March 2011 Archive

TUP's Random Quick Hits On The High School All-American Game

by Bobby Loesch on March 31 at 11:59AM

Went to the boys basketball All-American game at the UC last night. Had some quick and minor observations, so here goes.

- The trip began with some disgrace.

/shudder. Gave me some flashbacks.

- While I never saw the famed Rondo banner (sorry, Matt), I did catch this one.

D-Rose! Shaq! Maya Moore!..............David Lee!...........................................................................................................Mike Bibby!

Damn, Bibby is seven years younger than Shaq? I might have believed seven years older.

- We arrived with a big chunk of the girl's game left. While most people like to harp on the women's game, I thought they were perfectly skilled players. The problem is it doesn't totally translate to an all-star game. Two quick sub-thoughts, though...

1) MVP was Elizabeth Williams. She seemed like a generally nice person, but I later found out she was a Duke commit. Boooooo.

I think I dislike Duke women's more than Duke men's.

2) There was a player (UConn commit) named Brianna Banks. No, not Briana Banks.

Dang.

Wikipedia's last update on the Briana Banks you've maybe heard of?

On October 13, 2006, Banks reportedly filed a federal lawsuit seeking more than US $75,000 in damages against Doc Johnson Enterprises charging that they had created unauthorized products from molds of her genitals.

Nice.

I'm mostly just excited we have someone with that name going into Geno Auriemma's program. For some reason, that just feels like the right fit.

* * *

Onto the boys game...

- The dudes took the floor, and the dynamic completely shifted. Pre-game warm ups became an informal dunk contest. I was immediately drawn to two players. First, Austin Rivers. The national high school player of the year, Doc's kid, and.... a Duke commit. NOOOO. I'd mostly been focusing on him because he was the only name I'd heard going into the game. The other player was a dude named LeBryan Nash. He's an Okie State commit who was wearing a mohawk type haircut. He spent the bulk of his pre-game trying to do between the leg dunks. I was on board from the start.

- Though James McAdoo (North Carolina) and Michael Gilchrist were the game's co-MVPs, Austin Rivers came off as the alpha-dog to me. His shot was on and off throughout, but he clearly had range. To accompany the outside of his game was some killer explosiveness. He's got a terrific first step and a promising cross. He's considerabily more athletic than he might look. He's just gotta take some Stacey King advice and get in that weight room. He also had a few sweet dimes.

- A lot of the guys have already mastered the "turn away from a ref in disbelief after a foul call" move. They'll fit in perfectly if they make the NBA.

- St. Joseph's Gene Pingatore (of "Hoop Dreams" and 'coaching Isiah Thomas' fame) was the head coach of the East team.

- Tallest player there was 6-10 (five of 'em, total).

- Yesterday, during my Final 4 Favoritism piece, I wrote:

I'd really like to see Calipari lock up his first ring. Whether it eventually gets vacated or not ultimately doesn't matter. Would it be a big deal if they lost this year? Hell no. Cal probably has dope recruits lined up for the 2011-12 season, and Kentucky's already won seven total NCAA titles (most recently in 1998). We still probably have a huge window for this to happen.

This was all based on blind assumption. But of course, once I saw the rosters for the game, I noticed four Kentucky commits. More than North Carolina, Duke, or any other school. Cal is truly incredible. Teflon pic again? Sure.

- Late in the game, they played an interview with Austin Rivers on the jumbotron at the UC. Because the timeouts in an exhibition game are mostly pointless (and because the kids are still highschoolers), the players on the court looked up at the screen to watch some Rivers high school highlights mixed with some interview clips. At the end of the Q&A, the interviewer asked him to rap. Then this happened. During and after the rap, it was clear Rivers was getting some crap from his teammates. When the piece finished, he got a handshake from one of his bros, and everybody moved on. Rivers also got some swag back in his post-game interview with this gem:

"I love playing in front of big crowds like that. It gets me going. If my high school team was out there and if it was in front of a crowd like that, I might've had a hundred [points]."

- All in all, a very fun time. Some cool dunks, assists, 3s, and a very nice, random thing to cross off the sports/hoops bucket list.

Bobby Loesch is the assistant editor of Tremendous Upside Potential. He can be reached at bobbyloesch [at] gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

March 2011 Archive

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