FRISCO, TX – After one and one-half sessions of Nike Elite Youth Basketball League – 2014-style – it’s apparent there is no one dominant team.
Five teams left Saturday’s competition in the spacious and spiffy Field House USA in this Dallas suburb with 5-1 records after BABC, Athletes First and Spiece Indianapolis Heat suffered their first losses of the season.
The Boston Area Basketball Club (63-46 to Team Final of Pennsylvania), Oklahoma-based Athletes First (79-78 to The Family of Michigan) and Spiece (65-62 by way of MOKAN and its Missouri and Kansas players) fell in the second game each played Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Team Penny (based in Memphis) and Team Final (with players from Pennsylvania, more or less) went to 2-0 on Saturday to improve to 5-1.
Here are some of the players with noteworthy performances on Saturday:
*Jalen Brunson (Chicago Stevenson) continued to look like a strong contender for “No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2015) designation on Saturday.
The left-handed son of another left-handed point guard (Rick Brunson played at Temple and in the NBA) averaged 18.6 points, 6.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds in Mac Irvin Fire’s wins over Southern Stampede of Georgia (78-72) and Playground Elite of Wisconsin (73-60).
Brunson (averaging 16.6, 6.6 and 2.8 on the season) will lead his 4-1 squad against Team Penny on Sunday morning (9:30 Central Time).
*Ivan Rabb (Oakland Bishop O’Dowd) was the No. 1 junior in California last season and – barring a considerable upset – with be a near-unanimous choice as the state’s top senior a year from now.
His credentials for those tags were apparent on Saturday as he averaged 19.5 points and 13.0 rebounds as he and the Oakland Soldiers split games with the Arkansas Wings (falling 75-71 in overtime) and Team Takeover of Washington, DC (prevailing 61-58).
*One of the best in the Class of 2016 showed why no one will dispute that moniker with his two efforts Saturday.
The Arkansas Wings Elite’s 6-foot-3 Malik Monk (Bentonville, AR) scored 29 points against the Oakland Soldiers and 21 in the 76-60 loss to Houston Hoops.
*Six-four Malik Newman (Jackson, MS, Callaway) made his 2014 EYBL debut Saturday for the Jackson Tigers after spend the first session (two weeks ago in Sacramento) playing in a Under Armour-sponsored event in Kansas City.
Jackson split a pair of games as Newman struggled to get scoring rhythm in either game, missing eight of 10 shots from the field in the opener (a 59-33 win over Mean Streets of Chicago) then following by hitting just six of 20 – but scoring 27 points – during his club’s 75-60 loss to the New Jersey Playaz.
*Six-two Isaiah Briscoe (Roselle Catholic) averaged 22.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the Playaz’ wins over the Jackson Tigers and New York Lightning (84-68).
*Dennis Smith (Fayetteville, NC, Trinity Christian) – a 2016 guard who made a big splash a couple of weeks ago for team Loaded during an adidas-sponsored event in Dallas – is spending the weekend with Team United in this event.
He is doing what several players have done over the years – participate in one EYBL session in order to become eligible for one of the Nike-fronted “Skills Academy”, including a possible slot in LeBron James’ event in Las Vegas in early July.
With four points against The Family and 14 against Howard Pulley (Minnesota) Smith wasn’t the scoring machine Saturday than he was in the adidas event with he became a Internet “scouts” sensation of sorts.
But he did show off a nifty combination of physical (he’s strong with considerable vertical and on-floor explosiveness, with and without the ball) and basketball skills and absolutely should be rated among the better guard prospects in the national Class of 2016.
*No one had a better pair of performances on Saturday than did 6-7 Miles Bridges (he’s from Flint, MI but plays for Huntington Prep in West Virginia) for The Family.
The 220-pound left hander scored 20 points to go with five rebounds in the 69-67 win over Team United and 22 and eight as his team handed Athletes First its initial loss (79-78).
The second contest was one of the more entertaining of the EYBL season.
Athletes First had rallied from an 11-point deficit to go up but Bridges scored in transition – with his right hand – while being fouled with 2.5 seconds to go and then converted the “And 1!” opportunity to stun the Allonzo Trier-led Athletes First.
Trier scored 29 points earlier Saturday (vs. Expressions Elite and its New England-area players) but was “held” to 23 against The Family as he had his first poor shooting (six of 23 from the field) shooting performance of the season.
If you had the opportunity to be courtside for each of Each 1 Teach 1’s Elite Youth Basketball League games on Mother’s Day in the Fieldhouse USA, you might have come away with the same conclusion as I did by late Sunday afternoon:
Anyone aspiring to the title of No. 1 high school basketball prospect in the Class of 2015 is going to have to make a compelling on-court argument as to why he is more deserving than Ben Simmons.
The six-foot-nine left hander from Melbourne, Australia by way of Montverde Academy in Florida and the Nike-fronted E1T1 program, played on a level well beyond just terrific while helping his team to victories over The Family (101-85) and Athletes First (84-82).
No one, in his size range in the Class of 2015, does more quality things with the ball in his hands than does Simmons, who committed to signed with LSU next November last Oct. 14.
That couldn’t have been more evident than during E1T1’s final game of the weekend.
Simmons scored an efficient 33 points by way of 13 of 17 shooting from the field (including one of his two attempts from behind the arc) and six of seven from the free-throw line to go with 12 rebounds, three assists, two steals, a blocked shot and only one turnover in the victory over Oklahoma’s Athletes First – a game that was as competitive and entertaining as any played during Weekend II of the EYBL 2014 season.
Just as importantly as those numbers, however, was Simmons’ ability to handle and pass the ball while getting his team into its half-court offensive attack against the Allonzo Trier-led Athletes First, and also seemingly come up with a key play – at either end of the floor – each time Trier & Co. seemed on the verge of pulling ahead and gaining some momentum.
Earlier Sunday Simmons scored 26 points (10 of 14 from the field, including a 3, and five of six free throws) with five rebounds and an assist in his team’s win over Michigan-based The Family.
E1T1’s 59-46 loss to Cheick Diallo and Team SCAN on Saturday is the only blemish on its record at the midway point of the EYBL season, which resumes next weekend in Hampton, VA.
It also got a couple of solid efforts from 2015 guard Antonio Blakeney (Orlando Oak Ridge), who hit 20 of 42 shots from the field and nine of 11 free throws for a collective 51 points Sunday.
Other Sunday standouts included:
*A lot of recruiting analysts and Internet sites list Isaiah Briscoe as a “shooting or combo guard”.
LOL!
Don’t be misled – he’s a “point guard”, by inclination, skill and know-how.
Briscoe (Roselle Catholic) helped the New Jersey Playaz wrap up a marvelous weekend (4-zip) Sunday with victories over Northwest Xpress (89-57) and Mean Streets (68-59).
The average margin for the four weekend wins was 18 points as Briscoe averaged 21.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls – your Weekend II EYBL 2014 Most Outstanding Player . . . Isaiah Briscoe!
At the midway point of the 2014 EYBL spring campaign, he and Jalen Brunson (Mac Irvin Fire/Chicago Stevenson) are clearly the league’s two best point guards, regardless of class.
*Team Scan and the Oakland Soldiers batted .500 on Sunday but their standouts, Cheick Diallo and Ivan Rabb, continued to show no signs of conceding any “No. 1 in 2015” rating to Simmons, Briscoe, Trier (Athletes First by way of Oklahoma City and his prep school, Montrose Christian of Rockville, MD) or anyone else.
No “true posts” (if you, like me, are more inclined to refer to Simmons as a “wing”, of sorts) have played more productively – and, often, spectacularly – than have Diallo (Centerreach, NY, Our Savior) and Rabb (Oakland, CA, Bishop O’Dowd).
*He may not have the vertical, lateral or straight-ahead explosiveness that Diallo and Rabb possess but 6-9 and 240-pound (my estimates) Jessie Govan once more used the EYBL to showcase why he is also one of the better post prospects in the Class of 2015.
Govan (Wings Academy in the Bronx) led the New York Lightning to wins over Team Scan and the Travelers on Sunday after splitting games with the Playaz and CIA Bounce on Saturday.
His weekend averages: 17.0 points and 4.9 rebounds.
He may seem a bit methodical at times in the post but he showed off a nice variety of jump hooks and other low-post moves over the weekend.
*The Texas Titans – with a roster of players located in and around the Dallas/Fort Worth area – had one-sided wins over the Oakland Soldiers (76-61) and Albany (NY) City Rocks (86-48) on Sunday.
Forward Mickey Mitchell (Plano West, located about 10 minutes from the building where the games were played) who is committed to Ohio State) didn’t score a lot – 4.5 points per game – Sunday but also chipped in 8.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
And another forward from the 2015 Class, D.J. Hogg (a Mitchell teammate at Plano West), wrapped up a 21.0 points per game-weekend with 25 points against 25 points against the Soldiers and 21 more against City Rocks.
He connected on 17 of his 33 attempts from behind at the arc as the Titans lost only their opener on Saturday (to Team Penny of Memphis) on the weekend to improve to 6-2.
*Speaking of Team Penny (and how is that for a nifty transition?), it improved to 7-1 with a 4-0 weekend.
The Brothers Lawson – Dedric is from the Class of 2016, Keelon from ’15 – are each averaging 15.5 points per game, with Dedric going for 7.0 rebounds per game to Keelon’s 6.2.
*I didn’t see much of All-Ohio Red during EYBL/Round I (in Sacramento) but did on this weekend.
And 6-8 forward Esa Ahmad (Shaker Heights in Ohio) and 6-3 guard Jalen Coleman (Lumiere Academy in La Porte, IN) each showed why they have spots rooted out in any consensus Top 75 – give or take – in the Class of 2015.
Ahmad showed off as much perimeter skill (including a highly dependable jump shot, with ample range) as any player in his size range at the event not named Ben Simmons.
And Coleman –I saw a lot of him last summer at adidas-fronted events, as well as with Lumiere Academy during the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas in December – had 23- and 24-point efforts on Saturday before averaging 8.7 points during the three games the team played on Sunday (making for the fourth game All-Ohio Red didn’t play in Sacramento because of final-day travel issues).
