last installment of double pump shootout reports from 3/20 & 21

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Double Pump Shootout: At Last, The Fourth
& Final Installment Arrives. . .--(April 1, 1999)

Yeah, yeah, we know, we're late. We wrote on Monday that we were going to finish up this report, but we kept getting sidetracked and delayed. Well, here it is. And like our third installment of reports from the Double Pump Shootout held on March 20 & 21, this report may not be everything we hoped it would be, but at least we're getting it done and out of the way. As we previously reported, we were only able to see about one third of all the participants so where we have no observations about a player, we'll just confine the listing to the rosters. We've already done a first installment in which we profiled about the first 1/4 of the teams playing, and a second installment in which we profiled the middle 1/4, a third report, and here's the rest.

Rising Stars

This was supposed to be an "underclassmen" shootout; the "Unsigned Senior" Shootout was held the prior week, but somehow these guys managed to sneak into the March 20 & 21 event, and predictably, they pounded many of the players they saw. Here's the roster:

N. Daniels (5'-10" Sr. PG) Crawford
John Idano (6'-0" Sr. G) San Diego Serra
Joel Jones (6'-4" Sr. SF) Montgomery
Billy Bloom (6'-6" Sr. F) Rancho Bernardo
James Profit (6'-6" Jr. F) San Diego Serra
Richard Hardwick (6'-1" ?? PG) Chula Vista
Chris Bennett (6'-10" Sr. F/C) Pasadena Marshall
Nate Daniels (6'-7" Sr. F) Escondido
David Vance (6'-8" Sr. F) Venice
Joseph Dural (6'-8" Sr. F/C) Venice

The Rising Stars ended up playing Streetwise and Pacific Rim on Sunday, and Total Impact and Condors on Saturday. We got a pretty interesting letter from some of the Total Impact coaches, and until we took another look at the schedule, we really had no idea what the TI guys were upset about, but looking at this roster and looking at the Total Impact guys' roster, it's now easy to see why they were bothered, because it was a pretty big mismatch. Chris Bennett was originally getting a lot of attention from D-I schools, and it was thought that Bob Sundvold at UMKC would offer Chris in the fall, but when that didn't happen, Chris' recruiting mysteriously got very quiet. Lately though he's been doing his best to silence any critics, and he seems to have taken to heart Dave Benezra's advice to "always compete." Chris looked very good on Sunday when we saw him, running the floor well, finishing, slamming and powering down some huge dunks, rebounding and generally playing better than we've seen in a while. Joe Dural also looked very good, and assuming that he's a qualifier (we don't know about that, because the info on him is that he's got a 2.0 GPA and we don't know his scores) he should be getting some offers from somewhere. David Vance looked a bit more effective in these games than he did during the season, and we'd expect to see him at a JC. Nate Daniels is an athletic 200 lb.'er who runs the floor, defends and rebounded well. Richard Hardwick had an excellent few games, and he's got a good handle, nice penetration skills and sees the floor. We didn't really get a look at the two guys from San Diego Serra, or at Billy Bloom from Rancho Bernardo so we really can't comment.

Skywalkers

This is basically some of the guys from the Antelope Valley Christian varsity team, and some of the AVC jv guys who will be moving up, and a couple of others, all of whom were coached by David Nurse, Matthew's father.

Kevin Johnson (5'-7" Jr. Quartz Hill)
Jamal Flanagan (6'-2" Fr. F) Antelope Valley Christian
Matthew Nurse (5'-10" Jr. PG) Antelope Valley Christian
???? Sahale (6'-7" Jr. F) Antelope Valley Christian
John Loftin (6'-2" Jr. G/F) Antelope Valley Christian
Peter Beaudin (6'-6" Jr. F/C) Antelope Valley Christian
Oliver Haworth (6'-1" Jr. G) Highland
Michael Kennedy (6'-6" Jr. F) Antelope Valley Christian

This season, AVC was a finalist in Divison V-AA, losing to eventual champion Price. Next year they could be even better. Matthew Nurse is a capable and steady point guard, with an excellent handle, good court vision, someone who knows the game. He distributes the ball well, defends and can (but doesn't often) penetrate. Moves well with and without the ball, and will return to lead the team again next year. With Jamal Flanagan rebounding and shooting the ball well out to three point range, AVC will continue to be tough. Jamal is a strong, solid defender and offensively, he can drive or take his man to the hole, or pull up for the jumper. Peter Beaudin was just named to the All-CIF Southern Section team, and he played well, like an All-CIF player should. Peter is an inside banger and rebounds exceptionally well. John Cho is another guard for AVC who saw some time during the season, but who will continue to improve and get better in the "off-season" ; he's speedy, has a good handle and nice court vision. Oliver Haworth doesn't attend AVC, but he doesn't have to. A solid two guard with a decent shot, he also runs the floor and defends. We really didn't get too good a look at John Loftin or Michael Kennedy, and we have no idea who Sahale is either, but it's safe to say that these were JV guys during the regular season because they weren't on the roster when we saw AVC. Maybe they'll get into the Double Pump Easter Tournament on April 9, 10, & 11 so we'll get another look at these guys.

Sonora

Erik McGhee (6'-3" Jr. FG)
Mike Pink (6'-5" Sr. F) Sonora
Robert Abreu (6'-4" So. F) Sonora
Bim Okunrimboye (6'-0" Sr. PG) Sonora
Chris Monroe (6'-9" Sr. C) Granite Hills
Marquis Worthy (6'-4" Sr. G/F) Sonora
Jon James (6'-3" So. F)
Matt Okoro (6'-7" Sr. F) Buena Park

Once again, the roster had a significant number of seniors on it, but we didn't really see Chris Monroe at the one game of their's we witnessed on Sunday, and maybe Chris decided not to make the trip in light of the fact that he had committed by that weekend; maybe we just didn't see him. In any event, Bim and Marquis were the most athletic players on the floor, helped a good deal by Robert Abreu and Mike Pink. Bim was moving the ball well, driving and slashing to the hole, while Marquis preferred to shoot from outside on the perimeter, rarely venturing inside. Mike Pink is a strong, inside rebounder, and at 200 lbs he can move some people around, but really he's a sort of 'tweener' at 6'-5" he'll need to develop his outside shot more to really grab someone's attention at the D-I level, but he can be a player for someone somewhere, we're just not sure who's looking right now. Abreu does have a decent handle and good outside shot, and is a pretty decent defender and we'd say he'd fit in at some low D-1 to D-II schools. Chris Monroe reportedly has already committed to Idaho and Matt Okoro has committed to UCI, but there are rumors floating (not from Chris) that with Fisher at SDSU, he might want to try to get Chris to stay local. Chris will continue (as far as we know) to play Rockfish, so look for him this weekend if you want to check his game out.

Streetwise

Peter Johnson (6'-5" Jr. F) Tustin
Michael Pinto (6'-1" Jr. G) Tustin
Adam Tancredi (6'-8" So. C) Mater Dei
Derek Issacs (6'-2" Jr. G) Venice
Jonathan Cryer (6'-2" Jr. F) Chino
Chris Chester (6'-4" So. F) Tustin
Sean Maxey (5'-9" Jr. G)
Brent Weiss (6'-3" Sr. G) Woodbridge
Brett Bye (6'-3" Fr. G/F) Canyon
Brent Canada (6'-6" Jr. F) Canyon
Josh Burgess (6'-7" Sr. F) Woodbridge

This team had a lot of really good athletes on it, but unfortunately we didn't really get to see many of them for any extended period. Josh Burgess, while not nearly as athletic as his older brother Chris Burgess, is also not nearly as un-athletic as many recruiting gurus make him out to be and he's got height, just not enough to favorably compare with his brother. Josh isn't quite big enough to be a pure post player, but at 215 lbs., he does have some muscle and nice footwork in and around the blocks; no idea about his recruitment, if any, and where he plans on attending college is really a mystery to us at this point. Even if he doesn't get a scholarship, he could still be a very effective walk-on player. Sean Maxey is a little speedster, with a quick crossover, and a good handle who can drive and kick the ball. Adam Tancredi got to play a whole lot more with this team than he does for Mater Dei, and maybe now with Mike Bayer graduating, Adam will be able to get some time relieving Jamaal Sampson and Erik Soderberg, but we still wouldn't count on a ton of time, especially with new freshman big-man Harrison Schaen (6'-8" 8th grader) coming to the Monarchs next season. Still Adam showed decent rebounding and good footwork when we saw him. We really hope to get to see some of these guys during the spring and summer because most of them have tremendous upside potential.

The City

This was basically a bunch of guys from Los Alamitos, minus Adam Pleick (6'-3" Sr. SG):

Ian Martini (6'-1" So. G/F)
Jeff Smith (5'-11" Jr. G)
Eric Yarger (6'-3" Fr. F)
Jeff Grgas (6'-8" Jr. F/C)
Brian Rakusin (6'-6" So. F/C)
Ryan Keller (5'-11" Jr. PG)
Ken Carter (6'-7" Jr. C)
Ron Prettyman (6'-2" Jr. G/F)

The proving grounds for the initial trial run of what Los Al will look like next year was a decent, but not overly impressive dry run. Jeff Grgas, Ken Carter, and Brian Rakusin all played reasonably well inside, and frankly we think from the limited abount that we saw of these guys, that they will be in need of a shooter and Ron Prettyman looks to be the most logical target to develop a better outside shot; Jeff Smith is pretty good from the perimeter too. Again, we really wanted to see more of them but given the conflicts in watching four games at once, it was hard to really see all of them we could.

Total Impact

This is Sam Alipio's team, and he's been working with most of these guys for a couple of years when they were mostly at 4D and then when they left 4D. Sam has entered them in official AAU tournaments and BCI tournaments over the years, and last winter had a group in Hawaii. This is a young squad coming up, and when you look at the roster, you'll see that against the Rising Star team they were a bit overpowered, since Rising Stars had an inordinate number of really big guys, whereas this is mostly a group of guards:

Jamayne Potts (5'-11" So. PG) St. Monica
Robert Rakestraw (5'-10" So. SG/PG) St. Monica
Peter McCaslin (5'-11" So. PG) Chadwick
Jess Valcro (6'-1" Fr. G) San Pedro
Logan Steinhauer (6'-0" Jr. G) West Torrance
Anthony Coleman (6'-6" Jr. F) West Torrance
Jordan SteMarie (6'-1" Jr. G) Loyola
Sean Cole (6'-7" So. F) Pacific Hills
Marcus Shelby (6'-6" So. F) St. Monica
David Harris (6'-6" So. F/C) West Torrance

We only got brief glimpses of this team, but Jamayne Potts looked especially effective: great handle, nice vision, very quick, good crossover, and decent defender with good lateral quickness. Robert Rakestraw has a good outside shot, and pretty quick hands on defense. Peter McCaslin is also an excellent point, did very well for Chadwick this year, and continues to improve. We know that one of the Total Impact big guys got hurt, but we weren't sure which one. Harris is a pretty strong wide-body type who at 225 lbs can move people around and seals pretty good too. We didn't see Sean Cole or Marcus Shelby so we can't report, and as for the rest of the guys, we could print what was on Sam's separate sheet about these guys, but we don't have it here (we'll post it later). Again, we'll get to see these guys throughout the summer because Alipio and Eric Jensen have made a committment to bring these guys to as many good events as possible.

Valley All-Stars

Essentially a mix of all Montclair Prep (Van Nuys) players, some from the varsity and some from the JV. The roster printed by Double Pump had way too many players on it (14) and we know for a fact that about 1/3 of them didn't show. . . at least too many for a shootout, where the games are played 20 minute halves, running clock, no foul shots, so any more than 10 players on a roster and a team is just defeating the purpose of a shootout, which is exposure.

Tony McFadden (6'-3" So. G)
Eric Kaufman (5'-11" So. G)
Jesse Bronner (6'-3" Jr. G)
Brian Trump (6'-1" Fr. F)
Jerome Dennis (6'-2" Jr. F)
Aaron Stein (5'-10" Fr. G)
Jason Scott (5'-9" Fr. G)
Charlie Kranzdorf (6'-2" Fr. G/F)
Jason Goss (5'-10" So. F)
Josiah Johnson (6'-5" Jr. F)
Will Sheslow (6'-1" Fr. G)
Andre Freeman (5'-11" Jr. G)
Gary Sonkur (5'-9" So. G)
Justin Goss (5'-10" So. G)

We did manage to get a look at most of the guys who showed on Saturday, and we also thought we saw Jason Anderson (6'-9" Sr. C) out on the floor. Brian Trump looked much improved, slimmed down, stronger and faster than we've seen him play before (and we've seen him play quite a bit at ARC and on JCC Maccabi teams) and he was pretty effective from mid-range and inside, scoring and rebounding well. Charlie Kranzdorf has also improved his game, and is very active, moving well with and without the ball. Jason Scott apparently pulled a hamstring (or so he said) and didn't play in the game we saw; he's small, quick and can move the ball on the break and we would have liked to have seen him play. Aaron Stein, a transfer from Buckley, was on the roster, but was a no-show. The varsity guys also played well, and with the coaching situation settling down at Montclair, maybe they will all now learn to play as a team, unlike the couple of games we saw where it looked like five guys all out for themselves. Will Sheslow and Josiah Johnson had both just come off Rockfish games (Will also had a run with Pump N Run II before his Saturday game with Valley), and both of them played well. Will has very quick feet and has improved his defense dramatically from last year; Josiah was rebounding well and scoring and if he and Tony McFadden a young, quick, strong and athletic player can learn to play together, Montclair should be very good next season. Josiah is, after all, Kris' brother and Marques' son, so he has that tendency to look a bit on the heavy side, but at this age, he's far more athletic and a better shooter than Kris was, and if he has the kind of year next season scoring-wise that he had last year, he should attract some major attention. We would not look for him to be an early signer, so what he does will largely depend on what kind of year he has at school and this summer.

West Valley I

J.R. Robinson (5'-11" Jr. G) Monterey
Justin McDanial (6'-7" Jr. F) Redwood
Lukas Beker (6'-0" Jr. G) Carmel
Farris Broussard (6'-7" Jr. F) Independence
A.J. Peper (6'-8" Jr. F) Homestead
Mike Crosby (6'-0" Jr. G) Saratoga
LaMar Bursey (6'-2" Jr. G) Andrew Hill
Micha Weger (5'-11" Jr. G) Saratoga
Nate Rede (6'-7" Jr. F) Carmel
Biko Eisen-Martin (6'-3" Jr. G) Branson

The big players here, in our humble opinion, were Bursey, a very effective guard who nad a great penetration move, finished at the basket, and was very athletic. We also liked Micha Weger, who had a good handle, and ran the floor very well. Farris Broussard was also impressive, a smooth big guy, very athletic, quick footed, strong who can really run. We would have liked to see more toughness from A.J. Peper, but this was still an impressive team that gave BWBA a really tough game on Saturday morning. J.R. Robinson is an effective point, sees the floor, makes intelligent decisions, and distributes the ball well, and he can also play the two, with a good shot out to three-point range.

West Valley II

We actually liked a lot of the guys on this team more than some of the players we saw on the West Valley I team, and the folks in Santa Cruz are going to be very hapy for a while:

Jamal Harris (6'-6" So. F) Seaside
Casey Curtis (??? Fr. G) Robert Louis Stevenson
Mike Travis (6'-9" So. F) Thurgood Marshall
Benjamin Kane (6'-1" So. G) Los Gatos
Josh Rhodes (6'-6" Fr. F) Santa Cruz
Terrance Kamau (6'-1" So. G) Santa Cruz
Matt Gingery (6'-7" Jr. F) Los Gatos
Jason Obazuways (6'-2" Fr. G) Andrew Hill
Anthony Garnett (6'-1" So. G) Seaside
Taj Stone (5'11" ?? G) Andrew Hill
Beau Knight (6'-5" Jr. G/F) Los Gatos

Josh Rhodes is our candiated for Division I out of this group; a strong game, strong body, can run, drive inside, rebounds, and can also play the three or the four. And he's just a freshman. Has all the potential to be a big-time D-I player, at least as much as anyone can have as a freshman at 6'-6" (actually we thought he was a little bigger than 6'-6", maybe 6'-7"). Mike Travis is the other top quality big man on this squad, and at 6'-9" we just want to know where Thurgood Marshall is so we can come up and check him out during the season. Travis can get inside, seals and has good footwork, but will need to put on some bulk and hit the weights. One other player we were impressed by was Anthony Garnett, who handled the point for much of the game we watched, trading off with a couple of other guys. He's quick footed, has good hands and isn't afraid to either drive inside or pull up and shoot the ball from mid-range. And with decent size he's also got a good view of the floor and showed nice confidence.

Well, that's it for now. We'll be at Rockfish this weekend, and then next week there will be just a torrent of stuff, including more Rockfish, ARC Spring League and the Double Pump Spring Tournament on April 9-11. We'll also have the RSL roster and schedule for this Saturday posted shortly. Later.