Monday was the last day basketball coaches at NCAA affiliated schools could be out watching high school and community college players in action for the summer evaluation period and they were en force Monday at Cal State Dominguez Hills for the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game of the Best of Summer Tournament.
And the winner was . . . the Pump-N-Run Elite team, which held off the World Wide Renegades of Georgia in the title game Monday afternoon, 74-67.
The PNR club also won the adidas Super 64 Tournament in Las Vegas last week after taking the adidas Three Stripes Tournament at CSDH two weeks ago.
James Harden of Artesia, with plenty of support from fellow seniors-to-be Austin Daye (Woodbridge) and Drew Viney (Villa Park), provided the impetus as was the case in the other events.
He was the subject of several calls I received from head coaches in the Pacific 10 Conference over the past few days.
Each went something like this: “Man, you had that one pegged.�
It was reference to my writing all the way back in December that the 6-5 Harden, who eventually led the Pioneers to CIF Southern Section and State titles in March, was the best player in California.
There’s a bunch of coaches who are trying to jump on the Harden Bandwagon but way too late, it seems, to alter his thinking on selecting a college.
He’s expected to eventually – maybe pretty soon – commit to Arizona State over his other finalist, Washington.
In the other national tournament held in Southern California, post-the “Big Three� tournaments held in Las Vegas last week, the RB All-Stars (most of their players, including 6-6 Leonard Washington, were from Louisiana) edged the L.A. Rockfish in the final Sunday, 62-53, at Lynwood High.
Frank--Great job! Lots of good info. What are the Illini going to do this year?