LONG BEACH, Ca. – Day I of the Pangos All-American, Version XII, was like the other 11 first days:
It’s a time for scrambling to peruse the numerical roster and makeup of each camp “team”, determining which players on the rosters were actually in the building and in uniform and then deciding where to plop one’s butt in order to have the best viewing vantage point for a few hours’ worth of games.
For yours truly Friday night in the Cabrillo High gymnasium it was “check, check and check and then was I seated against the south wall, facing Court 3 for the 8:30 “ACC Division” clash between “Miami” and “North Carolina State”, and the 9:30 “Pac-12” contest between “USC” and “Washington”.
There were a plethora of the better guards in the west region in the west in the first game, most notably Lonzo Ball (Chino Hills, CA), Paris Austin (Oakland Bishop O’Dowd) and Jeremy Hemsley (La Verne, CA, Damien) for NCSU, and Derryck Thornton (Henderson, NV, Findlay Prep), Stephen Thompson Jr. (Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery) and Noah Blackwell (Roseville, CA, Woodcreek) for Miami.
NCSU dominated, 67-46. But that score isn’t what you’re interested in, right?
OK.
Ball (who is already committed to UCLA) and Thornton are two of the better point guards in the national 2016 class and were matched up in the early going.
And Thornton wasted little time in driving by the much taller (6-foot-5 and some change) Ball for baskets.
But Thornton never seemed to be in real sync the rest of the way and didn’t hit another of his field goal attempts (although he didn’t make a couple of nice passes for buckets).
Ball took only three shots – missing a turn-around jumper from the left side early – and the final two of them were of the spectacular variety.
He caught a 40-foot pass as he appeared to be sailing out of bounds, snuggly secured the ball and laid it in all in a nice fluid motion.
And he ripped a defensive rebounder in the lane and scored a reverse layup between two defenders who seemed to have him hemmed in on the baseline under the bucket.
He also had three of four passes that were eye-catching if you hadn’t watched him play before but status quo if you have.
Thompson and Blackwell – two of the better jump shooters in California – struggled in that regard Friday night.
Austin – a starter for the Dragons’ club lost to Santa Ana Mater Dei in the California State Open Division title game in March – looks like he may have put on about 10 pounds or so of solid muscle.
And it appears to have helped his game as he penetrated well against any contact or pressure, hit a couple of 3s and generally got the ball where it needed to go, although he committed four turnovers – pretty much all of them the result of getting caught in the air while attempting to pass.
The most productive and impressive guard in the game, though, was Hemsley, a 6-3 combo who announced his commitment to San Diego State Wednesday afternoon.
Hemsley (a teammate of Thompson and Lakewood Mayfair’s Kendall Small in the Superior Athletes program) scored a team-high 18 points (going seven of eight from the field and four of four from the free-throw line), had two or three impressive assists with no turnover and played better defense than anyone in the game – twice blocking Thornton shots.
Vance Jackson (Bellflower, CA, St. John Bosco), with four 3s as part of his game-high 20 points, and 6-4 Shake Milton (Oswasso, OK), with15 points via a couple of deep 3s and impressive drives, were the most impressive of the Miami players Friday night.
It was East (Isaiah Briscoe of Roselle Catholic in New Jersey) vs. West (Tyler Dorsey of Bellflower, CA, St. John Bosco), of sorts, in the second game on Court 3.
And, although Dorsey did a nice job of drawing fouls on Briscoe in the second and scored the bulk of his game-high 15 points after intermission, it was Briscoe who clearly got the “better” of any perceived 1-on-1 showdown Friday night. And his Washington team prevailed, 72-65.
Briscoe, who goes about 6-3 and 210ish, is the proverbial “gets the ball from Point A to any point he wants to get on the court, via dribble or pass”-PG.
He was the best 2015 PG I saw on the Nike EYBL circuit (I watched the games in played in Sacramento and Dallas) – and anywhere else, for that matter – and nothing I saw changed that opinion Friday night.
Briscoe’s club won, 72-65, and he got plenty of help from 6-7, 250ish junior-to-be Joe Hampton (Hyattsville, MD, DeMatha), who scored 12 points – six of those on a two-for-two effort behind the arc.
One of the better power forward-types in the Class of 2015, Horace Spencer III (a teammate of Thornton’s at Findlay Prep), rivaled Marquese Chriss (Elk Grove, CA, Pleasant Grove of North Carolina State) as the most stunning vertical athlete I saw.
Spencer added 14 points and five rebounds. Once he grasps he’s a flat-out power forward and not be seduced by the idea that that he might be a wing, he’ll have a dominant senior season for new Findlay Prep Head Coach Andy Johnson.
Other impressive performances (at least statistically, since I was glued to my Court 3 seat):
*Stephen Zimmerman (Las Vegas Bishop Gorman), while often matched against Lawndale, CA, big fellas Chemezie Metu (who recently committed to USC) and Brodricks Jones, scored 12 points with nine rebounds and two blocked shots in Arizona’s 55-35 win over UCLA.
*Rex Pflueger (Santa Ana Mater Dei) hit a night-high 21 points, with four 3s, five rebounds and two assists in North Carolina’s 57-50 victory over Maryland.
*Point guard Kendall Small (Lakewood, CA, Mayfair) had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals in Cal’s 66-53 win against Stanford.
Small is likely to be matched against Briscoe when their teams hook up in a 4 o’clock Saturday game on Court 2.
Games resume Saturday at 3 o’clock.
The camp wraps up Sunday afternoon with the Top 25 All-Star Game at about 1:15.
No-shows among those who were expected to attend the camp include Tres Tinkle (Missoula, MT, Hellgate/wisdom teeth pulled, according to Ryan Silver of Earl Watson Elite), Chase Jeter ( Las Vegas Bishop Gorman/chin splits and fatigue, according to BG Coach Grant Rice), Ray Smith (Las Vegas High/Camp Director Dinos Trigonis expects him to play Saturday) and Bennie Boatwright (Sun Valley, CA, Village Christian/ankle?).
DAY 2
Stephen Zimmerman, via his on-court play over the first two days of the weekend, has spoken clear and succinctly as to why he has been considered one of the very best of the Class of 2015 for seemingly so very long.
The left-handed senior-to-be at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas put the entire litany of his immense set of skills on display during the 12th Pangos All-American Camp at Cabrillo High
His performances invoked the names of two similarly sized (6-foot-10 and change) NBA players by three interested observers Saturday.
“I think of (Miami Heat standout) Chris Bosh,” his high school coach, Grant Rice, while watching Zimmerman dominate proceedings at both ends of the floor via his sprinting, full-court ball-handling and passing, jump shooting, back-to-the-bucket moves, rebounding, shot-blocking and a few other things I’ve probably forgotten to mention.
The point guard on Zimmerman’s “Arizona” camp team, Terrence Phillips, said the same thing later while shaking his head in genuine admiration after being an up-close party to Zimmerman dipping so deeply and frequently into his heaping bag of hoops tricks.
And Long Beach-based ESPN.com analyst Joel Francisco tossed out the name Greg Monroe (Detroit Pistons) as a player whose physical dimensions and array of ways to contribute to a team he is most reminded of while watching Zimmerman.
If you were courtside Saturday afternoon and watched “Big Zimm” go for 14 points, nine rebounds, three blocked shots, two assists and two steals in Arizona’s 100-64 breeze over Stanford, and 20 points, three rebounds, four assists and a block against Washington (74-52) a few hours later – and watched a lot of NBA action – you would have bought into the comparisons.
Another Pistons’ player watched the camp action Friday night.
And, over the course of the first two days of the camp and the way he played for the CP3 over the four weekends of Nike EYBL action this spring, Phillips has shown he is a lot more than “just” the “little brother” of that player, Brandon Jennings.
Since his appearance at this camp a year ago, and especially since December (with the Mouth of Wilson, VA, Oak Hill Academy squad), there may not be a more improved player at the position, nationally, in the Class of 2015.
Phillips had eight points, four rebounds, six assists and a steal Friday night in the 20-point victory over UCLA, then averaged 7.5, 6.5, 5.5 and 1.5 on Saturday.
And Saturday night he also did a most commendable job against, arguably, the best 2015 prospect at the position in the camp, Isaiah Briscoe (Roselle, NJ, Catholic), while helping Arizona hand Washington – which also has one of the more spectacular forwards in the camp (Ray Smith of Las Vegas High) on its roster – its first loss of the weekend.
There isn’t a more vertically explosive player than Marquese Chriss (Elk Grove, CA, Pleasant Grove) standing 6-8 or taller in the camp.
But Chriss (Class of 2015/he committed to the University of Washington midway through his junior season) wasn’t doing much standing on Saturday at North Carolina State improved to 3-0 as he went for 18 points, four rebounds and three steals against North Carolina in the afternoon and 22, eight and two that evening to help his team edge Duke, 59-57.
Take your choice: You can call Brandon Sampson a “wing” or a “shooting wing” when referring to the position he is likely to be playing most frequently as a college freshman during the 2015-16 season.
If you watched Sampson for any extended period of time during Stanford’s first three games, you would also join me in calling him one of the five best prospects in the camp in the Class of 2015.
The 6-5ish Sampson (Baton Rouge, LA, Madison Prep) averaged 20.7 points while hitting nine of 20 shots from beyond the arc.
No one in the camp elevates any quicker or higher on jump shot than does Sampson.
The third and final day of the camp resumes action on Sunday morning at 9:30, with the second session of “league” (ACC and Pac-12) games set to tip at about 10:20.
Following a short break, the camp’s Top 50 All-Star Game is scheduled for 12:15 p.m., with the Top 25 All-Star Game getting underway at 1:30 or so.
DAY 3
The 12th edition of the Pangos All-American Camp is a wrap.
From my respective, at least, it didn’t take the full four sessions of camp games – and the two all-star games – to determine who the two best players were from among the 120 or so who participated during the weekend event at Cabrillo High.
By Saturday afternoon it was clear that the best backcourt player at the camp was Isaiah Briscoe (Roselle, NJ, Catholic) and the best post player was Stephen Zimmerman (Las Vegas Bishop Gorman).
My choices for “MVPs” in the Top 60 All-Star Game were point guards Alani Moore (Hyattsville, MD, DeMatha), with eight points and five assists for the White team that beat the Blue, 93-83, and Sedrick Barefield (Corona, CA, Centennial), with 13 points and four assists for the Blue.
After a mostly no-defense, cherry-picking affair in the Top 30 contest (it was painful to watch at times) that saw the White prevail, 137-124, my MVP picks were two more point guards, Terrence Phillips (Mouth of Wilson, VA, Oak Hill Academy), with a triple-double of 18 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for the Blue, and Briscoe, with 20 points, six rebounds and 10 assists for the White.
My choices for the most impressive players during the Friday evening-to-Sunday afternoon camp:
Top 20 from the Class of 2015
Paris Austin (5-11/Oakland, CA, Bishop O’Dowd)
Sedrick Barefield (6-1/Corona, CA, Centennial)/Committed to SMU
Malik Beasley (6-4/Alpharetta, GA, St. Francis)
Nick Blair (6-4/Las Vegas Bishop Gorman)
Isaiah Briscoe (6-3/Roselle, NJ, Catholic)
Marquese Chriss (6-8/Elk Grove, CA, Pleasant Grove)/Committed to Washington
Tyler Dorsey (6-4/Bellflower, CA, St. John Bosco)/Committed to Arizona
Steve Enoch (6-9/Norwalk, CT)
Admon Gilder (6-2 ½ /Dallas Madison)
Jeremy Hemsley (6-3/La Verne, CA, Damien)/Committed to San Diego State
Chimezie Metu (6-9/Lawndale, CA, Lawndale)/Committed to USC
Terrence Phillips (5-11/Mouth of Wilson, VA, Oak Hill Academy)
Brandon Sampson (6-5/Baton Rouge, LA, Madison Prep)
Kendall Small (6-0/Lakewood, CA, Mayfair)/Committed to Oregon
Ray Smith (6-7/Las Vegas)
Horace Spencer (6-8/Henderson, NV, Findlay Prep)
Stephen Thompson Jr. (6-3/Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery)
Jesse Wade (6-0/Kaysville, UT, Davis)/Committed to Gonzaga
Jimmy Whitt (6-2/Columbia, MO, Hickman)
Stephen Zimmerman (6-10/Las Vegas Bishop Gorman)
Top 10 from the Classes of 2016/17
Lonzo Ball (6-5/Chino Hills, CA/2016)/Committed to UCLA
Terrance Ferguson (6-5/Dallas Prime Prep/2016)
De’Aaron Fox (6-3/Katy, TX, Cypress Creek/2016)
Leland Green (6-2/Redondo Beach, CA, Redondo/2016)
Alani Moore (5-8/Hyattsville, MD, DeMatha/2016)
Nate Morris (6-9/Lancaster, TX/2016)
Zach Norvell (6-5/Chicago Simeon/2016
Cody Riley (6-7/Chatsworth, CA, Sierra Canyon/2017)
Ethan Thompson (6-2/Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery/2017)
Derryck Thornton (6-2/Henderson, NV, Findlay Prep/2016)
