Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Article 423: NorCal versus SoCal

August 24, 2015

The end of August typically signals the start of the next high school academic year. But before the school year goes into full drive, the inaugural California All-Star Classic will be held this Sunday (August 30th) at Las Positas College in Livermore. This two game event will feature 48 of the top boy's basketball prospects from the 2016 and 2017 classes representing both halves of the state. This event provides a unique opportunity to view a large collection of prep basketball talent in one setting in the Northern California area.

Based on the Rivals 150 rankings for each class, the Southern California 2016 and 2017 classes will have six and seven prospects respectively competing while the Northern California 2016 and 2017 classes will have two and zero prospects respectively competing. In addition the combined Southern California rosters have seven prospects taller than 6-foot-9 while the combined Northern California rosters have one prospect.

The Southern California 2016 roster is headlined by national top 15 prospects in UCLA commit Lonzo Ball and recent Arizona de-commit, T.J. Leaf (who also played for the Israeli national team) while the stacked Southern California 2017 roster suffered a late blow with top national prosepct DeAndre Ayton unable to play in the game. He will be replaced by Myles Johnson from Long Beach Poly. The North's 2016 squad will have Cal commit Oscar Frayer and Oregon State commit Ben Kone to counter while the 2017 roster has a plethora of athletic guards and wings including Damari Milstead and Jade Smith.

Ty Nichols of Sierra Canyon will coach the Southern California 2016 team. Sierra Canyon won the Division V state champion this past year and will also have four players in the event. Redondo Union's Reggie Morris will coach the Southern California 2017 roster and will bring two of his players. Lou Richie of the Open Division winning Bishop O'Dowd program will coach the Northern California 2016 team. Brian Botteen of Division I state champion San Ramon Valley leads the 2017 squad, as he is the replacement coach for former De La Salle coach, Frank Allocco (now an assistant coach at the collegiate level with San Francisco).

In addition to Redondo Union (two) and Sierra Canyon (four) in having multiple roster members for the combined South teams, Corona Centennial, Chino Hills, Foothills Christian, and Bishop Montgomery are also sending two players to the event each. The Northern California rosters with multiple high school members of two each include Moreau Catholic, Archbishop Mitty, De La Salle, Immanuel, Sacramento, Manteca, and Sacred Heart Cathedral.

15 of the 24 players from the Southern California teams are attending private schools while the Northern California teams have 14 of their 24 players in private schools. Brothers Lonzo and LiAngelo Ball of Chino Hills are on the South squads while cousins Kenneth Wooten and Tydus Verhoeven are on the North teams.

Many of the players play with and against each other during the high school season and also the summer club season. The Ball brothers play for Big Ballers that is coached by their father and includes a younger brother. Cal Supreme featured Jordan Schakel, Brandon Mccoy, and Devearl Ramsey. Southern California based Compton Magic had Ike Angibogu, Jalen Hill, Jaylen Hands, and Milan Acquaah. The Double Pump program had Colin Slater and Keith Fisher. The Oakland Soldiers 17 roster included the aforementioned Kone, Frayer, and Milstead in addition to Jordan Ford, Christian Terrell, and Solomon Young (also played for the Norcal Wildcats) on the North squads while the South has Ira Lee and Remy Martin. Visalia based Team Superstar had Vittorio Reynoso-Avila and Donovan Mitchell on their 17s team while Darrin Person and Jordan Roberts was on the 16s team.

The 2017 game will be at 1:30pm while the 2016 contest starts at 3:30pm.

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