senior game first session

The Senior All-Star game, which was the next to the last game of the day at the first session of West Coast All Star camp, was one of the better games of the day because it featured good point guard play and some nice action from some big men. There was one glaring error on the roster, and that was listing Bobby Jones for this game, when in fact he should have been in the Frosh-Soph or the Best of the Best Game (well, ok, the Frosh Soph game), and while we pointed out that he wasn't a senior, as did Dominguez' assistant coach Vic Washington, apparently no one was really listening because he was listed on the roster still at game time:

#	Last Name	First Name	Height	Grade	High School
1	Abdelsamad	Fowzi	6'-1"	00	Fairfax
12	Barrow	Cedric	6'-0"	00	Jesuit
18	Beck	Romel	6'-3"	00	Etiwanda
31	Kevin	Brown	6'-3"	00	Westchester
63	Duhon	Montell	6'-6"	00	Venice
65	Edwards	Lyman	6'-0"	00	Venice
83	gingery	Matt	6'-5"	00	Los Gatos
86	Graham	Alex	7'-0"	00	Redlands
109	Ireifej	Francis	6'-2	00	Mission Viejo
119	Jones**	Bobby	6'-5"	00	Dominguez*
140	Kuhle	Aaron	6'-3	00	De La Sall
147	Lee	Jordan	6'-1"	00	Life Christian Academy
149	Carrinton	Ramel	6'-4"	00	Largo (Maryland)
158	Mayfield	Donyare	5'-8"	00	Vista (San Diego)
173	Moore	Steve	6'-3"	00	Dominguez
202	Phillips	Jeremiah	6'-5"	00	Silverado
210	Richards	Antwaine	6'-0"	00	Ventura
240	Sligh	Joel	6'-7"	00	Kingsburg
275	Wilbur	Ryan	6'-5"	00	Brea Olinda
290	Sims	Chris	6'-2"	00	Clovis
306	Johnson	Josiah	6'-7"	00	Montclair Prep
309	Shotwell	Ramaan	6'-0"	00	Long Beach Poly

A number of players really stood out in this game: Fowzi Abdelsamad was one, and this solid combo guard's stock just has to be rising. He was passing, shooting, driving, dishing and just doing it all in general. The camp was good to Fowzi, and he played very well, and several college coaches were asking us about him. We're not certain whether he'll be back for the second session or down at Rim Rattler, but wherever he is, college coaches should make a point of checking him out. Excellent on and off the ball defense, nice ability to slash to the hole, good size and strength. An excellent mid-major D-I prospect. Cedric Barrow also played well, but probably didn't really help improve his recruitng all that much, because generally during the camp he was overshadowed or just not given the ball very much, and in this game too, he didn't get to play his natural position. He's a cagey left-handed point/shooter who loves to slash to the basket and he's a definite D-I in our view. Montel Duhon is another player who had a great camp, but who didn't do much in this game from an offensive point of view, but he really rebounded exceptionally well. Montel will be playing next week as well at WC All Stars and it looks like he'll be traveling again with Pump N Run Black to Vegas and the Best of Summer. Montel's high school teammate, Lyman Edwards played reasonably well too, showing good speed, a nice handle, and great ability to change direction and tempo in the open court to throw off the defenders. The big story though at point guard was Donyare Mayfield, and if Heywood Eaddy can make it to the college level, there's a place in the WCC or the WAC for Mayfield. He may be small, but he's fast, penetrates and then dishes very well, and he pushes the ball up the floor and hardly ever turns it over.

Another player we really were intrigued by was Ireifej, a slight, slender combo wing guard who can shoot it from way outside with great accuracy. We're not certain that he has the complete package to be a D-I player, but he can sure shoot the ball, and he was scoring about 15-20 ppg during the camp and he hit several nice long bombs in this game.

There were several glaring omissions, in terms of selections, for this game: One was Michah McKinney (6'-1" Sr. PG) from Dominguez, who had a great camp, but was not selected for this roster, for reasons we just can't understand; you'd think at least he'd merit the 100% game? And we also just don't quite get why Josiah Johnson and Steve Moore, both of whom were selected for this game weren't selected instead for the Best of the Best. Josiah was virtually unstoppable during the camp. Admittedly he looks slow, lumbering up and down the court (he's got that same tendency his brother Kris, and father, both former UCLA stars, have to put on weight), but underneath what looks like baby-fat, is a tremendous amount of muscle, and Joe could just be the best shooter of the Johnson family. He was scoring about 20-25 ppg, from all over the place, down low and inside to way out beyond three, but for some reason he seemed to just be so quiet and unassuming that no one must have really noticed. Clearly one of the top scorers in camp and a nice young man too.

Similarly Steve Moore should also have been on the Best of the Best. He rebounds, scores, defends, and jumps out of the gym, in short, he does it all. And he did it all in this game, vastly improving his stock among some of the colleges, and if he can keep his grades up and qualify, we'd expect to see him at one of the mid-majors next year.