Link: End of summer prospect rankings: Seniors

Class of 2017 will be out next week, and the underclassmen will be out the following week after getting a final look at the Discovery Showcase.

I want to welcome Ralph Amsden, who for the past few months has been on board behind the scenes and with content and as our Managing Editor. This past month Ralph and I have entered into an agreement for Ralph to take over as Publisher of ArizonaVarsity.com, with me continuing with contributions and Dutch will remain in his roll. We are finalizing our contracts with Rivals and Yahoo! Sports.

We are excited to have this site published by Ralph - he is a go-getter, extremely talented, and has plans in the works already to raise this site to new levels.

Ralph will also continue to be our Managing Editor for ASUDevils.com. I took over publishing for that site (along with my co-Publisher Hod Rabino), on March 1 and it's been a huge success.

As publisher of this site for the past 11 years I'm grateful to everyone for your continued support and I look for to an incredible 2015-2016 high school season here on ArizonaVarsity.com.

More drama in The Den of Dysfunction...................

AIA MESS

Coaches,

GCC will be hosting a fall league beginning August 29th. 10 game guarantee and games played each Saturday, back to back. We have one opening left. Please contact me if interested.

Phillip Nowlin - Assistant Coach Men's Basketball, Glendale Community College
phillip.nowlin@gccaz.edu

Thank you

August 12, 2015

Inaugural Champions Classic presented by Monarch Sports Arizona

Two champions from two states play in a border battle in December

Gilbert, AZ – Monarch Sports Arizona is pleased to announce the inaugural Champions Classic scheduled December 12 at 7p at Gilbert Christian High School in Gilbert, AZ. The game will feature Crespi (Encino, CA) vs. Gilbert Christian (Gilbert, AZ). Crespi, coached by LA Times Coach of the Year Russell White, is the defending California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division IV Champion, while Gilbert Christian, led by Kurt Keener, is the defending Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) Division II Champion.

Defeating Sacramento Capital Christian in the CIF championship game last season, Crespi finished 29-7 ending the season on a 10-game winning streak. The Celts return 71% of their roster led by De’Anthony Melton, a 6-4 senior guard, who averaged 16 ppg & 9 rpg. Melton, Southern Section POY and All-CIF selection, currently has offers from USC, San Diego State, USF, Loyola-Marymount, Nevada, and Colorado State. In the paint, Mitch Mykhaylov (6-6, 2016) averaged 10 ppg & 7 rpg, while Brandon Williams (6-1, 2018) runs the point and was an All-CIF selection last season. Said Coach White on the event, "We are excited for the opportunity to not only travel to another state, but to play a quality opponent as Gilbert Christian. Road games against quality opponents always help our RPI."

Gilbert Christian defeated Scottsdale Arcadia, 55-52, in the AIA Championship game last season. The Knights finished the season 25-6 and didn’t lose in January, February, or March (18-game winning streak). Coach Keener, in his second year at Gilbert Christian, won his tenth state championship, last season. His first nine trophies were won at Detroit (MI) Country Day. The Knights go-to-guy this season is Mitch Lightfoot (6-9, 2016), who averaged 18 ppg, 10 rpg, & 4 bpg. Lightfoot recently narrowed his college destinations to Arizona, Stanford, Utah, Kansas, and St. John’s. Tony Licavoli (6-7, 2016) adds additional depth to the roster (9 ppg, 6 rpg), but the BIG question is the status of Cameron Satterwhite (6-3, 2016), who’s already committed to Colorado. He injured his leg at an AAU event in July and is awaiting results of an MRI. "We, at Gilbert Christian, are excited to host the inaugural Champions Classic," said Coach Keener. "It will be a fantastic chance for high school basketball fans to see two of the top teams in California & Arizona play each other."

The Champions Classic will be held at Gilbert Christian High School, 3632 East Jasper Drive, in Gilbert. The school is north of Ray Road & east of Higley Road. The Champions Classic is under the direction of Marc A. Beasley with Monarch Sports Arizona and Adam Rassmussen, who’s the Athletic Director at Gilbert Christian. Additional partners include BodyArmor Superdrink & Hyatt Place Phoenix-Gilbert.

Updated information & details can be found on Twitter (@MonarchSportsAZ) or on Facebook (search Monarch Sports Arizona). Note an additional press release will be sent on December 1 which will include current event & player information.

Monarch Sports is an event-management company based in Gilbert, AZ. If you have any questions or need information, please contact Marc A. Beasley at 602.321.1369 or marc@monarchsportsaz.com. To secure press credentials, contact Hannah Shupe at hannah@monarchsportsaz.com.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/spor...rrington-became-asus-top-cornerback/31439023/

This is an old topic that we've had fun with through the years and when a news article brings it to the forefront I'm always "game" for a discussion. This artilce is about ASU cornerback Lloyd Carrington. Carrington did not play football until his senior year of high school and it took one of his school's football coaches to persuade him to ditch the hardwood for the gridirion. The coach convinced Carrington his hoop dreams had hit dead end and promised a D1 football scholarship instead.

Every year in AZ we probably have 10-12 high school kids who are focusing on the wrong sport if the want to play at a D1 level. Lack of height and poor fundamentals derail most kids on the basketball court but they have the necessary athleticism to really make an impact in football......6-foot-6 makes a very fine specimen on the O and D lines.

I can think of several athletes who figured the equation correctly and many more who didn't. Former Mountain View Toro Todd Heap was one who got it right as did former Apollo Hawk Prince Amukamara. Going way back, Westwood Warrior Danny White had a prosperous NFL career after starring as a four-sport letterman in high school.

There are many names I didn't list, can you think of some?

Link: Jordan answers the unavoidable questions at his annual Jordan Camp

Zero takes.... Wow. Where has this board gone?

Thx to Gregg for a few player evals...

Or it would be ghost in here. Smh

Read Here: Fractured femur - still waiting for full diagnoses

Check out Gregg's article on the home page.

Some former valley hoopsters will be playing on ESPN Saturday at 11:00 A.M in the Final Four of the million dollar challenge tourney. Former Marcos De Niza player Gabe Sandoval along with Travis Gabbidon and Davin White and the rest of TEAM 23 will be fighting to be the last of 97 teams and win the big money!

Looks like the HS schedules came out…

With a few days left in the club season, who shined this summer and really raised their college stock?

Most of you know how it went down last year with Rex Chapman. There is an excellent article on SI.com today about his progress towards a clean life.

Prescription Pain Killers are one of the worst drugs to happen to our society. They dish them out like candy, then take no precautions to avoid the obvious results.

Rex and I use to trade some emails back when Zeke was at Chaparral. He was a truly great basketball player back in the day. Hoping nothing but the best for him.

On the home page...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2015/07/26/grand-canyon-university-success/30627501/

Here's an article from today's AZ Republic written by GCU's president. GCU will never reach its full potential until the university cleans up the surrounding neighborhood and according to the Prez, they're very cognizant of that and have plans in place to accomplish their goals. The university has made very significant progress in the past five years and in another five, they may really be highly respected. That would be fantastic for the state of AZ both academically and athletically.

Thought I have a spot for updates from our Arizona teams playing this last NCAA recruiting live period. Some games started tonight, Wednesday July 22, with all teams playing tomorrow.

AZ Power Red 16u started off with a bang upsetting a very strong and regionally ranked Maeko squad from Oregon by 3 points.

AZ Power Black 16u fresh off their Double Pump event championship lost on a put back at the buzzer to Elfrid Payton Elite (Nebraska). For AZ Power, Colten Kresl, Chaparral HS, led with 24 points and Caleb Simmons, Desert Vista HS, scored 12.

AZ Warriors 17u played the Nike EYBL Oakland Soldiers Elite in a ridiculously decked out and completely remodeled Rancho HS, Court 1. The gym is hosting the Jordan Brand "The Eight" event. New court, new backboards, chrome rim, banners everywhere with NBA players, flashing lights, a DJ, etc..... You have to see some pictures online. Gregg was at this game so he could give us some more insight. The Soldiers were too much for the Warriors. After a 44-29 halftime lead, they cruised to a 75-50 win. The Warriors were led by Brock Gardner, Tri-City Christian, with 17 points and Williams Field's Wyatt Lowell scored 10 points.

Those are the three games I know of AZ teams tonight. There will be a ton of action tomorrow in what should be an exciting weekend of games to cap off the summer. Good luck to all the AZ teams!

Well?

Andre Adams is the newest Sun Devil.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/spor.../?hootPostID=17053d4bede3c13a8894c95fa45f7d10

Here's a pretty good article by Richard Obert on the state of AZ club ball. While I think Obert's take on the state of affairs for club ball is accurate, I also think it's total BS. The system for college recruitng is completely backwards, especially in these days of Internet prominence. The top colleges are controlling the recruiting process with smoke and mirrors which leads to AZ kids thinking they have to play out-of-state in the summer to get recognized. That is such utter BS I can't stop laughing.

If a player like a Bagley, Barcello, Lightfoot in this current era is good enough, the top college programs will root them out no matter where they play. The top college programs have the "feelers" out there to sniff out the top players and the recruiting budgets to travel to watch kids play even if it's in hell-hole Yuma, AZ.

Top players get invited to college summer camps and camps sponsored by the shoe/apparel companies, so it's completely unnecessary to get caught up in the mentality of having to go to the summertime "big stages."

AZ folks have been pleading for years and years to get AZ's best players together as an all-star team and go to a couple top summer tourneys to no avail, and under the current system, this will never happen.

It's time for everyone to pull their head out of the NCAA's ass and just play ball - with your homies - and let the colleges come to you.