First summer hoops stop: Cincinnati
I strolled into the Fifth Third Arena (I think it gets its name from a bank or some other establishment), as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Friday as a Southern California resident can be at 5 a.m. Pacific Time.
But it was the first day of the NCAA basketball coaches’ summer evaluation period and if the likes of Ben Howland, Roy Williams and Bill Self could roll in at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, so could I.
No one looked spectacular (as, in, “wow . . . that guy is really good!”) but I didn’t see anything to lead me to think, “Gee, maybe he’s a bit overrated”, either.
The Pump-N-Run Elite team looked anything but fluid but, led by future UCLA guards Jrue Holiday (Campbell Hall) and Jerime Anderson (Anaheim Canyon), knocked off the Atlanta Celtics and the Ohio Basketball Club
It was a decent opportunity for a one-stop opportunity to take another look at multiple members of the 2007-08 Best in the West team.
Besides Holiday (who committed to the Bruins Tuesday) and Anderson, others who almost assuredly will be first-team selections of the Press-Telegram’s BIW in November who showed their wares Friday were center Jeff Withey (San Diego Horizon/PNR), Luke Babbitt (Reno Galena/EBO) and Mark McLaughlin (Kenmore, WA, Inglemoor/Seattle Rotary).
Withey (who originally said he was going to Louisville) committed to Arizona a couple of weeks ago, while Babbitt also swapped college choices (he’s now bound for hometown Nevada after originally announcing for Ohio State) and McLaughlin decided upon Washington State on Thursday.
I’ll watch a couple of rounds of games Saturday morning before making a three-hour drive to Akron and the LeBron James Skills Academy.
Stay tuned . . .