South Alabama Recruiting

HOOP HALL CLASSIC – DAY I

BY JEFF BORZELLO

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Year in and year out, the Hoop Hall Classic at Springfield College is the most loaded event of the high school season. This year, though, the organizers took it to a new level. According to ESPN Rise’s Top 50, seven of the top 14 teams will be in attendance, with several more rounding out the rankings. In terms of individuals, nine of Scout.com’s top 21 players in 2011 and seven of their top 21 guys in 2012 will participate. Simply put, the event is stacked.

While Friday featured a few games, Saturday is when the Classic really got rolling. There were four nationally-relevant games, starting with Mount Vernon (N.Y.) and Taft (Calif). St. Anthony (N.J.) and DeMatha (Md.) followed, along with Morgan Park (Ill.) and Garfield (Wash.), as well as Oak Hill (Va.) and Milton (Ga.).

Note: Top committed players that were featured on Saturday included Spencer Dinwiddie (six points and 11 assists, Colorado), Tony Wroten (23 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Washington), Jerome Brown (13 points, Illinois-Chicago), Quinn Cook (16 points and eight assists, Duke), Sidiki Johnson (0 points and two rebounds, Arizona), Dai-Jon Parker (19 points, four rebounds and four assists, Vanderbilt), Shannon Scott (22 points, four rebounds and three assists, Ohio State), Julian Royal (15 points and seven rebounds, Georgia Tech), Kyle Hornsby (13 points and six rebounds, UNC-Asheville), Jordan Loyd (10 points and nine rebounds, Furman) and Daniel Gomis (0 points and four rebounds, Oregon State).

Class of 2011:

Myles Mack, PG, St. Anthony: Mack was arguably the best player on Saturday at the Hoop Hall Classic. The Rutgers-signee got his shot going early and was the primary factor in St. Anthony’s 50-point win over DeMatha. He eliminated most questions about his ability to play the point guard position in the Big East, getting to the rim and creating for his teammates. Mack is absolutely fearless when going to the basket and has also improved his ball-handling and vision. He plays with a quiet confidence and is impossible to contain when he’s hot from deep.

Wayne Blackshear, SF, Morgan Park: Blackshear had the day’s scariest moment when the Louisville-signee went down clutching his knee after a breakaway dunk in which he landed awkwardly. However, he ended up being fine and finished with an impressive 26 points and eight rebounds. Blackshear is such a difficult match-up for opponents due to his skill set, as he can overpower a guard like Tony Wroten in the post, but also step out and knock down perimeter shots if a bigger player is on him.

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