Tournament Trifecta: Three AAU Events in Twin Cities 4/20-22, 2012

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Gopher Warrior

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Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday from morning til mid-afternoon there will be three NCAA certified events going on in the Twin Cities. With this year's revised recruiting calendar, these events are certified for NCAA D-1 coaching evaluations. Each event features some excellent players and all of these events are worth checking out in person.

With so many good teams and players at each of the events, who are you most looking forward to seeing? If anyone has updates on what & who they liked as the weekend goes on, let's hear it.

The events:

A) NIKE EYBL Session #1: Howard Pulley and the High Performance Academy in Eagan will play host to this session. There will be some incredible talent on display from all across the nation and into Canada. An alternative version of schedule (a little easier to read) is available here at [url]http://www.757preps.com/2012-nike-eybl-schedule.html[/URL].

B) Best Buy Spring Classic: Minnesota Pump N Run should unleash their schedule Monday night and this tourney will include another impressive group of teams, with games being held at Bloomington Jefferson and Kennedy.

C) NY2LA Sports Spring Extravaganza: This event will be going on at Hopkins and Minnetonka high schools for the 15U-17U certified competition. This event also goes all the way down to 9U, with some additional games being played at Hopkins North junior high.

The 15U-17U schedule is now available and features teams that will be of high interest to many basketball fans, including Net Gain Sports, WI Swing, TP Elite, Iowa Barnstormers, SYF Players, Texas Select, Milwaukee Rebels and more.
 

EYBL trumps all of these tournaments and its not even close.
 

UW Ole can hopefully give us a complete rundown but a couple Gopher recruits that will be playing in the NY2LA event will be Matt Thomas playing with Wi Playmakers, Rashad Vaughn and Philip Nolen with Net Gain (Nolen played with them last weekend in St Cloud but is also on WI Playground Elite roster so may be at the HP facility) and Kevin Looney with Milwaukee Rebels. And if you want to watch some future B1G players catch the Wisconsin Swing with Luke Fischer (Indiana) and Bronson Koenig (Wisconsin) and Nick Fuller (I can't remember if committed to Marquette yet, but had B1G offers).

The Playmakers bring two 17U teams, Thomas is on the White team along with Toby Hegner and Turner Botz who is fun to watch and a couple western Wisconsin kids in Lane Olson from Colfax and Jake Weber from Durand. (This endeth the Wisconsin geography portion of the post, unless you want me to comment on the Playmakers 16's with kids from Somerset, Colfax etc and the 15's with one from Prescott.
 

Is the general public allowed to attend the EYBL tournament in Eagan?? It's obvious that it's the tourney to watch for this weekend!
Are the other 2 tournaments open to the public? It would be nice to check out the likes of Henry and Wally Ellenson, Rashad Vaughn, Reid Travis, Phillip Nolan, etc.
 

all of the tourneys are open to the public as long as the public has admission money.

Wally Ellenson won't be playing and you will have to go to at least two of the venues to see the players you listed. Ellenson and Travis at the Pump tourney, Vaughn at the NY2LA tourney
 


Here is a preview of the NY2LA event from their website. Not the best field, but definitely some good talent. I am really looking forward to the Friday night game between the Playmakers (Matt Thomas) and Net Gain (Rashad Vaughn, maybe Phil Nolan).

Some of the best talent in the country will be at the EYBL event. I will be most interested to see teams like the Mac Irvin Fire (Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, Sterling Brown, Gavin Schilling), Meanstreets (Kendrick Nunn, Paul White, Alex Foster) and Pulley (Tyus Jones, Kyle Washington), and there are certainly non-midwestern teams with national prospects as well.

http://www.ny2lasports.com/article_one.aspx?articleid=911
 

Marcus Fuller tweet:

"Fans hoping to see Kyle Washington play with Tyus Jones this wk will be disappointed. KW won't be with Howard Pulley's main team until June."

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Marcus Fuller tweet:

"Fans hoping to see Kyle Washington play with Tyus Jones this wk will be disappointed. KW won't be with Howard Pulley's main team until June."

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Well that blows. I was really hoping Kyle would be with the team, and kind of expected him to be given the location of this event. The June timeframe would mean he would also miss Pulley's event in early May.
 

UWOle said:
Here is a preview of the NY2LA event from their website. Not the best field, but definitely some good talent. I am really looking forward to the Friday night game between the Playmakers (Matt Thomas) and Net Gain (Rashad Vaughn, maybe Phil Nolan).

Some of the best talent in the country will be at the EYBL event. I will be most interested to see teams like the Mac Irvin Fire (Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, Sterling Brown, Gavin Schilling), Meanstreets (Kendrick Nunn, Paul White, Alex Foster) and Pulley (Tyus Jones, Kyle Washington), and there are certainly non-midwestern teams with national prospects as well.

http://www.ny2lasports.com/article_one.aspx?articleid=911
Click to expand...

Really struggling with where to be at what times... the WI Playmakers / Net Gain Sports matchup is tough to pass up, plus Kevon Looney is playing a court over at Hopkins at the same time... and then Deonte Burton plays at 9:30pm...

On Friday night at the EYBL you've got a 6pm Meanstreets / WI Playground game.. I'm tempted to see how fast I can get from HP Academy to Hopkins HS at around 7pm on a Friday night.

Too much good basketball going on is better than none at all, though.. I'll take it.
 



Chris Monter tweet:

"Kyle Washington will not play for Howard Pulley in the EYBL this weekend, but will play for HP's other 17 team in Eastview, said Rene Pulley"

Go Gophers!!
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Really struggling with where to be at what times... the WI Playmakers / Net Gain Sports matchup is tough to pass up, plus Kevon Looney is playing a court over at Hopkins at the same time... and then Deonte Burton plays at 9:30pm...

On Friday night at the EYBL you've got a 6pm Meanstreets / WI Playground game.. I'm tempted to see how fast I can get from HP Academy to Hopkins HS at around 7pm on a Friday night.

Too much good basketball going on is better than none at all, though.. I'll take it.
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Definitely a good weekend of hoops. I kind of feel bad for the PNR group, as they got squeezed out with the EYBL bringing in so many good teams, and NY2LA putting together a pretty decent event. Not that much left over for the PNR event.

Not as hard of a choice for me. Hopkins on Friday night, as I can see see Thomas, Vaughn, Looney, Koenig and Friedman all play. Probably head back to Hopkins Saturday morning to see those guys again, then I get head over to Eagan in the afternoon/evening to see all of UW's targets (Brown, Sterling, Foster, White, Ojeleye) play at least once. Curious to see what the setup looks like in Eagan, as that facility seems a little cramped to begin with, and there will presumably be some pretty sizable crowds.
 


Anyone know if it's free? How much? I'm assuming it's going to be packed? The Nike tournament, I'm talking about.
 



Gopher10 said:
Anyone know if it's free? How much? I'm assuming it's going to be packed? The Nike tournament, I'm talking about.
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Unfortunately, these events usually aren't cheap. I would expect around $10 per day.
 

UWOle said:
Here is a preview of the NY2LA event from their website. Not the best field, but definitely some good talent. I am really looking forward to the Friday night game between the Playmakers (Matt Thomas) and Net Gain (Rashad Vaughn, maybe Phil Nolan).

May head to this game, do you know what time it starts - Thanks.
Click to expand...
 


Johnnyboy18 said:
Why?
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stolen from UW Ole's report on the Badger site regarding why Kyle Washington can't play in the EYBL events-

"As a side note on Washington, learned something interesting about his age this week. When he reclassed from 2012 to 2013 late last summer, I read that he was very young for a 2012 kid, such that his moving to the 2013 class would put him more in line age-wise. As it turns out, he’s either 19 already, or almost 19, which means he is not allowed to play in Nike’s EYBL events this spring and summer. As a result, he is playing with Howard Pulley’s B-squad at some smaller event in the south metro this weekend"

He also has a note about how Saul Smith showed up late and stood in the background while the other coaches really after Matt Thomas and Rashad Vaughn were sitting in the front row early. I saw most of the 2nd half and didn't even notice Saul there. But the coaches are all the way on the other end of the court and even with laser surgery a couple of weeks ago I was thinking I should bring binoculars just to see who is there.
 

U
Minnesconsin fan said:
stolen from UW Ole's report on the Badger site regarding why Kyle Washington can't play in the EYBL events-

"As a side note on Washington, learned something interesting about his age this week. When he reclassed from 2012 to 2013 late last summer, I read that he was very young for a 2012 kid, such that his moving to the 2013 class would put him more in line age-wise. As it turns out, he’s either 19 already, or almost 19, which means he is not allowed to play in Nike’s EYBL events this spring and summer. As a result, he is playing with Howard Pulley’s B-squad at some smaller event in the south metro this weekend"

He also has a note about how Saul Smith showed up late and stood in the background while the other coaches really after Matt Thomas and Rashad Vaughn were sitting in the front row early. I saw most of the 2nd half and didn't even notice Saul there. But the coaches are all the way on the other end of the court and even with laser surgery a couple of weeks ago I was thinking I should bring binoculars just to see who is there.
Click to expand...
Saw Saul and Esposito thereTubby is probably gonna be there today I would guess at the eybl
 

Who's who in college coacching...

to see Tyus today in Eagan. Coach K, Izzo, Boeheim, Huggy, Scott Drew all there. They were playing a good team from NYC so they could have (or should have) been scouting multiple players. Jones missed the front end of a one and one with his team down 1 and 9 secods to play. Pulley lost by 2.

Did not see Gopher coaches present.

Terrible venue. As a $10 paying customer, we were forbidden from going to the open end of the floor where the coaches were. Absolutely no where to even stand a watch the game if you got there late...which I did. Squeezed into some wall space a half time.
 

leftyslefty said:
to see Tyus today in Eagan. Coach K, Izzo, Boeheim, Huggy, Scott Drew all there. They were playing a good team from NYC so they could have (or should have) been scouting multiple players. Jones missed the front end of a one and one with his team down 1 and 9 secods to play. Pulley lost by 2.

Did not see Gopher coaches present.

Terrible venue. As a $10 paying customer, we were forbidden from going to the open end of the floor where the coaches were. Absolutely no where to even stand a watch the game if you got there late...which I did. Squeezed into some wall space a half time.
Click to expand...

Anyone know when tyus plays tomorrow? Thanks in advance.
 


I saw Tyus play twice today. He was the best player I saw; smooth, controlled and hit shots from all over. He did miss the front end of a 1 and 1 with 10 seconds left which cost them the first game. Izzo, Boeheim, Coach K and Huggans all watching. He is listed at 6'1" but if so I am Magic Johnson. Pulley plays tomorrow at 9:30 only. I was very impressed with Manyang, the 7 footer from Duluth. He is a great shot-blocker and can run the floor. Tubby was watching and better offer soon. Also playing very well was Quinton Hooker, a 6'1" guard from Park Center. He handles the ball well and hit a bunch of 3s. Anders Broman, the scoring machine from Lakeview Christian in Duluth, plays for Pulley and he has a very nice shot and is better than I expected.I was not that impressed by Jabari Parker, the #1 rated junior from Chicago-Simeon. He was not at all dominant, missed free throws, and did not look well-conditioned. His Mac Irvin Fire teammate Jahlil Okafor was huge and solid in the paint. Gavin Schilling, a 6'9" Gopher possibility who also plays for the Fire, missed an easy breakaway dunk and some FTs but impressed otherwise. The cost is $10 and there is not a lot of seating. If you want to watch Pulley get a seat in that gym the game before they play or you may be standing in a tight spot. These are the best sophomores and juniors in the country, All the B1G coaches were there save Painter and Carmody. Also saw Bruce Weber now with a purple jacket. It is worth it if you are a basketball junkie.
 

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