[valentine]

Round 2 of the Nike EYB League was held over the weekend in Dallas. Did anyone get a chance to see some of the action.

I saw Ben Simmons dominated again, particularly on day 2. That guy is going to be a beast at LSU (but still has his Senior Year of HS First).

How did the other top prospects in the class fare? i.e. Zimmerman, Rabb, Newman etc

 

[Lotto StudParticipant]

Currently waiting for the Hampton, VA date to arrive.

[Lotto StudParticipant]

Currently waiting for the Hampton, VA date to arrive.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Besides the Nike EYBL website is D1 circuit, which I will link below:

http://www.d1circuit.com

They have some really good content, stats, records and other HS coverage that comes out on players in the EYBL. I was not in Dallas, but it looked like [Player: Cheick Diallo] had another fantastic weekend and I caught some of the 2nd half of his Team Scan as they came back to beat E1T1 ([Player: Ben Simmons] team). Simmons actually got hurt in the 1st half of that one and did not play the 2nd, but nonetheless Diallo has looked like a stud in games I have seen.

Also on some D1 Circuit stat breakdowns, they have replays of games on High School Cube. Here is the link to watch those:

http://www.highschoolcube.com/conferences/nike-elite-youth-basketball-league-eybl

They live stream quite a bit and the fact that you can replay them afterwards (even here, in Canada, for those of us who have to face life without ESPN3 access) is awesome. Here are just some things that happened and some things I heard over twitter or through various outlets:

• [Player: Malik Newman]: After playing in the Jayhawk Invitational (which was Under Armour), Malik made his 2014 EYBL debut this weekend. His team went 2-2 and he averaged 19.8 ppg, though only shot 37.7% FG and was 7-29 from 3 (24.1%). He was an impressive 26-29 (89.7%) from the FT stripe, but it does not look like his attempt at "PG" is really paying off. Malik is definitely a fantastic scorer and still one of the top prospects in 2015, though it seems like this weekend was a bit bumpy. To my understanding, bigger guards gave him a pretty tough time, which would account for the poor shooting.
• [Player: Malik Monk]: He put up an EYBL 59 points last weekend and he averaged 22.8 ppg during the 2nd session. Explosive athlete who has improved greatly as a shooter, he is still only 16 and going into his junior season. He has probably been the star guard of these spring sessions in just about any class right now.
• [Player: Allonzo Trier]: The leading scorer in the EYBL with 26.6 ppg, he averaged 24.8 while going 2-2 in Dallas with Athletes First out of Oklahoma. With a New York Times feature under his belt at 12 years old, Trier is really living up to it and now considered one of the top scoring guards in 2015 once again. He did not shoot too well over this past weekend from the field, yet is still averaging 38.1% 3PT and is shooting 90.4% FT while getting to the line just over 10 times per game.
• [Player: Jayson Tatum]: One of my personal favorite prospects, Tatum is 6’8" and possesses great vision, guard type feel for the game. His team has definitely struggled and he did not have a banner weekend, going 1-3 after getting skunked in Sacramento. He averaged just under 16 ppg, but again is only 16-years old and possesses big time upside. He already has fantastic size for a wing, plus I am not sure he is done growing yet.
• [Player: Prince Ali]: Will admit, every time I see his name I think of Aladdin. Still, the UConn commit seems like a really nice scoring guard, averaged 24 ppg while his team went 2-2, shot over 50% FG for the weekend as well.
• [Player: KJ Lawson]: His brother, [Player: Dedric Lawson], has also been big time, though I think KJ (or "Keelon Jr." deserves props. He averaged 17.5 ppg in Dallas, plus Team Penny went undefeated, improving to 7-1. One game that really caught my eye was his last against Wisconsin Playground Elite, he went 10-10 FG and 9-10 from the stripe. His dad, Keelon Sr., is eyeing an assistant spot at a major D1 School. This would mean that KJ, Dedric and their younger brother, 6-6 Chandler who is seen as maybe the top prospect in the class of 2019, would play for pops at the NCAA level. Right now KJ is a Memphis commit, so if Josh Pastner wants a huge in with the rest of the Lawson clan, it looks like he will be looking to hire the family patriarch.
• [Player: Levan Alston]: Team Final also went undefeated to move to 7-1 in the EYBL and Alston has really been making a name for himself. He is a combo guard and had a 33 point (13-17 FG, including 7-11 3PT) in a drubbing of Team Texas Elite, who feature recent SMU commit [Player: Matthew McQuaid] and recent Ohio State commit [Player: Austin Grandstaff] on the wing. Syracuse commit [Player: Malachi Richardson] is definitely the most well known player on Team Final, but Alston is their leading scorer after the first two sessions.
• [Player: Isaiah Briscoe]: Word was he looked really strong in Dallas. Averaged 21.5 ppg on 68.8% FG as Playaz Club went 4-0. What is more impressive is he dished out 7.3 apg, as the combo guard is trying to prove he has point ability. He still is probably more of a 2 than a 1 down the line, but he did a great job adding to his case as a possible primary ball handler at the college level.
• [Player: Georgios Papagiannis]: The 7-footer from Greece made his EYBL debut this weekend for Team Takeover (DC)! Started off with a huge game in a win over Nike Team Florida, putting up 22, 12 and 6 blocks against the likes of Florida commit [Player: Kevarrius Hayes] and "14-year old" man child [Player: Udoka Azubuike]. The rest of the weekend seemed like a mixed bag, but he is playing on a team that went 3-1 and is generally around at Peach Jam time. Plus, had to make European Basketballer happy.

Overall, seems like a pretty wide open race. E1T1 was my favorite from the start and I really do think Ben Simmons is probably the top prospect in 2015. If he is healthy, along with [Player: Antonio Blakeney], they are really hard to stop. Still, every team has lost at least one game so far, so much more parity than even in the past. The Oakland Soldiers have not steam rolled the comp with an [Player: Ivan Rabb] and [Player: Stephen Zimmerman] tandem, proving the worth of guards in AAU ball. They did notch an impressive win over the front court duo of Michigan St. commit [Player: Deyonta Davis] and 2016 big man [Player: Caleb Swanigan], who at 11.2 rpg leads the EYBL.

If I missed someone, I have the link to see what they have done in the EYBL and their are definitely resources to get you to find out about what is going on in adidas Uprising and Under Armour leagues. Hope this helps quench at least some of your HS prospect curiosity. Fairly sure neither of the other two had events this weekend, though believe all of the three major leagues have them next weekend. Next weekend will be the Boo Williams Invitational in Hampton for the EYBL, many more interesting match-ups and more chances for stars to separate themselves during this AAU season.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Besides the Nike EYBL website is D1 circuit, which I will link below:

http://www.d1circuit.com

They have some really good content, stats, records and other HS coverage that comes out on players in the EYBL. I was not in Dallas, but it looked like [Player: Cheick Diallo] had another fantastic weekend and I caught some of the 2nd half of his Team Scan as they came back to beat E1T1 ([Player: Ben Simmons] team). Simmons actually got hurt in the 1st half of that one and did not play the 2nd, but nonetheless Diallo has looked like a stud in games I have seen.

Also on some D1 Circuit stat breakdowns, they have replays of games on High School Cube. Here is the link to watch those:

http://www.highschoolcube.com/conferences/nike-elite-youth-basketball-league-eybl

They live stream quite a bit and the fact that you can replay them afterwards (even here, in Canada, for those of us who have to face life without ESPN3 access) is awesome. Here are just some things that happened and some things I heard over twitter or through various outlets:

• [Player: Malik Newman]: After playing in the Jayhawk Invitational (which was Under Armour), Malik made his 2014 EYBL debut this weekend. His team went 2-2 and he averaged 19.8 ppg, though only shot 37.7% FG and was 7-29 from 3 (24.1%). He was an impressive 26-29 (89.7%) from the FT stripe, but it does not look like his attempt at "PG" is really paying off. Malik is definitely a fantastic scorer and still one of the top prospects in 2015, though it seems like this weekend was a bit bumpy. To my understanding, bigger guards gave him a pretty tough time, which would account for the poor shooting.
• [Player: Malik Monk]: He put up an EYBL 59 points last weekend and he averaged 22.8 ppg during the 2nd session. Explosive athlete who has improved greatly as a shooter, he is still only 16 and going into his junior season. He has probably been the star guard of these spring sessions in just about any class right now.
• [Player: Allonzo Trier]: The leading scorer in the EYBL with 26.6 ppg, he averaged 24.8 while going 2-2 in Dallas with Athletes First out of Oklahoma. With a New York Times feature under his belt at 12 years old, Trier is really living up to it and now considered one of the top scoring guards in 2015 once again. He did not shoot too well over this past weekend from the field, yet is still averaging 38.1% 3PT and is shooting 90.4% FT while getting to the line just over 10 times per game.
• [Player: Jayson Tatum]: One of my personal favorite prospects, Tatum is 6’8" and possesses great vision, guard type feel for the game. His team has definitely struggled and he did not have a banner weekend, going 1-3 after getting skunked in Sacramento. He averaged just under 16 ppg, but again is only 16-years old and possesses big time upside. He already has fantastic size for a wing, plus I am not sure he is done growing yet.
• [Player: Prince Ali]: Will admit, every time I see his name I think of Aladdin. Still, the UConn commit seems like a really nice scoring guard, averaged 24 ppg while his team went 2-2, shot over 50% FG for the weekend as well.
• [Player: KJ Lawson]: His brother, [Player: Dedric Lawson], has also been big time, though I think KJ (or "Keelon Jr." deserves props. He averaged 17.5 ppg in Dallas, plus Team Penny went undefeated, improving to 7-1. One game that really caught my eye was his last against Wisconsin Playground Elite, he went 10-10 FG and 9-10 from the stripe. His dad, Keelon Sr., is eyeing an assistant spot at a major D1 School. This would mean that KJ, Dedric and their younger brother, 6-6 Chandler who is seen as maybe the top prospect in the class of 2019, would play for pops at the NCAA level. Right now KJ is a Memphis commit, so if Josh Pastner wants a huge in with the rest of the Lawson clan, it looks like he will be looking to hire the family patriarch.
• [Player: Levan Alston]: Team Final also went undefeated to move to 7-1 in the EYBL and Alston has really been making a name for himself. He is a combo guard and had a 33 point (13-17 FG, including 7-11 3PT) in a drubbing of Team Texas Elite, who feature recent SMU commit [Player: Matthew McQuaid] and recent Ohio State commit [Player: Austin Grandstaff] on the wing. Syracuse commit [Player: Malachi Richardson] is definitely the most well known player on Team Final, but Alston is their leading scorer after the first two sessions.
• [Player: Isaiah Briscoe]: Word was he looked really strong in Dallas. Averaged 21.5 ppg on 68.8% FG as Playaz Club went 4-0. What is more impressive is he dished out 7.3 apg, as the combo guard is trying to prove he has point ability. He still is probably more of a 2 than a 1 down the line, but he did a great job adding to his case as a possible primary ball handler at the college level.
• [Player: Georgios Papagiannis]: The 7-footer from Greece made his EYBL debut this weekend for Team Takeover (DC)! Started off with a huge game in a win over Nike Team Florida, putting up 22, 12 and 6 blocks against the likes of Florida commit [Player: Kevarrius Hayes] and "14-year old" man child [Player: Udoka Azubuike]. The rest of the weekend seemed like a mixed bag, but he is playing on a team that went 3-1 and is generally around at Peach Jam time. Plus, had to make European Basketballer happy.

Overall, seems like a pretty wide open race. E1T1 was my favorite from the start and I really do think Ben Simmons is probably the top prospect in 2015. If he is healthy, along with [Player: Antonio Blakeney], they are really hard to stop. Still, every team has lost at least one game so far, so much more parity than even in the past. The Oakland Soldiers have not steam rolled the comp with an [Player: Ivan Rabb] and [Player: Stephen Zimmerman] tandem, proving the worth of guards in AAU ball. They did notch an impressive win over the front court duo of Michigan St. commit [Player: Deyonta Davis] and 2016 big man [Player: Caleb Swanigan], who at 11.2 rpg leads the EYBL.

If I missed someone, I have the link to see what they have done in the EYBL and their are definitely resources to get you to find out about what is going on in adidas Uprising and Under Armour leagues. Hope this helps quench at least some of your HS prospect curiosity. Fairly sure neither of the other two had events this weekend, though believe all of the three major leagues have them next weekend. Next weekend will be the Boo Williams Invitational in Hampton for the EYBL, many more interesting match-ups and more chances for stars to separate themselves during this AAU season.

[R.JLewisParticipant]

 simmons could be scary player. they still think he may grow a few more inches so he could get up to about 6’10. if he creates a nice little post game over the next year or 2 hes going to cause even more trouble for defenders. 

[R.JLewisParticipant]

 simmons could be scary player. they still think he may grow a few more inches so he could get up to about 6’10. if he creates a nice little post game over the next year or 2 hes going to cause even more trouble for defenders. 

[Rip255]

 Hes not scary in the Blake Griffin or Andree Wiggins mould with sheer Athleticism.

Hes scary in the sense that everything looks easy for him. Like hes playing a split second ahead of everyone else.

I think hes cant-miss. Hes at least Jabari Parker on offense and would say he can probably pass and play defense even better than Parker.

[Rip255]

 Hes not scary in the Blake Griffin or Andree Wiggins mould with sheer Athleticism.

Hes scary in the sense that everything looks easy for him. Like hes playing a split second ahead of everyone else.

I think hes cant-miss. Hes at least Jabari Parker on offense and would say he can probably pass and play defense even better than Parker.

[M-EazyParticipant]

 I’ll be at Session #3 this weekend in Hampton, Va.  If you’re in 757 come thru.  Love this event because every year I get to see kids like 2 years before they go to the league.  

[Lotto StudParticipant]

 I was at the Plex a few weeks ago when Thon showcased.

[Lotto StudParticipant]

 I was at the Plex a few weeks ago when Thon showcased.

[Rip255]

Whats the verdict on thon when hes not on a highlight reel?

[Rip255]

Whats the verdict on thon when hes not on a highlight reel?

[M-EazyParticipant]

 I’ll be at Session #3 this weekend in Hampton, Va.  If you’re in 757 come thru.  Love this event because every year I get to see kids like 2 years before they go to the league.  

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