second session first day report

SoCalHoops High School & Prep News

Double Pump West Coast All Star Camp
Session 2: First Day Report--(July 12, 1998)

We had the opportunity to spend the entire day and evening yesterday at the Pump West Coast All-Star Camp, and it was a great experience. The staff is professional, the camp is run extremely efficiently with the tireless energies of David and Dana Pump, and the real workhorses, Phil and Jan Bryant and a staff of great coaches and counselors, including Jason and Jarron Collins of Stanford, Chris Jeffries who is bound for Arkansas, Ray Young who will enroll at UCLA this fall, and many others.

There were some notable standouts during this first day, which included some short scrimmages in the afternoon and then games all night long after the Dave Hopla shooting clinic. And here's a little plug for Dave Hopla: If you've never seen him before you don't know what you're missing. His shooting technique and accuracy are just amazing. We watched as he hit almost 490 of about 500 shots, all the while giving a lecture to the assembled camp (well, it was more of a performance than a lecture) on shooting technique and practice skills. If you get the chance to see him, don't miss it, because he's really amazing.

Here are some of our impressions of some of the outstanding players from this first day of the second session. We'll highlight some, but not all, of the players from the various teams, in the order in which they appear in the coach's packets:

Team Alabama:

Joe Kirchofer ((6'-9" Sr. C/PF)-- This guy is built like a tank, solid, with very powerful legs, in fact it looks like he's been doing a lot of calf and thigh work, and he needs to do just a bit more upper body work to make himself look a bit more balanced, but there's no balance lacking in his play. He's got great footwork, plays well with his back to the basket, can shoot well, and best of all, he's smart: He's got a 4.5 GPA and told me that he scored 1500 on the SAT. He's looking at lots of schools right now, but claims to be wide open. He's going to visit the Boston area, and is also going to look at the Ivy League schools while he's back in the east, including Harvard, Columbia, and maybe Princeton, but he'd be a big asset to any mid to high D-1 school

Team Alaska:

Derek Lambeth (6'-5" Sr. G/F)-- Derek, from Bishop O'Dowd in Northern California is improving his game tremendously. Great speed, nice touch around the basket, and good court vision. Derek is also playing tremendous defense, blocking shots or altering a lot of shots, and he has good leaping ability, but still needs to work on his outside shot.

Kaunaoa McGee (6'-3" Grad. G)--McGee, from Hawaii, will attend prep school next fall. He's strong around the basket, surprisingly so for a 6'-3" guy, and has a nice shot out to about 17'. Good first step and ability to take his man off the dribble, but better in the open court.

David Gale (5'-10" Fr. PG)-- One of only 7 true freshmen in the camp out of 320 players, and still young, has been a nice surprise. Good court vision, great passing ability, and one scout commented that he reminded him of David Abramowitz. Still needs to improve speed on defense, but defends well on the perimeter. Had a tremendous no-look pass under the basket in the first game which had both sides' teams and coaches oohing and aahing, and also an impressive Tyus Edney-like imitation at the end of the first game with 5 seconds remaining on the clock, went coast to coast for the layup.

Team Arizona

Carlos Boozer (6'-9" Sr. C/F)-- Carlos just gets better and better, and was clearly the most physically dominant player in the camp yesterday, and we say that he'll still continue to be the most dominant player even if Jason Kapono does show up (he didn't yesterday, but Wayne Merino said he was late getting back from ABCD camp, whereas Carlos took an earlier flight with Gilbert Arenas and Napolean Rhodes from Florida). Carlos can do it all, and he intimidated and dominated everyone around him with great dunks, nice shooting and tremendous rebounding. He's strong, quick, and can do it all. UCLA has got to be the favorite for him, but Arizona and Stanford coaches were drooling over him yesterday. Actually, all the coaches in attendance were drooling over him.

DeShawn Stevenson (6'-5" Jr. G/F) -- played like he was just having fun yesterday, and in fact he was, having a bit of jet lag and probably very tired from a week at ABCD in New Jersey. A great talent, can dunk, rebound and shoot all the way out to three.

Mike Stowell (6'-3" Sr. G)--from Capistrano Valley, Mike is a solid performer, played well yesterday, nice defense, good handle. Capo is going to be very good with him, JJ Sola and Nate Hair next year.

Team Arkansas

Cayce Cook (5'-9" Sr. PG)-- From Chaminade in West Hill, Cayce played reasonably well, demonstrating his good handle, nice defense and his footwork is improving as is his defense. His dad, an assistant at Pepperdine, was also in attendance, and Cayce is getting some attention from a lot of Pac-10 schools and some WAC and WCC as well, but at this time he's wide open.

Team Connecticut

Adam Drell (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF)--Adam, from Chatsworth, is playing stronger and getting very tough on defense. He missed most of the War on the Floor tournament last week, but showed that the layoff hadn't hurt. Will be an impact player this year, and should be a nice mid D-I prospect.

Team Florida

Matthew Hendrix (5'-10" Sr. PG)-- Matt is a transfer to Venice, and is very talented. A good solid handle, good court vision, plays tenacious defense and solid in running the floor. A great addition to coach Dave Goosen's team.

Team Illinois

Tony Freeman (6'-4" Sr. G)-- from Santa Barbara, Tony is a tremendous talent, threw down a couple of monster dunks, and clearly was the most physically dominating player on his team, which includes Jess Boyd (6'-9" Sr. C) from Mira Costa, Tonly Champion (6'-8" Sr. F/C) from Bishop O'Dowd in NorCal, and Marqui Jones (6'-5" Jr. G) from Fairfax. The most talented of the bunch. Should be a nice mid to high D-I prospect and a virtual certainly to be on either the Best of the Best or the Senior All-Star team.

Team Indiana

Mark Cannon (6'-1" Sr. PG)-- from Chatsworth. A very nice, solid player, with great outside shooting and good defense. Great ability to feed the post and involve others. Mark is a solid student, and should be attracting some attention from mid D-1's to D-II. He tells us he's getting lots of letters but is wide open.

Team Iowa

A special note here: This is Phil Bryant's team, and it's just stacked. Seems that lots of the local coaches agree to send players but only if Phil will coach them, so that they're sure they get his special attention, and, perhaps more importantly, so that some other local coach won't mess with the kids. Hey, that never happens, right? Actually Phil's team yesterday was a little short handed, because Jason Kapono (6'-8" Sr. G/FC) didn't show, Glen McGowan (6'-8" Sr. C/F) from Venice didn't play much because he was hurt, and there were a bunch of guys who just filled in, many of whom weren't on the rosters and so we didn't know who they were. Aaron Hamilton (6'-6" Sr. G)--From Artesia also didn't showPhil told us that he expects to be at full strength on Sunday and for the rest of the week.

Lance Buoncristiani (5'-8" Sr. PG)-- from Galena, in Nevada, Lance is lightning quick, and is certainly the most exciting point guard to watch at this session. Has absolutely brilliant passing ability, makes great decisions (usually), and doesn't commit many turnovers. Doesn't shoot a lot, but can if he needs to. Also not afraid to drive, but because he feeds the ball to others so well, doesn't much need to drive. His only drawback is his size, but that may not matter. Very quick.

Kemmy Burgess (6'-1" Sr. G) from El Cajon Valley. Frankly we didn't get to watch him that much, because we were busy watching other guys, but he's a solid player.

Bo Segeberg (6'-8" Sr. C/F)-- from Serrano in Wrightwood. Played well despite an injured hand, which was taped before the game. Bo told us that the hand was bothering him a bit, but that after the taping it didn't really hurt. He had a big second half, blocking some shots, scoring well, and rebounding great. Bo's game is improving all the time, and he's a great high D-1 prospect.

Team Kansas

Johnathon Stoa (6'-4" Sr. G)--from Whittier Christian, Johnathon is a tremendously talented player. Great handle, absolutely dead-on shot from three, and we watched as he bombed in about 4 in a row. Also has great ability to take it to the hole, and plays good solid, but not great, defense.

Team Michigan

Another note on this team: It's one of the other "stacked" teams (including Arizona, Utah, and Iowa), meaning that they have more than their share of high D-1 prospects who will definitely sign this year.

Gilbert Arenas (6'-4" Sr. G)-- from Grant High in Van Nuys (yeah, we said Grant, not Sylmar, but more on that later). Gil just got back from ABCD that afternoon, went home to change and then drove down to Dominguez with his dad for the evening games. Gil was dunking, slamming and generally having fun, but you could also tell that he was tired, and he dribbled the ball off his foot a couple of times when the action in the game got a bit slow, because his team was just killing the opposition (Utah actually, with Jason Morrisette, Joe Shipp, and some others).

And since we're on the subject of Gil, we talked at length with his dad about the transfer rumors. So far, we can confirm that the Daily News is just wrong. Gil did not turn in any transfer paperwork to Sylmar. His father said that he filled out the forms for the Magnet Program, but has not turned them in, and has them on his table at home. He's still leaving every option open for Gil. He says that the main thing that Gil is concerned about right now is completing his core requirements for NCAA eligibility, because he's already got the SAT out of the way. As for any fued with Grant Coach Levine, that's just nonsense and is really being hyped in the media, most notably by the Daily News. In fact, Gil is enrolled in summer school not at Grant, and not at Sylmar, but at Reseda High. Hmmm. What do you think about that. . . . maybe he's getting ready to play for Dave Enowitz.. . . not likely. But Gil Sr. did say that Gil will definitely not transfer for basketball reasons. If he does at all, it will be for educational reasons only.

We also talked with Gil in the trainer's room, and he was very excited about the ABCD camp and thinks he impressed a lot of people. He had games of 30, 14, 15, and got a lot of looks from all the Pac-10, some ACC and Big Ten schools as well. Gil is absolutely wide open at this point.

Mike Bell (6'-6" Sr. G/F)-- from Canoga Park, a solid player with great defensive skills. Nice shot from outside, and ended up taking over point at times on this team. Had a fun time with Gil yesterday.

Baker Dunleavy( 6'-0" So. G)-- Mike Dunleavy's younger brother (son of coach Dunleavy). A slight build, good quickness, but not much shooting from him yesterday. Was guarded mostly by freshman Charlie Kranzdorf (6'-0" Fr. G/F) from Montclair Prep, one of the only true freshmen in the camp, who did a pretty good job of denying him the ball, but who got just hammered when he was asked to defend Gilbert Arenas later in the game.

Aerick Sanders (6'-8" Jr. C/F)-- from Gardena Serra, a fine player, who is getting better and stronger all the time. Aerick is bulking up and getting stronger in the post. Plays well with back to basket, and nice touch in close. Good rebounder.

Skyler Wilson (5'-10" So. PG)-- From La Quinta, Skyler is almost as quick as Buoncristiani, but not quite. A very nice little guard, good passing, nice defense, should be a good prospect by the time he's a junior/senior.

That's as much as we can do for now (which leaves about half the teams undone), but we'll fill in the rest later tonight. For now, we've got to get back to the games.