Kansas Jayhawks
Nov. 19: Texas A&M vs. Saint Louis (7:30 ET, ESPNU); Kansas vs. Washington State (10 ET, ESPN2)
Nov. 20: Third-place game (7 ET, ESPN3); championship game (9:30 ET, ESPNU)
…The knee-jerk reaction is to look at this bracket and tab Kansas as the runaway favorite. But don’t hand the trophy to the Jayhawks just yet. Saint Louis is the choice of many to win the 16-team Atlantic 10 this season, and it doesn’t hurt that the Billikens tout one of the country’s top coaches in Rick Majerus. ... Kansas, which features eight freshmen, may still be trying to work out some kinks as it incorporates new players early in the season, which would be natural.
…Eamonn Brennan: Kansas over Saint Louis
Andy Katz: Kansas over Saint Louis
Myron Medcalf: Kansas over Saint Louis
Dana O'Neil: Kansas over Saint Louis
ESPN: CBE Classic bracket reveal
Kansas University’s basketball players have completed half of their NCAA-allocated 10 practices preceding an Aug. 6-14 tour of Switzerland and France.
The five workouts — which have run about two hours apiece — have definitely tested the squad’s six true freshmen and two freshman walk-ons.
“It’s a lot more physical than high school,” said Perry Ellis, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound freshman forward out of Wichita Heights. “We’ve got a great group of guys.
“I mean, it’s always fun going and competing with them,” Ellis added Thursday — the final day of KU’s second and final session of summer school.
Landen Lucas, a 6-10, 230-pound center out of Portland’s Westview High, reported that his first college workouts, “have been great. The competition on the floor is all you could ask for. It gets you better as a player.”
…Fifth-year senior Releford said he has been pleasantly surprised by the play of the large group of newcomers.
“Practice is going good so far. These young guys are catching on a lot faster than I thought they would coming in. I think that’s good progress for the team,” said the 6-6, 210-pounder from Kansas City, Mo. “This overseas trip can help out a lot as well. We will actually be able to play and put everything together.”
Releford was asked which new players are better than he expected.
“Most of them,” he said. “Andrew (White, 6-6, Miller School, Charlottesville, Va.) and Perry really stand out a lot. Andrew’s a real good shooter.”
Of inside players Ellis, Lucas and Zach Peters (6-9, 240, Plano, Texas), Releford said: “They are all good. They are coming along working with coach (assistant Norm) Roberts. I feel all the new guys coming in can help us a lot.”
Releford said offense has been a point of emphasis during the first five practices. The Jayhawks, like all teams, also are allowed an additional two hours a week practice time in accordance with new NCAA summer rules.
“It’s not near like the regular season,” Releford said. “It’s offense, offense, offense. Everything is offense. We haven’t broken down what we need to do on defense. He (coach Bill Self) is basically trying to get the young guys a good feel on how we want to do things.”
…Former KU point guard Russell Robinson has signed to play professional basketball next season with Angelico Pallacanestro Biella, the Italian club announced Thursday. Robinson averaged 13 points and three assists last season for Trabzonspor in Turkey.
LJW
The men’s basketball team will take its talents overseas this August to face off against some of Europe’s finest. The team will take a nine-day trip between Switzerland and France where they will play two exhibition games against Switzerland’s national team and two against French professional teams.
The trip will come at a good time for the Jayhawks, as they have a revamped roster from last season, which includes eight freshmen. Head coach Bill Self said this trip will help his players on and off the court for the upcoming season.
“I think it’s great we get to play four games against quality competition while we’re over there,” Self said, “but more importantly, I think it’s going to be a great educational experience for our guys.”
“Winning is always important, but having an opportunity to go to Switzerland and France and hang out in Paris will be memories that will last all our guys’ lifetime. I’m certainly excited for them to experience that, while at the same time, get our basketball team a little better.”
…The exhibition games will follow FIBA rules, which are significantly different from college basketball standards. The shot clock will be at 24 seconds rather than 35, players have eight seconds to cross half court and only five seconds to shoot a free throw.
UDK
For the seventh-straight season, the Kansas men’s basketball team will make four appearances on ESPN’s Big Monday, as announced by the Big 12 Conference Wednesday.
KU will be featured on ESPN’s Big Monday on Jan. 14 versus Baylor, Jan. 28 at West Virginia, Feb. 11 versus Kansas State and Feb. 25 at Iowa State. The Jayhawks have played Baylor in a Big Monday contest three times in the Big 12 era, while facing Kansas State and Iowa State four times each. KU and West Virginia will be meeting for the first time as conference members and the first time in men’s basketball history.
Since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996-97, Kansas is 45-16 all-time on ESPN’s Big Monday (25-1 at home, 20-15 on the road), including 26-8 under head coach Bill Self. Additionally, KU has won 18-straight Big Monday games in Allen Fieldhouse, which includes a 14-0 mark under Self.
KU AD
When Cynthia Garrett and her husband Roger Charles moved to Lawrence almost a year and a half ago, they had one thing on their mind: Kansas Basketball.
Garrett’s only son, Christian Garrett, joined the University of Kansas basketball team in January 2011. While athletics brought Christian Garrett to Lawrence, Cynthia Garrett said she and Charles felt that they were brought to Lawrence to help the University in a different way. For nearly a year, they have opened up their home weekly to host a Bible study for KU students.
“The study really started with Christian asking Roger about the Bible and then going to practice and talking with his teammates about what Roger had shared with him,” Cynthia Garrett said. “One teammate in particular, Jordan [Juenemann] asked if he could start coming to study the Bible with Christian and Roger. So the two of them basically began their own little study in our home.”
Juenemann and Christian began inviting friends and classmates. The group quickly grew from two to nearly 25 each week. Cynthia Garrett says she was thrilled with how the excitement spread about their Bible “home-schooling.”
“There were some weeks where we had almost 60 students in our home, and I remember thinking we were going to have to start a church,” Cynthia Garrett said.
UDK
A second NBA exhibition featuring Anchorage native Mario Chalmers scheduled for Alaska's largest city has been canceled this year.
The Mario V Chalmers Foundation NBA Game scheduled for Aug. 3 was canceled Tuesday. Sullivan Arena officials said Chalmers cited injuries, free agency and the Olympics as factors in not being able to fill out a roster.
Chalmers, an Anchorage Bartlett High School star who won an NBA title with the Miami Heat this year, previously tried to schedule an exhibition game last winter.
The December game was canceled when the league's lockout ended and players had to get back to their respective teams to report for training camp.
AP
Kansas 2012-13 Schedule
Big 12/College News
Bowlsby said at the league’s football media days that when the league’s television deal is complete, it would include a 13-year grant-of-rights from all participants. That would mean that any member that wished to depart the league, say, in 2015 wouldn’t see a dime of television revenue until the late 2020s.
Once that contract is in the files, the Big 12 will be as enduring as the Rolling Stones.
At that point, I believe the Big 12 would expand only to take advantage of an exceptional opportunity, not for the same of some numerical desire. If, for instance, Florida State and Clemson really were interested — which, on balance, I don’t believe ever was true — the Big 12 would listen.
The Big 12 also must consider, if it gets the opportunity, whether it wants to offer a sort of hybrid membership to Notre Dame. Irish officials want to arrange the sort of deal with the ACC that it currently has with the Big East. The ACC to this point has declined. If it holds firm to that position, the Irish might approach the Big 12 for a similar arrangement: A football scheduling arrangement with conference members, full membership in other sports.
TSN
Fans will get a chance to see the Kansas State men’s basketball team before their 10-day trip to Brazil, as the squad will hold an open practice on Saturday, August 4 at Bramlage Coliseum.
The event, which is presented by Manhattan Broadcasting, will open to the public at 2 p.m. and conclude with a 20-minute scrimmage.
Link
Senior-to-be Jeremy Jones will leave the Kansas State men’s basketball program, coach Bruce Weber announced Thursday.
“Over the past couple of weeks, he and I have had several discussions about his future and he thinks this gives him the best chance to be successful,” Weber said in a statement.
Jones, a 6-foot-2, 170-pound shooting guard from Chicago, played in 20 games for the Wildcats in 2012-13, averaging 3.1 points and 8.2 minutes per game. He came to K-State in May 2011 after playing two seasons at Seward County (Kan.) Community College.
• Lindsey Babcock, who was assistant commissioner for the Atlantic Coast Conference, has been hired as associate athletic director for compliance at Kansas State.
KC Star
The Big 12 invited the Mountaineers to join their league. WVU did not sneak in.
So, yes, they are excited about it. Yes, they like West Virginia. Yes, the appreciate the WVU brand. Yes, they think the Mountaineers have passionate fan support. Yes, their fans are looking forward to coming to our state. Hopefully we will treat them well when they are here.
WVU is not walking sheepishly into the league with is proverbial hat in its hand. This is not the ACC which historically has deemed WVU not the right fit for their league. This is not the SEC or the Big Ten where many of the stadiums seat 90,000 plus and even the small stadiums are 50,000 or more.
This is a league with a great deal in common with WVU. This is not the Big East which was a basketball first league. This is a league fan with bases similar to WVU. Other than Oklahoma and Texas,WVU is virtually tied with Oklahoma State and Texas Tech for the third largest stadium in the conference.
The Mountaineers already have respect around the league and are expected to compete for a football championship immediately. The same will be true in men's basketball.
We have seen this before in our state. We should have learned this lesson before. College athletics has given us great self-esteem in the past.
…Now that the Big 12 is here, it is time to quit fretting and worrying about what others think. Our state is fine. We look good. We are not under-dressed.
It is time to enjoy. Time to relax. Time to quit worrying and to be thankful that our state is not New Jersey or Connecticut who face a more uncertain athletic future.
WV Metro News
The school’s internal investigation into the academic scandal went back to 2007, and found that “Football and basketball players accounted for nearly four of every 10 students enrolled in 54 classes,” all within UNC’s Department of African and Afro-American studies. Football and basketball players make up less than 1 percent of the UNC undergraduate population.
The academic fraud led the NCAA to slap the football team with a bowl ban and scholarship reductions, and it is one of the primary reasons coach Butch Davis was fired.
What if the internal investigation stretched back further? And focused on the basketball team? The school would find that seven members of UNC’s title-winning team coached by Roy Williams in 2005 majored in African/Afro-American Studies. The Indy Star documented it in 2010:
That includes Sean May of the Sacramento Kings, the Bloomington prep star and son of former IU star Scott May. Sean May entered the NBA after three years in college, capped by an NCAA title in 2005. He graduated last summer.
May said he started as a double major with communications, but dropped it so he could graduate faster after leaving for the NBA.
Afro-American and African studies, May said, offered “more independent electives, independent study. I could take a lot of classes during the season. Communications, I had to be there in the actual classroom. We just made sure all the classes I had to take, I could take during the summer.”
Interesting quote from May, especially since he didn’t graduate until 2009, years after leaving Chapel Hill. For the conspiracy theorists: it appears May changed his major after coach Matt Doherty was fired and Roy Williams arrived.
But here’s really why Roy Williams might be faced with tough questions about his program and the academic scandal: Wayne Walden, his academic right hand man at Kansas and UNC.
Walden was with Roy Williams at Kansas. He was the basketball team’s academic adviser for 15 years. Then, when Williams left for UNC in 2003, Walden went with him and filled the same role – academic support for men’s basketball, overseeing scheduling, registration, structured study halls, tutorial services, etc.
The Big Lead
The player exodus from USF might have come as a surprise to many. It wasn’t a surprise to Rex Walters.
“We knew guys were leaving and we were very well prepared,” the USF coach said. “We knew guys were unhappy.”
And while the loss of all-league players Perris Blackwell and Mikey Williams is a big blow, Walters has liked what he has seen from the new players that have come onto campus this summer and this might be his most relaxing offseason to date.
“Different, definitely. Different but it’s been a lot of fun,” Walters said. “I’m more relaxed than any summer that came before.”
Link
He went from the 34th-best player in the country to a player working back from injury to one used sparingly, and now Mookie Jones has reportedly called it quits at Syracuse.
“I’m done playing at Syracuse,” Jones told the Post-Standard at a Summer League game in Utica, N.Y.
According to the report, Jones still wants to finish his degree at Syracuse, being that he is under scholarship as long as he is enrolled at the university, but is set on pursuing a basketball career overseas, as well.
NBC
Pioneer Valley High's Neil Reed died of a massive heart attack.
Reed started teaching physical education at Pioneer Valley High in 2007. During his tenure, he coached boys basketball, as well as boys and girls golf.
Reed played college basketball at Indiana University from 1994-1997. He made national headlines in 2000 when he accused then-head coach Bob Knight of choking him at a practice in 1997. A video later confirmed it and contributed to Knight's dismissal from IU.
He averaged 9.8 points in 94 games with the Hoosiers. After his junior season, Reed transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi and averaged 18 points per game.
Reed was 36 years old. He leaves behind his wife and two daughters.
Link
ESPN has signed Mark Jones, Sean McDonough, Brad Nessler, Dave Pasch, Joe Tessitore and Bob Wischusen – six of sports television’s most versatile play-by-play commentators – to multi-year contract extensions.
Press Release
A class action has been filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association on behalf of student athletes who claim their scholarships were revoked under rules that violate federal antitrust laws.
The suit was filed on July 25 in federal court in Indianapolis, where the NCAA is headquartered. The case represents a second attempt by Steve Berman, managing partner of Seattle's Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, to assert antitrust claims against the NCAA on behalf of student athletes. On June 18, in a similar case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected Berman's claims on the ground that he failed to assert a relevant market as required under the Sherman Act.
"In the first case, we didn't allege a market," he said. "We alleged that because it's a per se restriction — meaning that it clearly has the effect of limiting what student athletes can get — we didn't have to name a market. In this new case, we've asserted a market and we've asserted it exactly the way they told us to."
NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn issued an e-mailed statement: "The plaintiff has not yet served us with this lawsuit, though we understand media have received it. To that end, we cannot comment specifically. In general terms, it is difficult to imagine why this law firm keeps filing the same tired theories and misleading new groups of student athletes. We will read the new complaint in that light when we see it."
The new suit alleges that a now-discontinued NCAA rule limiting scholarships to one year violated the Sherman Act because it kept the value of those grants at artificially low levels. The NCAA had instituted the rule ostensibly to protect the amateur nature of college sports.
Although the NCAA changed that rule last year, permitting multiyear grants, the suit cites a second rule that limits the number and amount of scholarships that a school can give to student athletes. For example, the NCAA prohibits a Division 1 school from offering more than 13 basketball or 11.7 baseball scholarship each year. The NCAA also limits the number of student athletes at Division 1 schools who can receive scholarships in baseball, football and basketball to 27, 85 and 13, respectively.
Law.com
ESPN Tip-Off Marathon schedule
2012-13 Early Season Events List
Recruiting
Kansas City’s thriving hoops scene was on display Thursday at the KC Prep Invitational.
The tournament, held at the Mid-America West Sports Complex in Shawnee, boasts 26 top AAU teams from cities known for churning out elite basketball prospects and sending them to Division I schools — areas like Chicago, Texas, St. Louis and Seattle.
Not to be outdone by the stiff competition is hometown KC Run GMC.
“I think across the board Kansas City always does really well, including other programs in town — whether it’s MoKan, Kansas 76ers — they’ve all been very successful,” said Run GMC head coach L.J. Goolsby. “I think it’s great, because it just shows there’s a lot of really good players here in the area.”
Known until this year as KC Pump N Run, Run GMC is representing Kansas City high school basketball among national powers — and they haven’t disappointed.
Run GMC swept its pool Wednesday and Thursday, beating the California-based I-Can All-Stars, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Derrick William’s former team, as well as Game Time Seattle and the Omaha Crusaders. Winning the pool qualifies Run GMC for elimination play, which begins tonight.
GMC’s play has been good enough that it is now regarded as one of the elite teams.
…What’s even more impressive is that Run GMC is missing one of its top players, guard Conner Frankamp. The 2013 recruit has a hairline fracture in his foot, which Goolsby said is healing nicely. Goolsby also said that while he doubts Frankamp will play this weekend, he could play if it were necessary.
Frankamp, a Kansas commit, is a Wichita North senior-to-be who is ranked No. 28 overall in the 2013 class by Rivals.com. While he’s known for his shooting ability, the 6-foot guard has also been improving his point guard skills.
Frankamp’s usual backcourt mate is Travis Jorgenson, a 6-foot point guard from Columbia. Jorgenson, also in the 2013 class, has a rock-solid ball handling ability, has a great feel for the game and is a tenacious on-ball defender. Oh, by the way, he’s committed to Missouri.
That’s right — a future Tiger and a future Jayhawk in the same backcourt.
“I think especially if Missouri had stayed in the Big 12 it’d be a lot more entertaining, but they still give each other a hard time,” Goolsby said. “They’re teammates and they don’t talk about it much, but when it gets brought up you can see those two get the competitive juices going a little bit.”
KC Star (Game schedule at link)
the Mo-Kan Elite grassroots organization is host to a tournament at The Fieldhouse of Kansas City in Overland Park. Mo-Kan Elite is coming off a semifinal appearance last weekend at the prestigious Nike Peach Jam event in North Augusta, S.C.
Playing against some of the best competition in the country, Ottawa senior Semi Ojeleye led Mo-Kan with 33 points in the quarterfinals.
Olejeye, the 36th-ranked player in the class of 2013, has a long list of offers, including Duke, Arizona, Illinois and Kansas State, among others.
“He really put us on his back to get us to that Final Four,” said Mo-Kan assistant coach Buzzy Caruthers.
Caruthers said that BV Northwest senior Clayton Custer and Blue Springs’ Marvin Clark turned some heads at the tournament. For players and coaches, it was a statement for Kansas City basketball.
“I think the one thing that everyone got to see this past weekend was that we have the ultimate team,” Caruthers said. “Teams that we play, some of them are more athletic than us. Some of them are more talented than us. But we’re a team where we have high basketball IQ, and we have guys that do their jobs.”
KC Star
If Julius Randle ends up playing basketball at Duke, one person will deserve major credit for reeling him in—and it’s not necessarily Mike Krzyzewski. While the Blue Devils’ head coach and his staff will of course have had a good bit to do with it if Randle heads to Durham, there’s another individual who may have even more to do with it.
His name is Matt Jones, and he’s hardly an unknown quantity at Duke—so far he’s the lone member of the program’s 2013 class.
Jones may deserve the assist if he can persuade Randle, his uber-talented childhood buddy, to follow him to Duke. See, Jones and Randle have known each other since elementary school—before Coach K or any Duke basketball fan knew or cared who they were.
…“That’s my best friend,” Randle told Sporting News. “We’ve been through so much together since fifth grade, and for us to be here now in this situation, we’ve been very blessed to get this far. He’ll be my friend whether I go to Duke or not. That’s just a friendship you can’t break no matter what.”
TSN
You didn’t need a program to figure out which court ballyhooed basketball prospect Julius Randle was on as the AAU 11th Grade Gold Super Showcase opened Wednesday at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports.
Just follow the trail of college recruiters.
Over 75 coaches, including Kentucky’s John Calipari, Bill Self of Kansas, and Florida’s Billy Donovan, were lined up as Randle and his national No. 1 Texas Titans team took the floor for its opening game in the six-day tournament.
Randle, a gifted 6-foot-9 power forward who has so far dropped few hints about his college destination, also got extra attention from the opposing Atlanta Xpress. Teammates did most of the damage as the Titans won 57-37.
Orlando Sentinel
“I’m going to take a few more visits, take all five of my officials. I’m going to watch a lot of NCAA basketball and make my decision in the spring,” Aaron Gordon told Sporting News. “So many things change. If I were to commit now, so many things could change by the time I go to college. I just want to have the shortest time span from the time I make my decision and when I actually touch down in college.”
Interesting that he chose the verbiage “touch down.” Because Gordon, a 6-9, 220-pound forward from Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, Calif., does nothing so much as fly. Friday at the EYBL Finals at the Peach Jam in North Augusta, Gordon nearly scraped the roof on consecutive dunks as he led the Oakland Soldiers to an easy pool-play win over Indy Spiece Heat.
The first was outrageous, thrown down off a baseline inbound lob pass tossed above the rim as Gordon soared in from the center of the lane. We’ve all seen that play run many times. At Cincinnati, All-American Kenyon Martin made this particular play a signature. But Gordon’s journey toward the top of the square was as spectacular as any you’ve seen.
On the Soldiers’ subsequent trip, Gordon punctuated a fast break with still another spectacular slam. Asked if he ever had two such eye-popping dunks on consecutive plays, he answered with a surprising, “Oh, yeah.”
Oh, yeah?
“The out-of-bounds was pretty spectacular; I liked that one,” Gordon said. “But I have had some pretty spectacular dunks.”
…He has seven schools under consideration: Washington, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico, Stanford, Kentucky and Kansas. College basketball insiders cite Washington as the leader, although the others aren’t relenting.
“I’ve always been able to keep that set of schools. Pretty much everybody knows that, and honestly I can play basketball and not worry about anything else,” Gordon said. “They try really hard to respect not calling my phone all the time. They do a good job not hassling me. I’ll get about three calls a day, so that’s not too bad, and about four or five text messages.
“Basically, my brother didn’t do what I’m doing now. So I got to see what he’d go through, what decisions to make, what to look for in a coach. My eyes are a little more opened maybe in regards to other people because of my big brother.”
TSN
The 2012 edition of the final evaluation period in July features the adidas Super 64, Las Vegas Fab 48 and the Las Vegas Classic all running in conjunction. The top adidas sponsored squads in the nation will be present at the Super 64, while the Fab 48 is headed by Bishop Gorman (Nev.) coach Grant Rice and Belmont Shore club coach Dinos Trigonis, who also heads the Pangos All American camp. This is the second year of the Las Vegas Classic, which is put on by Bigfoot Hoops, a new company that has Hal Pastner (father of Memphis coach Josh Pastner) in charge.
With a proven stable of talent, the “super pool” format of the adidas Super 64, which pits pre-seeded elite teams against each other, is arguably the most loaded of the three events, though hundreds of D-1 prospects will be present at the other two tournaments.
Here’s a look at the three-headed monster of Las Vegas tournaments this week and weekend:
NBC
As the college coaches flocked to gyms throughout this city in order to evaluate and babysit prospects, Collin Host patiently waited for bodies to fill the chairs along the wall of the cramped, back gym at Valley High. This was Host's chance, the opportunity just about everyone talks about to be seen and, hopefully, secure a Division 1 college scholarship.
As he and his Minnesota Fury teammates strolled out to start the game against Spirit-Team House out of California, Host took a glance across the court out of the corner of his eye, looking to see which coaches had made the trek to 2839 Burnham Avenue, just a couple miles down the road from the Strip in Vegas.
It wasn't a pretty sight, though. There was just one coach: Southern Illinois-Edwardsville assistant Deryl Cunningham.
"It's pretty depressing," Host admitted after the game.
Host is a rising senior at Mound-Westonka High, about 30 miles west of Minneapolis. His goal, like just about all of the players that have come to Sin City for the bevy of AAU tournaments: To impress college coaches.
"My dream is to play Division 1 basketball," he said.
…The high-profile teams attract dozens and dozens of coaches, so many that it's standing-room only. But teams like the Minnesota Fury are often tossed in an obscure gym, playing in front of only friends and family.
CBS
Orlando AAU Nationals - Wednesday report
NBE Basketball
Adidas Super 64: July 25-29
Teams to Watch: Florida Elite, Urban DFW, Eric Gordon All-Stars, Atlanta Celtics, Garner Road, Mass Rivals, Dream Vision, Michigan Mustangs, Louisville Magic 16s
Players to Watch: Kasey Hill (No. 6 in 2013, Florida), Chris Walker (No. 8, Florida), Isaiah Hicks (No. 16, North Carolina), Jordan Mickey (No. 28), Karviar Shepherd (No. 27), Solomon Poole (No. 24, Georgia Tech), Brannen Greene (No. 25, Kansas) Anton Gill (No. 35, Louisville), Noah Vonleh (No. 3, 2014), Isaac Hamilton (No. 23), Daniel Hamilton (No. 24, 2014), Craig Victor (No. 16, 2014), Derrick Walton, V.J. Beachem, D'Angelo Russell (No. 10, 2014)
Primary Venues: Rancho High School (17s), Foothill High School (16s)
Fab 48: July 26-29 (special six-game tip-off event on July 25)
Teams to Watch: DC Assault, M33M, Milwaukee Rebels, Team Philly, Belmont Shore, New York Rens, Las Vegas Prospects, Team Thad 16s, Team Scan 16
Players to Watch: Jermaine Lawrence (No. 13), Nate Britt (No. 22, North Carolina), Robert Hubbs (No. 36), Austin Nichols (No. 47), Kevon Looney (No. 8, 2014), Chris McCullough (No. 11, 2014), Leron Black (No. 26, 2014), Christian Wood (No. 48, UNLV), Zena Edosomwan (No. 52, Harvard)
Primary Venues: Bishop Gorman High School (17s), Centennial Hills YMCA (16s)
Las Vegas Classic: July 25-29, 2012
Teams to Watch: Mac Irvin Fire, Houston Hoops, California Supreme, Oakland Soldiers, Seattle Rotary, Mac Irvin Fire 16s, Nike Team Texas 16s, Houston Hoops 16s
Players to Watch: Jabari Parker (No. 1), Jahlil Okafor (No. 2, 2014), Aaron Gordon (No. 7), Jabari Bird (No. 15), Justin Jackson (No. 13, 2014), Justise Winslow (No. 12, 2014), Marcus Lee (No. 57), Stanley Johnson (No. 31, 2014), Melvin Swift (No. 43, 2014)
Primary Venues: Durango High School (17s, 16s), Spring Valley (17s), Doolittle Rec Center (17s), Agassi Prep (17s), Tarkanian Basketball Academy (16s)
CBS
This is the story of Richmond (Va.) Southside Baptist Christian School and its recruitment and exploitation of basketball players from Jamaica, whether it originally intended to exploit them or not. It is a saga that began in 2007 and eventually left multiple teenagers stranded without proper immigration paperwork and without a school transcript and often in debt.
More specifically, four Jamaican teenagers who were left stranded in an economic bind by the school all stepped forward to speak on the record with Prep Rally. Others also spoke on the condition of anonymity. While there, all four of the teenagers were present when three were whipped after returning from a game and all witnessed a coach violently attack a fellow foreign teammate during a practice.
The players' entire stories were chronicled in a series of lengthy interviews with Prep Rally and ScoutsFocus, which first made contact with a concerned Southside Baptist athlete. Prep Rally placed a phone call to the school's administration, where a message was taken for the school's founder Dr. Lonnie Stinson, but that message has yet to be returned.
Yahoo
Witnesses say a former Chicago public high school basketball star was shot and killed while trying to break up a fight.
Michael Haynes, who played basketball at Washington High School, was shot on the Far South Side near 116th and Vincennes, which isn't far from the basketball standout's home. Witnesses say he was trying to break up a fight over a necklace Thursday night when he was hit in the chest, wrist and lower back. He was taken to the hospital where he died.
Witnesses say he was an innocent victim caught up in a violent situation. Detectives are investigating; no suspects are in custody.
In May, Haynes had committed to Iona College in New York to play division one basketball.
Link
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