SAN DIEGO 8 TH GRADE SHOWCASE – WEEK 3 RECAP
(Coaches and players club team and/or expected high school team is in parenthesis)

 

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We are now three weeks into the inaugural San Diego Showcase and it appears most questions about who are the elite 8th graders in San Diego have been answered. At this point, the cream has risen to the top amongst this crop of players and Friday night’s action only served to prove that the skills they have shown thus far are not a fluke.

Coach JoJo (Team Get Better) lead the dynamic warmup & stretch, followed-up by Coach Luther (Fundamentals and Fadeaways) warming up the handles. Below are the practice notes and observations.

The points of emphasis for this session was shifty ball-handling, reading & reacting and finishing with contact. Players were split into three groups where we saw bigs-on-bigs and guards-on-guards to start. From there, players went through several stations battling coaches who used pads and paddles to create higher-pressure, high-contact situations; used heavy balls for the dribbling station and worked on foot-work and power finishes.

From there, the coaches wanted to see the skills phase of the training translate to actual gameplay in the form of 1v1 and 3v3 competition. Again, this was Bigs-on-Bigs and Guards-on-Guards. As expected, these Bigs were a bit more methodical and physical and the Guards were very explosive and finesse.

 

After a quick water break, teams Red and Black were chosen and forty-minutes of open run commenced. Here
are observations from the game:
- It’s time to give the big men some love – they balled out tonight. More on that in just a minute.
- Coaches from Victory Christina and St. Augustine are in the house tonight!
- There was significant buzz amongst the coaches about Tristan Anderson (San Diego Prospects). He’s the shortest dude on the court, but BY FAR the toughest. The phrase “Best pound-for-pound guard in San Diego” was heard several times throughout the night. He is always around the ball and impacting play on both ends of the court. Tough in every sense of the word.
- The big fellas dominated the night
- Drew Parker (Lamont Smith Basketball Academy) continues to show impressive athleticism, high energy and a competitive spirit. In addition to being able to finish at the basket, he has flashes on the defensive end with some impressive one-on-one stops and tremendous effort as a help defender.
- I’m more and more impressed by Dwight McDonald (Fundamentals & Fadeaways) every time I see him. A super athletic big, with some very impressive blocked shots on defense.
- Arysab Kont (RB Broncos) competed hard! He consistently took on the challenge of defending the other team’s best and also going at them on the offensive end where he had a few and-1 finishes.
- El Centro Stand Up! If nothing else, this kid and his parents deserve a shout-out just for making the round-trip every Friday night to and from El Centro. But Duntel Carter (Level Up Mamba – El Centro) has a game that speaks for itself. The big boy has steadily improved every session and Week 3 was his coming out party. He lead the charge for his team in the 3rd quarter by dominating the boards, creating turnovers and fast break opportunities on defense and a
number of crucial finishes at the basket.

 

The session ended with coaches speaking on topics such as impacting the game beyond scoring, dealing with adversity, holding each accountable and applying what you learned in training to in-game situations.

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Overall... another great night of basketball for these young San Diego hoopers!!!