly for a right to play in the semi-finals of the same bracket.

* The Ville 14U squad is playing for the championship of the 14U bracket in the morning. The Ville has Shelby County incoming freshman super star Daryl Hicks and got 25 out of Pruitt in a double overtime victory against Dream Vision earlier on Saturday.

Super Showcase (Orlando):

* Also from above Illinois Prep Bullseye link the 17U Illinois Warriors went 3-0 in pool play at the Super Showcase in Orlando. The Illinois Kings also went 2-1 in pool play and won their pool in a tie breaker.

* Rising Stars Gold won their pool and then stunned All Ohio Red in the first round of bracket play Saturday evening to eliminate Sullinger and company. I might have spoken too soon on the elimination thing, this ESPN link kind of suggests All Ohio Red has a golden parachute in this one because of the tv deal (ESPN will broadcast several games on Sunday from 5-9). I'm not sure if the writer was being presumptuous that All Ohio Red would make it or if they are carved into the schedule no matter what. http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/news/story?page=risegames/aaupreviews/4355375

Reebok Summer Championships:

* ESPN had some nice things to say about Ray McCallum Jr and Walter Pitchford from the Reebok Create and Finish. The Create and Finish Classic is just a mutated Super Pool type of arrangement and all the clubs are reseeded in the larger tournament afterward. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=4355793

* Despite having a useful web site, don't ask me to explain all the strange brackets that don't fit together in the Reebok tournament. Grand Rapids Storm is still alive (Anderson) and if they win Saturday Evening against Belmont Shores the Storm will be playing for the championship of the "A" bracket in the morning for a chance to play against another bracket champion for the "A" division championship.

Vision Sports Main Event (Vegas):

* The Main Event has been the hardest to track online as their web page is a mess, but Hugh Kellenberger of the Bloomington Herald Times has twittered that the Bloomington South High School Panthers have made it to the semi-finals in the 17U champions bracket (final 4). The Panthers are coming off an undefeated season and are led by 2010 Eric Fromm (Butler commit), 2011 Dee Davis (Xavier commit), 2011 Matt Carlino (Indiana commit), 2011 Spencer Turner, and 2012 TJ Bell who are also being pursued by high majors. Here's an update from Thursday morning, Demling did a nice story on them. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090725/SPORTS11/907250351/It+s+been+viva++Las+Vegas+for+Bloomington+South+basketball+team

* Mac Irvin Fire went 2-1 in pool play after loss to Seattle Rotary. The Fire have other squads playing on the "Center Stage" event which I'm currently wrapping my head around and will try to find information on it in the morning. This Chicagohoops link has some breakdowns of which of the 2 17U and 1 16U squads have whom on their teams. http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/firevegas.html

* Also, the thorough Mongrel is trying to keep an update on which coach is watching who and where from free sources only (sorry no scout, rivals, hoopmasters stuff on this one). Email me if you saw somebody somewhere and Il'l update it. Its an earlier post that I keep editing.
http://hoopsmongrel.blogspot.com/2009/07/who-is-your-school-watching.html