New Heights 15’s impressive in Vegas tournament
Nobody who wants to get a full taste of the three shoe company tournaments in Vegas can afford to sleep late.
So there I was at the Doolittle Recreation Center, off Lake Mead Ave., at 9:55 a.m., ready to watch the New Heights 15’s in the Nike Main Event 15-and-under tournament.
I was not the first person in the building. As I walked in, I spotted Rutgers’ assistant Darren Savino, who was working on about three hours of sleep. Savino was supposed to be on an 8:45 a.m. flight out of Newark, but because of mechanical problems the plane didn’t leave until 12:30 p.m. He arrived at his hotel at 4 a.m. Vegas time, 7 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
But he got an eye opening look, watching New Heights blister the Colorado Hawks, 72-50, in an impressive blowout, accomplished without their two most productive players - 6-6 sophomore Jayvaughn Pinkston of Loughlin, a Top 10 prospect nationally in his class; and sophomore guard Fatty McMillan of Lincoln, the next in a long line of great guards from that PSAL program.
Not that it mattered. This team has six to seven rising freshmen and sophomores at least that will be mid- to high-major players. We were blown away by 6-7 sophomore Devon Collier of All Hallows (who we think will grow to 6-10), 6-8 sophomore Ashton Pankey of Molloy, sophomore guard Hakeem Harris of Blair, guard Corey Edwards, who will be a freshman at Christ the King and 6-3 Shamel Williams, a rising freshman at Rice.
This team is a pleasure to watch because of its interior passing and defensive intensity out of the press. Nice kids, too.
This is how insane these events are. There are 704 teams in the Main Event, 224 teams in the Reebok Summer championships and 64 in the Adidas Super 64. No wonder everything is sold out on The Strip.
—Happy birthday to Bob Hurley, Sr. of St. Anthony’s, who celebrated his 60th Saturday night.
—Boost Mobile Elite 24 has invites out to three more stars - 6-8 Ed Davis of Richmond Benedictine (who just committed to Carolina); 6-6 Demar Derozan of Compton (USC verbal) and 6-6 sophomore Xavier Henry of Warr Acres High in Putnam City, Okla., bringing total to 19. Six slots remain for Aug. 24 game at Rucker Park. We’d like to see my guy Ron Naclerio of Cardozo - who has rare understanding of street ball in the city - to coach one of the teams again.
—We’re passing on the U.S.A Basketball scrimmage to jump over to Reebok for two elite games tonight at Foothill High School on the other side of town.
[More
at www.nydailynews.com]
