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| 2022 All-Ohio Red-7th Grade Gold Bracket Champions |
From
both a team and individual perspective, there were several very noteworthy
performances at the Buckeye Prep Invitational last weekend. Although we didn’t catch them all, we did
want to take a few minutes to highlight a few more teams and players. Although
many of the 8 divisions were stacked this year, the 7th grade
division was a monster. With teams like
All-Ohio Red, Bates Fundamental, Indiana Elite/Gametime, Team Teague and the
North Coast Blue Chips, the eventual winner of this division would have to run
through a gauntlet of talented teams to claim the title. Well, Coach Paul McMillian’s All-Ohio Red
team did just that with wins over the Lima Gators (52-22), Indiana
Elite/Gametime (57-43) and Team Teague (78-62).
McMillian’s squad is built to win with a potential DI backcourt of Khalil Luster and his son Paul McMillian IV. All-Ohio also has athleticism on the wing
with Cameren Myles and size in the
paint with Josiah Harris. In addition, McMillian has those boys hungry
and playing hard! I’m not sure what type
of national respect there getting so far, but I need to see them moving up
soon.
Elgin
Bates’ Bates Fundamental team has a roster full of college prospects, and
although they went out relatively early (quarter finals) on Sunday, this team
is a force to be reckoned with! They
have unbelievable length and athleticism, and they feast off of rebounds,
outlet passes and layups. In terms of
scoring against them in the paint, good luck.
The best player on the team is Eboni
Bates, a 6’5 stud who can man multiple positions. He’s long, highly skilled and an elite
rebounder and rim protector. In terms of
prospects, no player in the class projects higher than Bates. In fact, you could see Bates in the League in
a few years! Bates gets most of the ink,
but guys like Jayvaughn Hannan, Ty Rogers and Jordan Brooks make this team a monster. Finally, we can’t finish this piece without
mentioning how impressed we were with Hannan!
A freakish athlete who can handle both guard positions, Hannan was
taking guys off the bounce and punching on them! This kid already has great
size and athleticism for his position and has high major potential written all
over him!!
They
returned as defending champions this year and their win over Bates Fundamental
confirmed that Indiana Elite/Gametime is still one of the best teams in the
country. Indiana has a complete team of
highly skilled guys who understand how to play the game. Nick Klaber is one of the studs on a star studded roster, but Reggie Bass, Jalin Lattimore and Max
Sullivan all make this team go. This
is a good looking team that is going to win their fair share of championships
this year. Coach Ed Heban’s 2022 TNBA
Shooting Stars opened some eyes this weekend with a quality win over a very
good Lansing Prospectors team. Heban’s team was on a role until they ran into a
talented Team Teague team (70-46). Team
Teague is looking good again this year and will win their fair share of games
and championships.
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| North Coast Blue Chips-6th Grade Gold Bracket Champions |
So
far we’ve talked about the loaded 7th grade division, but the 2023
division was certainly no slouch! The
long anticipated match-up between the North Coast Blue Chips and All-Ohio Red
went down on Sunday in the championship game and required 3 overtime periods
before a champion could be crowned. Although Drew Lavender’s squad was down by
double digits midway through the first half, his guys dug deep and battled all
the way back to force overtime. This
game was epic as these 2 juggernauts traded body blows in front of a standing
room only crowd. In the end, the Blue
Chips would get the 74-70 win and claim the Gold Bracket championship.
We
have to give some props to Maumee Bay Turf, who made some noise of their own and
surprised some teams on their trek to the semi-finals. On championship Sunday, they beat a very good
MWA Elite in the opening round (63-54), followed by the Midwest Hustle (58-48),
and then took North Coast down to the wire before losing 58-55. Although they are powered by Michael Greenlee Jr., who continues to
log in impressive performances, this team is very much a “team” full of quality
pieces! We’ve seen Justyn Toller, Deric Jaynes and
CJ Hornbeak in multiple settings and know they can go. We also know that Blake Lichtenberg is a key piece to
this squad. Maumee Bay is well coached and they execute at a high level. Look
for Maumee Bay to occupy a spot near the top of our Power Rankings when we
release them next week.
Jason
Dawson’s 2023 Team Dos/Ohio Hoopsters team played some outstanding basketball this
past weekend. In fact, their 42-29 win over the Cincinnati Royals formally announced
their arrival onto the big stage. This
game was highly contested, with both teams refusing to roll over. Both teams are well coached and stocked full
of highly skilled and high IQ guys. We
were very impressed with both teams. We
also liked what we saw out of both Team Teague teams. However, their top team’s run came to an end
in the semi-finals against All-Ohio Red.
Big ups to the Miller Factory, who made a big time run through the
Silver bracket, and eventually claimed the title with a 57-46 win over TNBA
East.
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| Ohio Varsity/Shooting Stars-10th Grade Gold Bracket Champions |
We
have to give a shout out to Coach Anthony Mitchell and his Ohio
Varsity/Shooting Stars team for taking the 10th grade
championship. Although they took a 43-41
“L” to Rail Cities Attack in pool play, they would revenge that loss with a
59-56 win in the championship game. OV was powered by the play of Soul Hines, who would go on to grab MVP
honors. Also playing well for Ohio
Varsity were Elijah Glenn, Elijah
Thomas, Deshawn Evans and Braylon
Mitchell. For Rail Cities Attack, Bryce
Dumas, Tommy Cummings and Garrick Hopkins are the guys propelling
this team.
As
most Ohio basketball fans now know, the Buckeye State has a brand new shoe
company sponsored program in C2K Elite. Now sponsored by Under Armour, Chris
Anthony got an early win for Quincy Simpson’s fledgling C2K program. With this win, Under Armour begins to build
its status with Ohio Basketball! Anthony’s team is absolutely loaded with studs
like CJ Anthony, Marcus Johnson, Von Cameron Davis and Quan
Magwood, all of whom were selected to the All-Tournament Team. Also, Anthony’s 16 points in the championship
game earned him MVP honors. Congrats to Eddie Norrils’ All-Ohio Gold team who
finished as runner-ups to C2K (56-59).
All-Ohio Gold is a new Toledo-based program that has the potential to
make a significant in spotlighting Northwest Ohio talent.
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| 2021 Tru Game-8th Grade Gold Bracket Champions |
We
saw them dominate the field last week at the Grassroots, and they pretty much
did the same thing this past weekend.
Last week they defeated Coach Dave Ducco’s Cincinnati Royals Blue team on
their march to the title; this week they got them again in the semi-finals
before beating Coach Greg Johnson’s Cincinnati Royals White (52-43) team in the
championship game. As was the case last
week, Tru Games’ Seth Wilson was a
force and the team’s leading scorer. Wilson
is a man child with an impressive skill set as well as size, strength and
athleticism. He’s not alone, as Tru Game is loaded with elite talent. For his
efforts, Wilson, the state’s No. 1 ranked 8th grader, easily
garnered MVP honors.
In
terms of new programs, Darryl Peterson’s All-Ohio Phenom put the new program on
the map with a semi-final run on Sunday. All-Ohio Phenom took the Royals’ White
team right down to the wire before going down (45-47). Look for Phenom to make
our top 10 next week. Finally, congratulations to Coach Devon Howard’s
All-Ohio-Howard squad for taking the 8th grade Silver
championship. What’s most impressive was
they made their 4-game Sunday run without the services of stud Alex Williams. Hopefully we will see many of these teams
back at are Buckeye Summer Showcase, which is currently scheduled for June 16th-18th!
Correct spelling of my name is Camren Miles
ReplyDeleteIm from toledo and ive watched the turf team play. How is it that you don't mention their awesome center Montgomery or the shooter that don't miss i think his name is murphy. I think you guys are just putting players names up that go to your "showcases" and not players who standout. Do some research look at stats dont just throw out random names.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely not "all we do!" With 168 teams and 6 facilities, it's impossible to see every standout player. With that said, we do our best to see and recognize as many deserving players as we can. You mention "research," heck; we can't even get coaches and parents to put the player's full name in the scorebook or to keep individual scores in order to help us ID kids. I guess it takes too much time and effort. You mention our showcase, heck yea a kid's participation and standout performance at our events better enables us to recognize them in other settings, and gives us a good feel for their level of talent. There is no shame in the fact that exposure begets exposure! If a player spends the time and money to attend our showcases and performs well, we will go out of our way to recognize them as often as their performance warrants it! We make no apologies about that; that's just what we do! Also, unlike parents and coaches, we rarely have the time to sit down and watch entire games, we have to keep moving in order to see as many kids as possible; consequently, players ordinarily have a small window of opportunity to shine and have a chance at exposure. For the record, the better teams and programs, with better players that advance further in elite events tend to get the most exposure. Make it to the final four and or championship game and the odds of exposure go up significantly. There is no science to this whole exposure thing; it's dynamic and sometimes elusive. I understand that most parents and coaches simply don't understand how this thing works, but I wanted to take a little time to try and educate you how I, and guys like me approach the game. We're quite proud of the level of exposure we have provided to players from Ohio, the region and country for many years, and we believe the volume of content on this "free" website substantiates that! Can we cover everybody, of course not. We do our best, and our best is better than most!
ReplyDeleteMen lie women lie numbers don't lie. In saying that if your gonna put on a tournament be sure u r staffed for it. If your gonna write do research on it. Call coaches ask who that was. Check books to see who that was. U r pretty much saying "heck yeah" if u spend your money with me ill false advertise for you. The game is played on the court didn't think kids had to grease palms already for some deserved respect. So no its not free. It costs the parent $ for you to right an article. Those who can't afford that should just join the dodge ball team. Otherwise you can play great in a great tournament i might add and still take back seats to others. #dohomework #nothingsfree
ReplyDeleteNot going to continued this debate. Everybody has a right to their opinion. I'm not going to change any grown folk's opinion and perspective on life. I said what I had to say in a spirt of educating people how exposure works. Some people see life from a positive perspective and some see life from a negetevie perspective. There are a few good people still left in the game, but the numbers get smaller and smaller every year. I'm comfortable with myself and my intentions and it matter little if some people see things differently. We've been doing this for 17 years, and with God's blessings, we will continue to support kids and their hoops dreams. As a foot note, I invite our readers to take a look at a story I'm putting together for Saturday. I think people really need to read it and do some self assessment! God Bless you all!!
ReplyDelete