Cincinnati Recruiting, Doug Ferguson, Louisville Recruiting, Marquette Recruiting, Seton Hall Recruiting, St. John's Recruiting, USF Recruiting

HENSLEY MEMORIAL RUN ‘N SLAM SUMMARY

Doug Ferguson spent the weekend in Fort Wayne (IN), luckily for him there was some excellent basketball to see with the 2009 Bill Hensley Memorial Run ‘N’ Slam All-Star Classic at the Spiece Fieldhouse.

Many of the top teams from the Midwest and beyond made the annual trip to Fort Wayne for one of the most well run events on the AAU circuit. The action was top notch, as expected, and everything came off without a hitch outside of a few travel delays on Friday and SAT and prom commitments on Saturday, but none of that took away from a great weekend of basketball.

The 17-U division had 64 teams participating in their own ‘May Madness’ as 16 pools of four teams hit the court starting Friday night. After playing three games in pool play, the first and second place teams from the 16 pools moved on to the ‘Gold’ bracket with the other 32 teams advancing to a ‘Silver’ bracket and a single elimination tournament ensued.

As of Sunday morning, here were the eight teams left in the ‘Gold’ Bracket:

Boo Williams
King James Shooting Stars

Seattle Rotary
All-Ohio Red

Illinois Warriors
Spiece NW Stars

Spiece MOKAN
Shining Star Sports

Here are the Sunday Quarterfinal results in the 17-U bracket:

Boo Williams over King James Shooting Stars in Gm 1

All-Ohio Red over Seattle Rotary in Gm 2

Illinois Warriors over Spiece NW Stars in Gm 3

Shining Star Sports over Spiece MOKAN in Gm 4
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Here are the Gold 17-U Semifinal Results:

All-Ohio Red 89 Boo Williams 87

Jared Sullinger is making his claim to the top player in Fort Wayne, scoring 23 in the semifinal win after a strong game earlier against Seattle Rotary’s Josh Smith. Juwan Staten had 16 and Aaron Craft had 19.

Travis McKie had 23 for Boo with Kendall Marshall adding 18 and Andre Dawkins scored 13.

Illinois Warriors 69 Shining Star Sports 50

Kyle Cain had 14 and Brandon Spearman added 11 among the top players for the Warriors, who are staking a claim to the top team of the early spring AAU season.
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17-U Gold Championship:

All-Ohio Red 66, Illinois Warriors 65

Jared Sullinger was MVP and scored 20 in the finals. Ohio State and Thad Matta have themselves a very good one!
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In the 17-U ‘Silver’ Bracket, it was The Family earning the championship.
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16-U Gold notes:

The championship game will be played between the Ohio BBall Club, who ousted Mac Irvin Fire in one semifinal, and the Indiana Elite Orange, who dumped the Iowa Barnstormers.

In the final, it was the Indiana Elite coming out on top with the win as Jeremiah Davis showed his offensive ability this weekend and finished with 16 in the finals. Cincinnati class of 2011 commit Chane Behanan had a strong showing this weekend, too.
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Recruiting Notes:

The talk of the tournament through Saturday was Seattle Rotary’s Josh Smith, the 6’9, class of 2010 man-child out of Kent HS in Kentwood (WA). Smith told NBE on Saturday he is wide open in his recruiting with the entire PAC 10 under consideration. Louisville was also mentioned as a team putting in some serious effort in his recruitment.

Smith’s Seattle Rotary teammate is class of 2011 shooting guard Anthony Wroten (pictured) of Seattle’s (WA) Garfield High School. Word is the home state Huskies are in very good shape in his recruitment, but schools from all over the country, including Louisville, are making a strong push already.

Wroten indicated Sunday after Seattle Rotary fell to All-Ohio Red that Louisville, Seton Hall, St. John’s and South Florida have offered him scholarships while the rest of the Big East, with the exception of UConn, have shown interest in him to this point.

The 17-U Mac Irvin Fire were ousted on Saturday evening, as one of the favorites have headed home. Following the loss, their class of 2011 star Mike Shaw, a 6-foot-8 forward from De La Salle HS in Chicago (IL) mentioned he gets letters from everyone in the country, but singled out scholarship offers from Texas, USC and Louisville.

Jeremiah Davis of Muncie (IN) Central HS is playing on the Indiana Elite Orange 16-U squad. He mentioned scholarship offers from Kentucky, Indiana, Cincinnati, Xavier, Ball State, Purdue and several others very interested.

All-Ohio Red forward JD Weatherspoon indicated to NBE he is likely to stay committed to Xavier and new coach Chris Mack.

Reggie Smith from Thornton HS in Harvey (IL) and of the Mac Irvin Fire listed Butler, Indiana and Marquette as schools that have offered him. The class of 2010 guard is having an excellent spring and he noted that he his hearing from new schools almost daily.

Wayne Blackshear, another from the loaded 2011 Chicago-area hoops class, is a 6-foot-5 G/F that has offers from Illinois and Texas and is drawing heavy interest from Big East schools Louisville and Marquette.

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